Air India

I have used Air India for my 2 trips in 6 months for Sydney-Delhi flight. Even though planes are new and spacious with good legroom unfortunately 6 month old planes are falling apart too quickly components are broken in toilets inflight entertainment remote broken water seeping out of toilets on carpets service light not working or erratic tray tables dirty with no effort to collect rubbish during or at end of flight. Entertainment: Not much to watch / listen. Food: Nothing exciting again. If you are lucky to take off on time you will get a quick round of drinks. Staff will whack the meal on your tray table. As soon as meals are served you will see cabin crew coming at 100 miles/hr with tea / coffee pots. Next cabin crew are back with trolleys to collect your trays even though half of the plane is still finishing their meals. Staff: Pilots: No updates / Announcements. Cabin Crew are uninterested uncaring and rude. Overall hopeless and frustrating airline.

Flew FRA-CCU-FRA in January 2014 changing planes in Delhi both ways. All sectors by new 787s except for CCU-DEL which was on a respectable old A321. All flights reasonably on time. FRA-DEL delayed 45 minutes but as there was nothing much to do in transit in DEL I didn't care and DEL-FRA delayed by 30 minutes as waiting for a connection but we still made our train from FRA with 10 minutes to spare. Check-in personnel friendly and helpful in both FRA and CCU all plane interiors clean including toilets pleasant food. Excellent in-flight map display on the 787s. A few niggles: on one of the 787s my AC power socket didn't work and the audio feed to my seat was dead.

As stated elsewhere the seats/condition of planes are very poor. However there seems to be more legroom. The international flights often come out a lot cheaper - so accept poorer conditions for economy! However the worst part of the flights I've done is the security at an Indian airport. It's atrocious and to be avoided if possible. My last trip travelling from Bangkok to London took more than an hour and that was on airside. To make it more infuriating my hand luggage was searched 4 times and not one was a decent/thorough search - more like they were going through the motions! I will not fly with an Indian stop over any more and would rather pay a little more to avoid it.

Jan 7 2014 MAA-DEL-BHX-MAA. Departure on time though on an old A320 cabin crew attentive and food was good. Connection at DEL was 1.5 hrs which was quite decent timing security again at DEL needs to be streamlined-some customer service skills for the security personnel. DEL/BHX on new Dreamliner seats most comfortable compared to competing airlines. Electronic centrally controlled tinted windows a definite hit in Air India Dreamliners - peaceful sleep food very good but limited drinks in Economy - no wine served. Landing good severe delay in baggage collection waited 45 minutes. I would definitely fly Air India B777 again.

I recently flew on the MAA-DEL-SYD leg. At Chennai airport for an A320 flight they had only 3 operating check-in counters whilst planes from other airlines had 5-6 counters. This led to long delays and lengthy queues. The Air India ground staff at New Delhi airport seemed to be helpful in helping the passengers getting to their connecting flights. The Dreamliner for the Delhi - Sydney leg seemed to be a good one. The flight was delayed by 3 hours due to 3 stewards reporting sick at the last moment and they had to bring in replacement crew. The announcements were spotty and not easily forthcoming. The food served was tiny in portion with only one round of drinks offered for a 12.5 hour journey. The IFE was limited but worked. The toilets didn't have any amenities for a long-haul flight. The punctuality and the unreliability of this airline would make one say never again.

BKK-DEL-BHX on 9th December and you do get what you pay for (not a criticism)! We left BKK on time and the first leg was around 4 hours on a fairly old A320 which looked a bit shambolic but did the job. Staff were almost comically surly as a first impression although once you engaged a bit they got better. They dealt with some very rude passengers so in the end we sympathized them more than anything. There was simply no IFE at all but I had brought a book so that didn't make too much difference. The pilot guided us very well through a long patch of turbulence and we slowed right down near landing in response to fog at Delhi. Overall it was pretty poor but pilot seemed experienced and we got there safely so not complaining. The connection was ok and we had a slight delay due to aforementioned fog but this time we were on the 787 dreamliner. Lovely modern aircraft with decent IFE but nowhere near as good as Emirates though a lot is invested in Bollywood stuff. The toilets could have done with cleaning. The food was reasonable with the lamb curry on the first flight the best and all were passable if not great. Staff were a little more enthusiastic on the 2nd flight which was good although the audible "bing" sound every time anyone requested crew assistance was unnecessary. Staff were reasonably attentive and drinks were available throughout. I would recommend as it's value for money.

FRA-DEL-MAA return during the festive season on 787 and A320 on the domestic sector. Booked 9 months in advance to get a good price for the peak season and felt it was good value because everything was perfectly fine with the Dreamliner (seat pitch cleanliness meals staff service with a sense of humour at times good on-time performance IFE). The domestic sector was served by an older single-class A320 which was far inferior to the Dreamliner but the staff were good both ways and served hot meals during the 2 1/2 hr flight. Cannot fault Air India in any way and loved the Bollywood films onboard the 787. However the transit arrangements at Delhi International Airport are a nightmare which easily bring the spirits down after a good flight. Air India management should work closely with the authorities to make transit arrangements flexible because their European flights (LHR CDG FRA) as well as Melbourne/Sydney seem to depart within an hour. Too much chaos and too frustrating really.

London-Delhi-Bangkok return in business class. Got a very good deal back in May which was only £100 more than my usual Etihad economy trip in economy for the dates. There were some good points to the trip but several bad points to mention. All flights on time except last leg back to Heathrow that was compensated though by my bag being first off. Lounge quality was varied which I'll review separately. LHR-Delhi on B777 - very good seat for sleeping (slept probably 7 hours) though privacy lacking. Good choice of drink selection but food for business class very poor in both presentation and quality. No amenity kits on board for overnight flight. Entertainment on demand but western choice limited with only 3 recent films. Delhi-BKK. Poor all around for a 4 hour flight except the seats were wide and drink choice good again (malt scotch whisky). As noted before chicken or veg should not be the default option for business class and the quality of both was poor even for airline food. No immigration forms on board and fast track vouchers only offered on landing after numerous requests from passengers. Entertainment system on the A321 from the 1990's - no on demand and a choice of 5 channels 1 English. Ended up watching an Indian cop movie. BKK-Delhi - more of the same but breakfast of better quality. Delhi - BKK - although late best of all the legs with attentive cabin crew calls answered on request for drinks a good quality meal this time. Still could see the cost cutting with the amenity kit in business class being a cheap pair of flight socks and eye mask. No explanation given either of 90 minute delay. Will not be returning even considering the cost paid.

Flew from Shillong to Kolkata. Check in and cabin staff were pleasant and the flight was on time but the state of the plane: broken seats frayed seat belts all the panels were grimey the carpet was worn out. I hope the vital parts of the plane were better maintained.

AI 234 from Gaya (GAY) to Kolkata (CCU) by A319 VT-SCI. Flight delayed nearly 45 minutes. IFE was switched off for the whole duration and we were served only 2 cookies and a bottle of water. As usual there was a duplication of seats allocated for some passengers which led to some chaos. The only reason I travel AI is because of its ample legroom for a person of 180 cm like me. And the reason I chose this flight was because of the cheap fares available (2k per head) on the domestic leg of international flights (this flight operates as Yangoon-Gaya- Kolkata). Overall an uneventful flight minus the 45 mins delay.