Air India - AIC

...IA)

Air India (AI) is the only state-owned airline of India which merged with Indian Airlines (IA) in September 2007. It connects through over 145 international and domestic destinations worldwide including internal flights in India via Air India Express and Indian Airlines. Air India previously had a very poor reputation as a rather shoddy airline with poor customer service and rather ramshackle aircrafts. They have tried to update ...
...meals to cater for diabetics. Air India's recent merger with Indian Airlines has meant that is now the biggest South Asian airline and they're in the process of ordering new aircraft to add to their 200 strong fleet.

Air India has a Maharajah lounge (meaning Emperor or King's lounge) in 5 of its major destination airports which are, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi in India, London in UK and New York in USA.


MY EXPERIENCE
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A BIT ABOUT AI (INCORPORATING IA)

Air India (AI) is the only state-owned airline of India which merged with Indian Airlines (IA) in September 2007. It connects through over 145 international and domestic destinations worldwide including internal flights in India via Air India Express and Indian Airlines. Air India previously had a very poor reputation as a rather shoddy airline with poor customer service and rather ramshackle aircrafts. They have tried to update their on board entertainment by introducing monitors in front of each seat to catch up with other long haul carriers and they cater for vegetarian or halal meals as well as meals to cater for diabetics. Air India's recent merger with Indian Airlines has meant that is now the biggest South Asian airline and they're in the process of ordering new aircraft to add to their 200 strong fleet.

Air India has a Maharajah lounge (meaning Emperor or King's lounge) in 5 of its major destination airports which are, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi in India, London in UK and New York in USA.

MY EXPERIENCE

I flew Air India recently for the first time in about 30 years but considering I was a child last time I have no recollection of the flight back then. This time the whole experience has stuck very clearly in my mind and not all for good reasons!

I flew out to Calcutta mid November for a 3 week holiday. I was flying out with my parents and a family friend was also booked on the same flight. My dad had purchased the tickets on my behalf and it had cost about £440 for the economy return flight through a travel agent. My flight was going to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in India and then continuing on to Dhaka in Bangladesh.

We arrived at Heathrow to check in for our flight about 17:30 on the Saturday; the flight was due to take off at 21:00 (or so we thought). The original time had apparently been 10.30 when we'd purchased the tickets some months prior but when confirming the tickets a week or so before flying we were advised that the flight was now taking off at 21:00. This was to be one of the first issues I had with this airline. My dad had been given seat numbers for him and mum as he needed to be seated quite close to the toilets due to health reasons. When checking in we were told seats can't be booked in advance and the seat numbers we had already been given would not be available. Very strange seeing as barely any others had checked in before us so how likely was it that those particular seats had already been allocated. The girl checking us in said she had given mum and dad seats near the toilet and a window seat for mum as requested and that she had put me next to my friend. She was lying!

Air India seems to be the stingiest airline when it comes to queuing for a place at non-Indian airports for setting down and picking up passengers so we had to walk for what seemed like miles before we got to the departure gate. We were there and waiting by 20:00 which is the time that the board said we needed to be ready to start boarding. Interestingly enough we were still sitting waiting to board the plane at 21:00 (the apparent departure time). We eventually started boarding at around 21:30 and only through a passenger sitting near us who asked a member of staff why there was a delay did we find out that there were passengers still checking as they had not been advised that the flight was due to be taking off 90 minutes earlier. Very annoying for those of us who'd turned up on time and even more frustrating was that Air India didn't even have the courtesy to tell the waiting passengers why there was a delay or even apologise for it.

By the time we boarded the plane, some people were rather wound up and the staff at the entrance to the plane had their work cut out when greeting the boarding passengers with a smile as no one seemed to be in the mood to greet them back. The staff wore pleasant uniforms and looked presentable. A stewardess stood at the entrance to the plane with her hands clasped together in the traditional Indian greeting style with a permanent smile on her face. I was dismayed when I got to my seat to find out I was seated next to my parents and my friend was sitting across the aisle away from me! So much for the check-in person seating us next to each other! She was obviously clueless about the aircraft's seating layout or had just blatantly lied to me for whatever her own reasons were.

As people were still boarding the plane we were all given a small carton of orange juice which was very welcome but my dad asked for a glass of water as he had to take some medication and he had to ask about 4 times before he was given his water. They didn't even bother to apologise for taking so long. The nearby staff were actually standing around chatting and laughing so it wasn't as if they were so busy they couldn't get an elderly man a glass of water! This annoyed me immensely but I thought I'll still keep an open mind and not write off the airline for the events so far. The captain did his announcement welcoming us on board, funnily enough, there was absolutely no apology for the delay but he mentioned that we would probably make up the time in the air. It was scheduled to be a 10 hour flight. The cabin crew did all of their bits showing the exits, etc; the usual that you get with any airline. When they did their walk around to check if people were wearing seatbelts, they really didn't even look properly and as far as I know footrests were supposed to be up and seats were not supposed to be reclined but the seat in front of me was reclined and no one said anything and looking around the seats nearby no one was asked to put their footrests up.

