Air India
 

Looking for your experiences on traveling with Air India. Planning a trip to Paris, and AI fares are the most reasonable. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

I had a terrific pair of flights with them a week or two ago. Mrs F has taken then in economy across the Atlantic, and thought they were OK, but the food was mediocre. As far as I'm concerned:

- even though flying business class, there was no choice of food in one direction, and it was all Indian. There was a wide choice on the other leg. Personally, I can't see how anyone can find Indian food a hardship. But Air India kitchens, both ways, were bland and mediocre: any takeaway in Britain serves better, tastier, fresher.
- the flight was a couple of hours late in one direction. This seems a problem for the airline, since you're usually on a plane going US-Europe-India and delays seem an occupation hazard
- most planes don't have seat-back screens in cheaper classes. Can't see why it matters, but some people seem to worry about this.
- their lavatories seem to attract criticism. It's not that they're dirty, or poorly maintained. But passengers just don't seem to be as punctilious about cleaning basins etc as they ought to. Oddly, going out, there was an article about this very problem in Asia Age, the London-based Asian daily.

The staff on board both ways were fabulous.

My flight on Air India from JFK to Delhi was fine. I ordered koshers meals, and I received all of them. I was in Economy, but I was able to get an emergency exit seat at the front of the plane.

The return flight was really bad. They did not seem to have my order for kosher meals, so I ate the curry--not bad, but it gave me heartburn. The bathrooms were FILTHY--but this was due to the people using them, not the airline's fault.

Lots and lots of Indian families on both flights. Kids running up and down aisles. Indian men like to take off their shoes and socks, which is can seem uncivilized to westerners.

One thing that struck me as odd--the flight attendants spray something up into the baggage compartments right before the plane lands in the US.

We flew Air India two years ago to London and had no problems. Everything went smoothly. The food wasn't the greatest but who cares about that. I got an amazing deal thru them to fly to London that I couldn't pass up.

Two years ago I flew Air India to Paris and back and had no problems. This year I planned a trip over Thanksgiving - a hotel and air package through Expedia. Air India cancelled our flights three days before leaving and insisted that we take their airline on dates that were so far from our vacation plans we were forced to cancel. They were awful to deal with. I telephoned them and they hung up on me when I had to ask them to repeat some phrases, since the operators spoke very quickly and their accents were very thick, and I have a pretty good ear.

After the hanging up incidents I just worked through Expedia, who were excellent in every respect. We ended up getting a full refund - air India wanted to impose a penalty of$150 per person because we would not accept their flight changes. However, we were protected by Expedia because the changes were so "extreme" in Expedia's words. Expedia told me they cancelled four flights in that time period.

I have never before had to cancel a vacation. I will never fly Air India again no matter what the savings. You can find a thread about Air India in the airlines forum. Let the buyer beware.

Thanks to all for your information