[dailydriver]

The term cutting edge seems to have assumed an altogether different meaning with Air India. A passenger complains about being served food that had a metal piece resembling a blade in it. Although one could conveniently point fingers at the caterer (TajSats most likely), the carrier can't absolve itself of the crime.



Courtesy: X

[Naetik30]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

The term cutting edge seems to have assumed an altogether different meaning with Air India.

And this looks like a business class passengers. What a way to get served.

And another story on non functional AC causing flight cancellations and bad mismanagement reported on X.

https://x.com/inkandwander/status/1802431711315390481

[sinharishi]

What a disaster Air India is! I want to share my experience from yesterday flying AI856 from Delhi to Mumbai. Booked AI856 on Sunday evening after seeing that AI is operating their new Airbus 350 on the route. Paid 2.5k extra over Indigo’s nonstop flights. I only wanted to fly Air India as they are the only airline that fly the big planes between Indian Teir-1 cities. Earlier in the year I flew in their 777 on the same route. Anyways, all excited to fly in the new A350, I book the tickets.

We arrive 2.5 hrs before departure at the terminal. We were asked to go to self check-in counter P. This is the fully automated check-in counter. The only human interference was AI staff helping folks with their bags if the machine fails to read the tag. Now if you end up with excess baggage here, you have to go all the way back to AI check-in counters operated by humans. I print the boarding pass and see instead of 16K and 16J, our boarding pass has 10E and 10F. I checked my Digi Yatra scan and it also showed 10E and 10F. Mistake I made is I did not check the seat numbers, mind you I paid 575 additional for these 2 seats.

I logged into AI website and just to make sure I get the seats I paid for I click on resend email. The email confirmation mentioned that I am booked for 16K and 16J. Slowly it started dawning upon me that the aircraft has been changed. I was cursing AI, I paid extra to fly the A350! No communication, whatsoever given to us by AI. A350 was substituted with a 15 year old A321 (VT-PPY). We board ontime, cursed my luck and told dad there is always a next time.

The plane is all set to taxi but we were not moving. 10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins!!! Then an announcement is made, due to a technical snag we are docking back. The AC was barely working, people were complaining about it to the staff and the standard response once they fire up the engines it will work. We don’t dock back to the same gate, instead we are taken far away and we are parked next to the A350 that we were originally supposed to fly. I was getting excited, yes, put us on that A350.

After sitting 45mins more, we are asked to deboard the plane. Bus takes us back to the terminal and we go thru transfers, doing security check again to a different gate. Another aircraft again, this one was a A321 in operation since Aug 2009 (VT-PPQ). People started questioning the staff why are we put on the same flight when it had developed a technical issue, no one bothered to check the tailsign, staff had a tough time convincing them its a different aircraft.

Anyways, we finally depart at 6:15pm from the originally scheduled 2:45pm. In flight, they ran out of Veg food and my father was handed over some packed fruits. I too asked for veg but the crew requested me if I am not pure vegetarian can I accommodate with chicken and noodles, LOL. Since I work EST hours, I was expecting that I will be home by 730pm and pushed all my meetings post 8pm. With all the delays had to sit in the airport for additional 2 hrs so I can attend to my client meetings.

Change of aircraft wasn’t enough, they lost my baggage too. They will locate it at Delhi airport and try to find it. This was the last time I booked AI. No information on change of aircraft, very poorly maintained aircrafts, mismanagement all around and they had ZERO regrets on what happened yesterday.

The fully automated baggage drop machine too had developed a technical issue



The airplane that I wanted to fly and booked tickets for, with the one that developed a technical snag



The aircraft we flew

[Nilesh5417]

I was on the 'inaugural' flight of Air India from Delhi to Zurich on 16th June. Tons of fanfare at the boarding gate - passengers asked to click pics with props, were given a hard copy of pic and a small souvenir while hoarding. The event was being managed by none other than the AVP Marketing (North) who was a really sweet and cheerful lady.

I reined in my expectations with a lot of self control and it was a familiar sight inside the packed aircraft - a 787 dreamliner that probably 15yrs old. Old worn out seats, non functional entertainment system, rattles all around. Food served was Indian but totally passable - main lunch was OK. But dinner of paneer masala and Parathas was bad.

All this on an inaugural flight!! Things will take forever to change since it's not quite clear when do they start getting their new aircrafts.

[RMN]

Originally Posted by sinharishi

No communication, whatsoever given to us by AI. A350 was substituted with a 15 year old A321 (VT-PPY).