The flight eventually took off, no complaints about the takeoff, it was as smooth as any other flight I can remember taking. Shortly after we were in the air, we were served salted snacks and drinks. I asked for white wine and was given two small bottles. We were also given two packets of snacks. People were turning on the TV screens which were placed as with most planes I've travelled on long haul recently in the back of the seats in front of you. I got out my remote control from the side of my seat and pressed the buttons and nothing happened. My parents tried theirs too and they did not seem to be working. I was a bit embarrassed to have to ask the cabin crew for help as I thought there really shouldn't be anything difficult about switching on a TV. Eventually I caved and asked for help, the not so helpful stewardess looked a bit miffed when I asked for help, she tried it herself and said "Oh it doesn't seem to be working!" and just walked off. I assumed she was going to do something about it but when over 20 minutes later I saw her wandering down the aisle attending to someone else I called another steward who was walking past and explained that the stewardess had told me the TV wasn't working and hadn't bothered to return. He said "Oh ok" and also walked off. I was a bit annoyed now, wondering what was going on; but luckily he returned after a few moments and said there were 2 spare seats two rows ahead of me and would I like to move there? I agreed and moved away to my "new" seat. It was very fiddly getting the channels to work and it was impossible to watch a film from the start no matter what time I tried to tune in (and I do actually consider myself to be quite tech savvy generally, so it should have been much easier to figure out the channels and controls)! Most of the channels that I wanted to watch weren't available so I had to watch a couple of annoying Bollywood comedy films which I really didn't enjoy (I certainly won't be reviewing them here)! As it was a night flight most people went to sleep but personally I can't sleep for more than 10-15 minutes at a time when travelling no matter how tired I am.

They always tell you walk around a bit and get some exercise during long haul flights and there was a short video about this too at the start of the flight which was played first in Hindi and then in English. Although I did get up several times during the flight to stretch my legs and use the toilet, I found that the seats on the flight were quite roomy compared with seating on BA flights (I had flown to Calcutta 4 years previously via BA and had paid £800 for my ticket and had been extremely disgusted with the whole experience). For the comfort factor of the seats I had no complaints, the seating was far more comfortable than BA, Gulf Air and Royal Jordanian - 3 separate airlines I have used to travel to Calcutta in recent years.

Leaving the aircraft was a bit of a shambles. There were at least 3 separate announcements to passengers advising passengers who were flying to Dhaka NOT to leave the plane but to remain seated whilst Calcutta bound passengers got off the plane and the cleaning crew got on board to do a quick clean before the plane took off again. When arriving in India, if you are not an Indian citizen you have to complete a disembarkation card which I understand the cabin crew are supposed to distribute on the aircraft so you don't have to waste time filling these in after getting off as everyone is in a rush to get through immigration and get out of the airport. Air India did not have these disembarkation cards to give passengers which meant the majority of passengers had to complete these cards once we got off the plane and it was rather chaotic with people begging around for pens to complete the forms and in a rush people made mistakes and had to go ask for new forms. What I found very amusing here was that many of the Dhaka passengers had got off the plane even though specifically advised not to and several of the cabin crew had to come down into the arrivals area and round up Dhaka passengers to get back on the plane. A couple of chaps had actually got into the immigration queue and were looking rather confused and not wanting to get back on the plane! I was rather stunned that some people got off the plane as the announcements had been made in English, Hindi AND Bengali so people had no excuse for not understanding or listening. Maybe the airline needs to work on double checking with passengers when they're disembarking that they have actually got to their required destination! Then again, the announcements made in English were practically mumbled and rather difficult to understand but even with my limited Bengali, I understood that they wanted Dhaka passengers to stay on board the plane.

The rest of the arrivals process was down to the airport not the airline so I can't criticise or compliment Air India for any of this side of things. Our luggage was brought out fairly quickly which was more to do with the airport staff than the staff of Air India.

The return flight to London 3 weeks later proved to be very similar to the outward bound flight. I had to go to the Air India office at least 3 days before my flight to confirm my ticket which I found extremely annoying. It was a case of wasting half a day travelling to and from the Air India offices and sitting in traffic in both directions, only to have to put my name on a list and wait to be called up to the counter for the helpful (or so I thought at the time) customer service assistant to ask me if I had a seat preference - I said window seat near the toilet. She assured me that I had a window seat and advised that the plane was fairly empty so I'd be able to stretch out in my seat if I wanted and that I was close to the toilets (this was an issue for me as I have recently started taking diabetes medication and it had given me a rather weak bladder for some reason)! I found this process of having to physically go to the Air India office to re-confirm your ticket (which is already confirmed as at that price, you are not allowed to change your dates) very archaic and was advised that it can be done over the phone but there's no guarantee that your seat will really be booked! How stupid is that?

