Airliners-India.com

OnlyIndian · Member Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 14

Of being the worst carrier out of India.

First and foremost I know "'this thread is useless without pictures", but I dont like to take out my camera, due to the heightened security (sorry).

So as I was SAYING AIR INDIA THE WORST AIRLINE from India.

I have been traveling since I was 1 year old every summer to different parts of the globe. Coincidentally when I was one year old, I traveled by Air India, which at that time was known for rubbish service. For example my parents complained to the ground staff, for mishandling, and taking various items from the checked on baggage (during the 90s this was commonplace). Then they also complained about the air hostesses who could care less for the passengers. In my case, when I was one year old, the air hostesses decided it was unnecessary for me to drink baby formula since, I was "sleeping". Then later when my mother asked for baby formula, no one had come for hours, and when my dad when to check in the aft cabin, he found the auntjis and unclejis, sitting when their shoes open drinking baby formula. EXCELLENT SERVICE! After that, my family has never traveled on anything but Swiss, Austrian, KLM, Lufthansa.

Just to say that I am an avid traveler, I have traveled to India every summer, for the past 20 years on various European carriers, so I have a good take on airlines.

So this brings me back the recent years, when my parents decided that Swiss was too expensive, and we should travel by Air India again. Being my critical self, I strongly rejected it, but who am I compared to my parents, so we first traveled by Air India 111/112. First time was great, since the aircraft was b747-400 Khajuraho, one of the 747-400s with PTVS in each economy seat.

VT-ESO
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-India/Boeing-747-437/1391722/L/&sid=fc59be61cc3ab39811dbe4ea35aa7b9a

Then we traveled by the same flight again, another summer, and this was one the other 747s without IFE and pretty bad maintenance (ie seats broken). After that I had totally rejected the idea of traveling by Air India, but shimmer of hope came about when I heard they were to buy the T7300ER and T7-200LR, which would help out in the aircraft department.

Last Summer was the first time I traveled on the Non-stop flight, and I will not lie, the R/T flight was excellent. The aircraft was brand new: Gujarat
http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/1/5/8/5/61345_1226550585.jpg

The service was excellent. the FAs catered to the passengers, they were attentive, and very very caring. I was traveling with my grandparents, and two of the F/As were coming every hours to ask my Grandparents to see if they needed anything to make their journey pleasant. I really was shocked to see the service, was sooo good. Being my hasty self, I the biggest critic of AI, understood that P. Patel really changed Air India.

WELL WAS I COMPLELTLY WRONG.

This July 26th, My mom and I decided to go India as every other summer. I immediately recommended Air India after the previous year. We were offered cheaper tickets with Swiss, but due to the ease of nonstop, and the perfect service from last year, we decided Air India.
After checking in, I laid eyes on our aircraft that day, Assam.

Vt-ALC
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-India/Boeing-777-237-LR/1233219/L/

After boarding, my mom and I arrived to our seat 21A and 21B. As soon as I sat down, I knew Air India nonstop was not the same as the year before. Due to cost-cutting measures, the previous issue of small plastic bags with socks, ear muffs, and mouth wash had been removed. No biggy, the airlines need to survive in times like these. Then being an aviation buff, and somewhat anal, I began to look around, to observe the aircraft. The seat I was sitting in, looked like it had been urinated upon, and the staff never bothered to clean it. My armrest next to the window was literally falling when ever my hand went on it. The bathroom in itself, look liked it had been repaired in the typical indian fashion. Certain bolts were hanging out, someone decided it was okay to put putty around certain parts in the bathroom. To sum it up, it was repaired in a half*** manner.

Then as we pushed back, i began to notice there was a problem with the IFE unit of the passenger sitting next to me. I saw that the headphone jack had been completed gutted, literally someone decided to take a screwdriver and completely gut the headphone jack, plus her screen was not working. I thankfully was happy my screen was working, however whenever I tried to put my headphones in the headphone jack of my seat (btw, the headphones have become earbuds. plastic earbuds that are flimsy and worth less than 10 cents), and tried listening to the crew announcement, but nothing. After trying to find an F/A, which is virtually impossible, I asked them if they could reset it. With a really annoyed face, one of the young F/as finally did the reset after takeoff, to no avail. Also the entire 21 A/B/C did not have IFE throughout the flight. In addition, since all the remotes did not work, one could not turn on the reading light, nor the F/a call button, which was a major inconvenience, since the elderly passenger sitting next to us, was doing fasting, so she periodically would need water or anything. Regarding the IFE unit problem, the problem was not only in my seat but 20% of the seats in economy. Also, when i learned that the IFE was not working, I decided to check the IFE box located infront of my feet, under the seat infront, and found that the IFE box had been looked at in a haphazard manner, since the box cover was not even put back on properly. Air India maintenance GREAT.