Standard Operating Procedure for Air India I guess

I had booked an AI flight from Sydney to Kochi for my parents for the last month that transits through DEL & MUM. 3 weeks before the date, the online portal shows the MUM flight was cancelled and transit time as a negative 4 hrs. I thought the system will update the schedule accordingly in a few days. Kept waiting and it dint, just called up customer care 4 days before departure to make sure and that's when they inform me that we had to manually book the replacement flight! I was shocked that this wasn't automatic or that we weren't informed to take action. Spent 1.5 hrs. on call and finally booked a replacement flight. If I hadn't made that call my parents would have been stranded in Delhi.

[Magnaspectre]

Air India is one of the worst when it comes to just about everything. Indigo is atleast slightly better. Personally, in the last 2-3 years before Tata took over the airline was better than it is today. Especially with connections to smaller cities and the quality of service at these smaller airports. At bigger airports the quality of service may have remained unchanged but has not improved.

Vistara is the only Indian airline that can hold a candle to international standards. But, it's days are numbered, as it gets swallowed by Air India. (I haven't travelled on Akasa to rate it.)


The problem with AI after the Tata takeover is that Tata isn't the company of the past which strived to maintain gold standards. But, the new Tata group is much like any other Indian firm where extreme cost cutting and cheap inexperienced staff is preferred over maintaining standards and hiring experienced, qualified personnel.

[pheru8b]

The Tatas should Let Taj take over meals and inflight service, TataPlay take over entertainment, TCS take charge of systems and scheduling and JLR the maintenance!

[BoneCollector]

I had an opportunity or should I say misfortune of choosing Air India for my to and from travel on PAT-DEL sector. It was a trip with family. The PAT-DEL sector was fine with easy check-in and boarding. The moment we took seat, Dad remarked that the seats are not as comfortable as those of IndiGo with lesser leg room. It was a brand new A320 VT-RTT. Flight took off on time and arrived at Delhi on time. Baggage and everything was on time. Food served was OK. I was kind of ok with the trip.

All hell broke loose on return leg. At DIAL, once we cleared entry via DigiYatra, we were redirected to special assistance counter as we were travelling with an infant. It took us over an hour for baggage drop. Even after repeated requests, they said it'll take time. Once at counter, the person asked why we came to international section and we should have gone to other counter. Then he himself says, since we were travelling with an infant, this was the counter for us. Then he went ahead with our baggage drop. We had about 10 minutes to boarding and we rushed to the security check where thankfully we were directed to Zone 5 which is meant for passengers with strollers and wheelchairs. After boarding, we had a pleasant flight. Again it was a brand new aircraft, VT-RTS.

My take is that the issue is with their handling staff who have still not got out of their slumber of the previous owner. That smug face, as if you're so busy, without doing any work got them into many heated exchanges with fellow travellers.

Will I take Air India again, it depends on the sector and most importantly, the timing. I sincerely hope they get their act together.

[itwasntme]

Here we go!

Air India to deploy A350 planes on Delhi-London route from September 1

https://www.deccanherald.com/busines...mber-1-3082942

And another link:
https://livefromalounge.com/air-indi...ndon-heathrow/

[akash_v12]

Air India is flying one of their ex-Delta B777's to fly the Indian team back home with the callsign 'AIC24WC'. Lovely gesture IMO.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

Air India is flying one of their ex-Delta B777's to fly the Indian team back home with the callsign 'AIC24WC'. Lovely gesture IMO.

It’s not a gesture, it is marketing and PR. Everyone is trying to cash in, in whatever way possible.

Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic gold was arguably a much greater sporting achievement. Was anything similar done then? Athletics is obviously not as marketable as cricket in this country.

[sagarpadaki]

Well, atleast they sent one of their better aircrafts. OL. It would have been a shame if they had sent their rickety, filthy triple seven

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

It’s not a gesture, it is marketing and PR. Everyone is trying to cash in, in whatever way possible.

I don't think this was done to cash-in.

I guess this gesture was done due to the hurricane in the Barbados and Indian cricket team being stranded there with no flights.

Link

[PPS]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

Air India is flying one of their ex-Delta B777's to fly the Indian team back home with the callsign 'AIC24WC'.

Air India have cancelled their EWR-DEL flight & sent this aircraft across to Bridgetown Airport to pick up the Indian Team & the Indian Media contingent has also been accommodated on this flight. Not sure how they're going to manage the disgruntled passengers at EWR!!

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

It’s not a gesture, it is marketing and PR. Everyone is trying to cash in, in whatever way possible.

The 777 Charter Flight has been arranged by the BCCI & not the Government.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

...Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic gold was arguably a much greater sporting achievement. Was anything similar done then? Athletics is obviously not as marketable as cricket in this country.

Not the same. While Neeraj's Gold was definitely much bigger, it would have been a moot point to send an aircraft for one person when he wasn't even stranded. The ICT was stranded. This wasn't done out of sheer goodwill. I'm sure BCCI will well compensate AI.

Not everything has to be used to bash the cricket team or sport