Anyway on checking in at Calcutta airport, I arrived over 3 hours before the flight was due to take off, ensuring that we allowed time for traffic problems and queues. The Air India desks were just opening so I had to wait for a few minutes. My check-in luggage was 4 kilos overweight but they said nothing - I was actually prepared to pay excess luggage as I knew it would be over as I had bought many wedding outfits (off topic: 2008 seems to be a popular year for those close to me to get married)! I was rather chuffed that I didn't get charged for my excess luggage - the allowance is 32kg and I had just over 36! On getting to the departure lounge, there was no mention of the flight being delayed so I was quite happy in the knowledge that everything I had heard about AI was exaggerated - my flight WOULD be leaving on time as there was nothing to show that it was delayed! How wrong I was! My flight was over 90 minutes late taking off and to add insult to injury when we boarded the plane we were all subjected to a repeat pat-down search and hand luggage search yet, just to delay things even more it seemed! Boarding the plane and taking my seat, I noted that the flight was even fuller than the one I had arrived on 3 weeks ago, so much for the flight having extra seats to spread out in! My seat was a window seat but was nowhere near the toilet. Oh well, I would have to make the best of it, I didn't want to make a fuss and complain. The captain introduced himself and said as the flight was 90 minutes late they would attempt to make up time in the air - I listened very carefully to all of the initial announcements - not one time was there any hint of any apology for the delay or any reason given. Many people were muttering under their breaths about it being "….typical Air India" and "long delays and no explanations as to why!"

We were all given a couple of packets of savoury snacks and a small carton of fruit juice - a serious issue I had with these snacks was that the packets were impossible to open. I had to use my teeth eventually and I noted that other people were resorting to using teeth and/or asking the cabin crew to open the poorly packaged savouries and it's not as if we would be carrying scissors or knives with us to open these silly packets!

Shortly after the flight took off, the staff came round with the drinks trolley. I asked for white wine and was given two small bottles - they seemed to be very generous with the drinks, but I've been advised afterwards that this is because they are too lazy to do another round with the drinks trolley so they get it over with in one go! Shocking eh?! The lunch served was very palatable and I finished it all and thought I'd settle down to watching some in flight entertainment. Sadly it was not to be, whatever channel I tried did not work. I thought I'd figured out the remote control on the flight out but I again had to resort to asking a member of the cabin crew who said she'd investigate. She never returned. 20 minutes later I caught the attention of another crew member, she said she'd investigate, I said politely "Excuse me for not believing you but I've already asked someone a while ago and she never returned, you will come back and let me know won't you?" with a sickly sweet smile on my face. She looked rather embarrassed and I saw her speaking with the other stewardess I had originally asked who just shrugged and didn't even bother looking in my direction. The 2nd stewardess came back to me about 10 minutes later and said that the entertainment channels weren't working. I asked her about the other seats (thinking just my luck to have this on the flight out and flight back). Again she went away and came back 10 minutes later again, this time to advise that none of the screens were working. The chap next to me was rather livid and started grumbling out loud about "Typical Air India - flights delayed with no reason given, no in flight entertainment!" He was a rather nice man and obviously a seasoned AI passenger, I suggested that he use the time to have a nap as he had said earlier he was a bit tired. The stewardess shrugged (is this their response to everything I wonder?) and walked away. For the next hour or so I saw countless other passengers asking about the entertainment - why on earth did they not have the courtesy to put a message out over to the whole plane to that effect to prevent the crew from being harassed every few minutes for the first few hours of the flight.

To cut a long flight short, a lot of people were very grizzly due to not having any cinematic entertainment on a 10 hour flight. Fortunately for me there was a large selection of video games available to play via the monitors and remote controls so this kept me occupied for a large part of the flight and many of the younger passengers too. The staff did not seem to know what to say or do to appease the grumbling passengers and it made for a rather bad atmosphere generally (I didn't pay attention - I was happy with hangman, pac-man, solitaire, space invaders, etc)!

