I just noticed that Air India had Air fare from ORD to FRankfurt(not-stop) for $260 and up. has anyone ever taken this airline to europe (how is it?)

I flew Air India once to London. It was fine - wonderful food, good service - but the piped music nearly drove me to distraction.

Okay I guess as long as there's a cat onboard.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13281495

http://www.indiatraveltimes.com/news/aviation_2.html

Not the first (or second) time...

I have flown Air India to Delhi via London. The food was good, but the plane was packed. Not to sound racist, but Indian people like to make themselves at home on airplanes. Many had their shoes and socks off, with their feet up on the headrest in front of them. I also saw a lot of people undressing in the aisle (under a blanket, of course). There is also the problem of the caste system on flights. I observed many upper-caste people belittle the flight attendants, treating them like servants. This was also observed whilst standing in line for the WC, with upper-caste women pulling rank on others (calling some, "dalit&quot. If this doesn't bother you, then you won't mind the flight. I thought it was very interesting.

Cheers.

"I observed many of the upper-caste people belittle the flight attendants..."

sounds like some of the US carrier flights I've been on and there wasn't an Indian in sight, much less anyone who could remotely be considered "upper-caste."

In my opinion, the most important thing
(especially in today's world) is an airline's
safety record. I believe that Air India's is
not as good as many. There was a recent
post about a website giving this information;
perhaps you should do a search for your
peace of mind.

..will not comment re flight safety though that is very important..took air india from nyc to london...service good and on time flight..food is very interesting and good..choice of indian veg, indian, or western..only downside a lot of families with small childeren so was a little noisy...but i was travelling with one of mine too !

My plane from NYC to New Delhi via London was packed. The whole plane smelled like curry and sweat. We made it just fine though, and if you go, order the indian food, not the american.

Where does Boonie get this nonsense about Air India's safety record from?

Air India's last fatality was in 1985 - the result of lousy security on the part of the Canadians.

How many US airlines can claim a safety record that good?

I agree with you, Topman. All nationalities can be extremely rude on airplanes. But, this was different. Americans, for example, can be rude because they think, "Hey, I paid money for this flight, so I get whatever I want." Some of the Indian woman on the plane thought they should go to the head of the queue for the loo because their skin was lighter than the norm. Both reasons for being rude are wrong. I was just pointing out the cultural differences.

Flew Air India to Frankfurt in May and would do it again. Flew Kuwait Air to Amsterdam in October and would not repeat that mistake. Found Air India ok. The movie was dubbed and wasn't an American movie in the first place. The headphones had no channels with popular music so take along a CD player. Food was OK take some snacks. They did have beer and wine if you asked for it. But the cost for four round trip tickets was 1550.00. I felt safe and noticed alot of security when boarding.

Mikeycora, what was wrong with Kuwait Air?

ThinGorjus - I found your post hilarious. I've flow on AI many times and never ever seen any caste-ism. Hey I haven't even seen caste-ism in urban India. It might have been a one time incident or you might have had one too many. How can you tell whether a person is upper caste or lower caste- it's not as easy to identify as colour of the skin. There might have been passengers swearing and treating flight attendants poorly - but caste-ism- come on!

Really, memee? I find you extremely hilarious. To say that the caste system doesn't exist in India is inane.

I've flown Air India from Chicago and New York to India several times. The US-Europe leg of the trip is usually pretty good. I have to agree that passengers tend to "make themselves at home" on the flight, but even that usually is for the Europe-India leg. Yes, caste-ism is rampant in India, but I've never seen public displays of it ( by Indians) outside India. I'm sorry ThinGorjus had such a bad experience. Having said all that, and having had a decent experience on all my flights, I've generally gathered that service is not consistent. Also, the "casteism" generally plays in favor of Americans and Caucasians in general, even the flight attendants probably will be kinder to you. Conclusion:
Price : great
Punctuality: good
Food: good if you like curry
Entertainment: bad
Seats: average
Service (in flight): good on average, but can be inconsistent.
Service (ground staff): average

Thingorjus - if you read carefully, you would notice that I said I haven't experienced caste-ism in urban india.
I am Indian and have lived in India. (In fact my relatives live in villages/small towns where the only casteism is economic- just like the West. However, I am not saying that casteism doesn't exist. Also, only in the West do people ask me what caste I am from- and I never know what to say). Due to thousands of subcastes, it is very difficult to tell which caste a person belongs to. It's not like racism, where you discriminate based on colour of the skin.

Thin, I had a simolar experience with a flight to china on the Chinese National Airline (Forget the name). Shoes and socks came straight off...place got a bit pongy after a few hours ond only 1 stop in Alaska from NY. For such a long trip the Chinese make themselves comfortable.

Saying that the toilets were unusable after a few hours and the food rough...best part was we saw about 4 King Fu Movies, some with Chuck Norris. It was hilarious and unexpected as we thought it was too stereotypical. We also were the only non-asians on the flight.