I decided to fly with Air India because it was the cheapest flight we could find to go to New York at New Year and because we were on a budget the price was good at just under £200. I did have reservations about flying with them as I didn't know what they were like, I hadn't heard anything particulary bad and was reassured by a few people that have flown with them fairly regulary.
Check in/ security before flight- All was good when we went to check in, we didn't wait very long at all a both ends. Security was a nightmare at both ends (heathrow and JFK) and was in the line for quite a while, but considering the goings on lately, at least they were taking the jobs seriously. Boarding the flight was fine at heathrow and it was on time but when coming back from NY it was terrible, everyone was pushing forward to try and get on and the flight had being delayed by around two hours. Also at the time there was/ is a restriction to the hand luggage of one piece per person and a limit to the size (along with a laptop), on the way back this was not adhered to at all! There were people going on with big suitcases and holdalls, not just one each but two each at this point I must stress it was not JFK staff letting them through it was the Air India staff at this point not adhering to the rules (and without meaning to be discrimitory and hopefully I'm not, it was the people that seemed to be of indian nationality that were not adhering to it). It was clearly openly ignored and not enforced!
The rule is obviously there for a reason.
Luggage pickup- On entering NY three out of the four of us found our luggage easily but the fourth person could not find their luggage, we looked on the "luggage belt" over and over again, then we noticed suitcases to the side out of the way of it, when going over we found that it had being took off by someone for a unknown reason because it shouldn't have even being moved. There was no problem on return to london. (I suppose this was not air indias fault).
On board-
The security- the security on board the flight to NY was good because we noticed an un-uniformed police officer walking around the plane chatting to people and watching them i.e. their movements, we realised he was a police officer when we noticed he had a gun strapped to his waist, whether that was a good thing that we saw it I don't know. There wasn't anything particulary special about the security coming back on the plane.
The flight attendents- It was hard to distinguish who was a flight attendent as they did not have a uniform, they wore their own cultural clothing. The staff did not seem all that friendly and did not seem to care/ adhere to rules once again. ( which I will talk about when I mention landing further down). On the flight back as they had let so many people bring on extra big bags, there was a comotion over the overhead luggage compartments, as most are aware there is a compartment for two seats to share, a woman that had a window/ alise seat had clearly brought too many and or big sized bags that one would not fit in the compartment, neither would it close. So this woman started to use another compartment which was meant for someone else, this other person started to make clear she couldn't put her stuff in, an attendent came along and ended up arguing with this passenger that did not agree, the passenger was trying to explain and was clearly getting annoyed because they had brought too big a luggage on board. In the end the attendent pushed this piece of luggage in one of the compartments and walked away leaving the door open as it would not shut.
Food- In my opinion the food was rather poor, they offered a vegeterian indian option and a meat indian option, the food was dry and not to my taste. On the flight back it was the same meals again, one of the snacks was a cheese toastie but this again didn't look very appertising and looked like it had been there for days. I didn't see much choice and I don't believe that everyone was catered for, yes it was an indian flight but there was clearly alot of other cultures that use Air India and I don't believe they/ we were catered for, if it had been another airline there would have been more options available I'm sure. Yes there was some other options you could order before the flight when you booked but I believe that was extra and the menu still wasn't upto much.
Leg room/ seating- The leg room was pretty poor, I'm only 5"2 and I had just say enough room when the chair infront of me was up, when it had been put back I wasn't able to stretch my legs out very far. Imagine if a taller person was sat there, they will have had no room at all, actually that was the case with two of the people I was with, they had little room when the chair was forward but when it was back there was no room at all! And remember this was a long haul flight so leg room was important! I would say the seats were rather tired but I suppose your only sitting on them, they were fairly comfortable but I did not like the 'side' rests on each side of the head rests as they made me feel even more enclosed and it also made it hard to talk to the person next to you.
Entertainment- I was very surprised that there was only a big tv screen a couple of row in front of us and that there wasn't a screen on the back of the chair (which I previously had with United Airlines). The radio remote that was on the arm of the chair did not work, either that or the headphones did not work as the four of us could not listen to it. As there was only one screen there wasn't the option of changing channels. Everything was dubbed/ or was in indian from what I could gather from what I did hear of the tv. So the tv entertainment was useless to anyone that didn't understand indian and the only film/ programme I did recognise was Frasier, that too was dubbed in indian and unless you'd seen that episode before you couldn't follow that either, luckily for me I had seen the episode and so knew what was going on without needing to listen to it. So overall the entertainment was extremely poor and the people that did not understand indian were not catered for in anyway which was quite disappointing as I could see that there was a large number of people that where/ did not seem to be of indian nationality. Good job I had magazines with me.
Families cater for?- I would say no from my observation of an issue on the way back, whether they had only a few facilities available for small babies or not but this was my observation- a family that had a small child were sat at the front where you would expect the straps or whatever they are called to help the parents of small children. The parent had to go and see the attendents to sort the issue out, it didn't seem to get sorted out for a while and it looked as if they weren't going to do anything about it, this mother was clearly getting upset about it, they eventually moved her and the baby fruther down the front to another seat but she was expected to leave her husband/ partner in the other seat (remember this was a long journey), in the end I think another kind couple came up and swapped seats with them so the family could sit together. The flight attendents did not seem to understand the fact it was a long journey and they would have been seperated.
Landing- When landing at both ends, we were told to fasten our seat belts and to put our chairs back up if they were down so we were ready for landing, most people did this but there was the select few that did not listen, some with children and so the children weren't fastened in. The flight attendents walked up and down to supposedly check that everyone adhered to this rule. I watched to see if they pulled up the select few, but they did not, so once again they were not adhering to the rules and were clearly openly ignoring them. If it had been United Airlines and someone was asleep with a blanket over them and this issue occured they would have been woken up to make sure their seatbelt was on, I know this as we were told this when I was on an United flight.
Summery- I will not be flying with Air India again unless they take the rules more seriously as how do they expect the public to adhere to the rules when they are not enforcing it.
I apologise if I have worded things in a discriminatory way but I have tried to word it right.
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I have flown to NY with Air India before and it was terrible. The plane was so old I felt like I was walking into the 70s and taking my life in my hands, the food was horrible, and the seat in front of me was rubbing against my legs and Im only 5ft 3 ins tall!
The only good thing about it was that the terminal it flies into at JFK is the one thats featured in the Tom Hanks movie 'The Terminal' and it is one the better terminals at JFK, more like a shopping mall, with lots of shops to visit while you wait.
I wontbe flying with them again, I stick with American Airlines these days, about £40 more expensive on average but worth every penny for such a long flight.
torr 05.08.2007 12:14
I've never flown with them - doesn't sound as if I've missed much! Duncan
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Advantages: An amazing experience for anyone interested in travel. India has it all and more. Disadvantages: The visa is only valid for 6 months. Otherwise I would have stayed for 12.
Jarrac 05.04.2008 (05.04.2008)
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