We were given an evening meal later into the flight which I found also very edible and filling and having taken a few walks every couple of hours, it was also handy for me that I didn't need to queue up to visit the toilet. Shortly before the plane landed - only 30 minutes later than the scheduled time - the crew distributed forms to passengers to complete, I said I didn't need one as I held a British passport but I was told quite firmly that I must complete it even though the form said clearly it was for non-British nationals. They were forcing these forms on pretty much everyone. The chap beside me just scrunched his form up and tucked it away in the seat pocket in front of him! He was used to this obviously; a while later the stewardess came back and said that we didn't need to fill the forms out. I handed back the form to her un-crumpled and uncompleted with a plastic smile on my face resisting the urge to say "I told you so!"

EXPERIENCE ON INDIAN AIRLINES

During my visit to India I went to Sikkim for 4 days, I flew out to Bagdogra Airport via Deccan Airlines whom I had never heard of but was very impressed with the efficiency of their staff in the domestic departures part of the airport and during boarding the plane, exactly at the right time, during the flight and disembarking at the other end. The tickets had been booked for my cousin and myself via a family friend. On our return to the airport I wrongly assumed that we were returning on the same airline but we were directed to the Indian Airlines counter to check in. My cousin (who lives in India) seemed rather grumpy and once we checked in I asked why she had suddenly changed mood from quite chirpy to rather miserable. She stated that as we had already spent over 4 hours getting to the airport from Gangtok where we were staying she did not relish the thought of sitting in the airport for a further 3 or 4 hours. Our flight was due to take off in 2 hours - she told me she had flown by IA many times in the past and their flights NEVER took off on time, always being at least 1 hour late. She said people didn't even turn up to check in even at the flight departure time as it was guaranteed that the flights would not be leaving on time. She told me that being a state carrier they didn't care what people thought of them so never ran on time. I was appalled and hoped she was wrong. Well over 3 hours later, we were in the departure lounge still waiting to board - our plane hadn't even landed. When it did land, we watched through the departure lounge windows as the passengers got off, luggage was unloaded and eventually we were called to board the plane, all in all almost 2 hours later - which considering it was only a 1 hour flight was pretty shabby all round. I did notice that the cabin crew seemed much older than I've seen on many other airlines - not an issue to me at all to see stewardesses in their 40s and 50s but I heard some sniggering in the seats behind and in front of me from guys of varying ages about "why haven't they put these women out to pasture yet?" and other comments I care not to repeat! The cabin crew, regardless of their age were polite but unfriendly which to me says they've been in the job too long to care about giving a good impression anymore. Again, as with Air India, there were no apologies or explanations given for the flight delay.

OVERALL

Even though Air India has made or attempted to make major changes to the way they are perceived by their customer base, they still have a very long way to go. I get the feeling they try very hard to keep customers well fed and relatively well watered because they know hungry and thirsty people will be more grumpy and complain about flights being late and in-flight entertainment not being available than people who have their stomachs full! I can't say they're worse than any other airline I've used to travel to and from India - certainly the actual flight experience was better than British Airways, Gulf Air and Royal Jordan - mainly because the seating was much more comfortable and food was very good. If you can put up with the risk of flights being delayed for an hour or three or cancelled completely, then this is the airline to use for flights to Calcutta.

So overall I'm giving Air India 6.5 out of 10.

The airline's website is available at: http://www.airindia.com/. The UK reservations number is 080 8560 9996 and administration office is on 020 8475 1000.

TRIVIA

To end my extremely long review, can I apologise and give you a little bit of trivia? The Indian Prime Minister has a special flight called AI 001 - I wonder how often that particular flight is late?

AFTERTHOUGHT

I just thought I'd add that my friend returned on Sunday evening from Calcutta with her 3 kids - the flight having been delayed 24 hours whilst the aircraft was "repaired". Another friend was due to go out before Christmas on the evening of the 22nd and was called in the morning to say the flight had been cancelled for operational reasons with no further explanations. Needless to say they're not likely to fly Air India again!

Some of you might consider 6.5 out of 10 to be a rather high rating considering all of the downsides I've mentioned above but to me the comfortable seating and the delicious and ample food served made up for a lot of the negatives. Sitting on a British Airways flight a few years agao after paying £800 for the flight for a 9 hour journey and feeling cramped like a sardine all the way was not my idea of a good flight - at least I felt I could sit comfortably on the AI flight and at almost half the price!

If Air India would stop being so complacent they might retain more customers - with Jet Airways now being very popular for many destinations in India and with far superior service - AI might find themselves out of business in a not too distant future!

UPDATE 21/01/08

Another friend returned from India on 17th Jan and on checking in he asked whether the flight was on time - the Air India staff member at the check-in desk actually chuckled as he said "Yes no delay!" My friend and his fellow passengers were then subjected to over an extra hour delay with again no apologies or explanations.

By the way I'm revising my overall rating down to a 5 out of 10. This constant lateness and lack of courtesy in explaining or apologising for it shows what an inconsiderate airline Air India really are. 

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