Now to the Flight attendants. I want to declare that if anyone traveling by Air India nonstop thinks that they will receive the same service as posted by many travelers last year, they will be up for a rude awakening. The F/A crew was young, no more auntijis. However the crew is horrendous. They are least bothered about the individuals on board. For example, the passenger sitting next to me was fasting thus she could only consume fruit, milk, water. When the meal service began, she asked the F/A could you please bring some water and fruit. The young F/A was like okay, with a w.e expression on her face. After my mom and i finished our dinner, the elderly woman still had not been given fruit or water. After requesting the fruit again during the recollection of our trays, still nothing. I decided that Air India Staff could only be dealt with in their language, which is going up to them, and speaking in tone, which made me shameful when i spoke it. Then the passenger got the fruit and water. Wow the auntji tradition continues with the new generation of Air India F/As......

I know that after this post, there will be a lot of individuals who will say that, I am asking too much from Air India, in lieu of the passengers who travel. I completely agree that the passengers who travel by Air India are unruly and have no manners at all. For instance, when they use the bathrooms, urine, and used tp are found on the ground. I understand. However, that should not be a reason for Air India to offer T7s with railway service (mind you I have traveled by Rajdhani and their bathrooms are very very clean compared to those of Air India). The most successful airlines adapt to challenges and obstacles facing their path. Air India just gives up at the first sight of a challenge. Then the T7s in general. I think the T7 will age much faster in the hands of Air India, then any other airline such as Emirates and Singapore. Remember the mood lightening, that Air India talked about, well on my flight to India, it was out of commission. Then the bathrooms are a mess, I mean its only been 2 years for this aircraft, and look at it, its seems like one of the first T7-200As of the line. I mean, Air India should outsource its Maintenance operations of all its aircraft or else the 111 aircraft strong fleet will look like 50 year old tin cans.

Lets see what the new panel headed by R. Tata does, which in my eyes is nothing!

Heres my suggestion to all traveling to and from India.

Take either AA or Continental if you want to fly nonstop, or any European carrier I mean only Swiss, Lufthansa, Austrian, or Emirates or Ethiad, or Singapore, or Jet (sorry about the many or s)

My quote for the masses

Air India, the maharajah of worst Indian carrier

Namaskar

Only Indian

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks for posting this. Sorry for your experience on VT-ALC.
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Yeah.

Nimish · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:27 am Post subject:

Ooh - sounds like a shame that the IFE system on a relatively new a/c is down on say 20% of the seats. It's ultimately the same passengers on EK or LH or BA - yet their IFE is up and running. Hence it's clearly AI's MX that's sorely lacking. And things like mood lighting are entirely up to the airline to operate and maintain, there's nothing that passengers can do.

The only thing I wonder about is whether the fasting lady had fruits/etc. mentioned against her booking in advance. If that was done, she should typically have been served the meal in advance of the main meal service.
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We miss you Nalini!

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

This was not nice, sorry for your experience. I had flown VT-ALC `Assam' operating as AI 102 JFK-DEL on 13 Dec, 2008, and the plane was in impeccable condition (I was on 31K, in economy). All was ship-shape, the IFE was nice (good programming), and the food, and service (most of the cabin crew were young people) was excellent. The lavatories were clean, and were well stocked with amenities throughout the flight. I had flown the outbound AI 101 DEL-JFK on 06 Dec, 2008 on `Haryana', in seat 31A in economy, and this aircraft too was in an excellent condition, and the service, excellent.
I do hope AI's new image and product quickly do a good turn-around, and we again get rave reviews about both the aircraft, and the service!
Cheers, Sumantra.