[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by ZenMaster

One time I had to fly out from Kochi to Delhi in one of these old rickety 787's and I was able to breathe properly only once I landed in Delhi. The plane was almost like the one in the Final Destination movie.

The oldest B787 in Air India should be no more than 12 years old. Typically these planes should be good for at least 25 years given that long haul flying involves lesser cycles. So they may be rickety but are not " old" by any means.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by sinharishi

Slowly it started dawning upon me that the aircraft has been changed. A350 was substituted with a 15 year old A321 (VT-PPY).

Was on the verge of booking AI511/2 (A359) flights when I remembered this post of yours. A check of the FR24 data shows that AI randomly swaps them out for the A32Ns based on (guessing) passenger load and or snags etc.

There is no foolproof way to ensure a A359!

[Naetik30]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

The oldest B787 in Air India should be no more than 12 years old. Typically these planes should be good for at least 25 years given that long haul flying involves lesser cycles. So they may be rickety but are not " old" by any means.

Sir. I have flown the AI B 787s on international routes. They are rickety, broken, misused, mismanaged. And they are old. They feel and look much "older" than aircraft twice their age.

[v1p3r]

An Air India crew member was sexually assaulted in a hotel near London on Thursday night, during what I assume was a layover. It has come out that the hotel has been lax with security - dimly light hallways, no CCTV, strangers entering rooms - and the crew have complained multiple times to AI managers, to absolutely no avail.

AI pilots, however, stay in a much more expensive hotel, in central London and seem to have less security concerns as a result.

At this point, the sheer incompetence makes me long for the sarkaari days.

[GTX+]

Air India Fined Rs 90 Lakh For Flying With Non-Qualified Crew

Aviation regulator DGCA has imposed a penalty of ₹ 90 lakh on Air India for operating a flight with non-qualified crew members. Besides, the watchdog has slapped fines of ₹ 6 lakh and ₹ 3 lakh on Air India's Director of Operations and Director of Training, respectively, for the lapse.

"Air India Ltd operated a flight commanded by a non-trainer line captain paired with a non-line-released first officer which has been viewed by the regulator as a serious scheduling incident having significant safety ramifications," the release said.

Link to the article:

Request the experts to kindly explain what does the above mean, since as per DGCA it had significant safety ramifications.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

The oldest B787 in Air India should be no more than 12 years old. So they may be rickety but are not " old" by any means.

Originally Posted by Naetik30

They are rickety, broken, misused, mismanaged. And they are old. .

Agree. This is the common issue with 787 in AI fleet I guess. Have seen leaking AC ducts with water flowing to rows in middle of aircraft to multiple reading lights which has its on mind and keeps switching on and off randomly which finally made crew to pull the fuse out.

But I also feel, the 787 somewhat ages bit too soon compared to other widebody. May be my perception, but it has bit too much of delicate parts - infotainment remote is a common issue with other aircraft models too, but have seen far more 787s with dead touch in IFE systems. The window buttons are prone to damage too.

[Shreyas Agarwal]

I thought that Air India must be getting better, even if slowly, under the legendary Tata Group, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

I chose Air India for my LKO-BOM trip as it was the only one offering me a 25kg luggage allowance with a student ID. Little did I know that the greed for a few extra kilos would cost me so much mentally and financially.

The trouble started with a series of delays, which were attributed to a technical fault in the aircraft. After more than four hours of waiting, the flight was finally canceled. During this time, not even a basic gesture, like offering water to the frustrated passengers, was made.

We were then directed to the luggage belts to collect our bags and assured that buses awaited us outside to transfer us to hotels since no flights would be available that day. They promised to share rescheduling information at the hotel. Up to this point, the situation was frustrating but manageable—flight cancellations happen, and I expected standard procedures to follow.

What ensued was an absolute nightmare. Upon exiting the airport, instead of getting people on the buses, they queued all 200 passengers, including families with elderly and infants, in front of a booking counter staffed by a single person to discuss flight rescheduling and refunds. In the scorching heat, everyone waited for hours, hoping for clarity.

While waiting in the line, I called the Air India helpline, hoping that I could maybe avoid the queue by getting a refund over the phone. But when I mentioned my flight details, they disconnected the call, saying they couldn’t hear me clearly. Seriously, even kids these days come up with better excuses.

When I finally reached the counter, I was offered a flight three days later while being informed that hotel accommodation would be provided for only one night.They might as well have offered a flight 3 months later, no? If that didn’t work for me, I could take a refund.

With no other option, I took the refund, booked a flight at 5x the price for the next day, and headed to the area where their non-AC bus would arrive—whenever that might be.

Fortunately, the hotel they transferred us to was decent, with twin-sharing rooms, complimentary dinner, and breakfast, along with an airport transfer for the next day.

I thought the worst was behind me, but I was wrong. It’s been over 1.5 months, and I’m still waiting for my refund. Despite raising tickets on their portal, calling, and emailing multiple times, I received the same canned response: "The refund will be processed in 7-10 days." Recently, they’ve stopped responding altogether.

Even the Ministry of Civil Aviation's AirSewa app redirects me to the same unhelpful Air India channels.

I think I’ve wasted enough time, peace and money over a simple 2-hour domestic flight worth INR 7000, and I don't have the enthusiasm to waste more to take it to court or do something else about it. Lesson learnt: Don’t travel Air India again, and don’t rely on the Indian government to protect consumers from corporate misbehaviour.

EDIT: Came across this article (Link). Looks like this is standard modus operandi for them. Maybe paying the fines is cheaper.

[Foxbat]

I just flew economy class from Newark(about 10 miles from NYC) to Lucknow with a stopover in New Delhi with Air India. After reading all the negative reviews Air India was never going to be considered but the airline was offering the cheapest fare and that too a direct flight! In my dozens of trip between India and the US I have never flown a direct flight so I thought I would take a risk. I have never flown AI on an international flight either.

AI 106 flight from Newark, NJ to New Delhi was non-stop and took about 12.5 hours (a little before scheduled time) and the distance was about 12,000 km. The flight from New Delhi to Lucknow was just 45 minutes and 400 km.



The aircraft for the main flight was a 17 year old Boeing 777-300ER Registration VT-ALJ named "Bihar". It had the Start Alliance livery rather than the standard Air India livery.




Checkin and security check was a breeze and was done within 15 minutes. I was traveling on a long weekend so I got to the airport 3 hours 40 minutes before departure and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. This is fastest checkin and security check experience in my entire international traveling career including times where I had dedicated counters and lines for premium class of travel.



Boarding was a bit chaotic but the blame lies more with the passengers rather than the airline. No one wants to listen to instructions and just want to get onboard as quick as possible. The seats are old and a bit dirty but they have huge leg room. I'm 5'11 and I had a pretty comfortable experience sitting for nearly 13 hours. The legroom is more than some US domestic airlines "Business Class" and even some low cost carrier's international Business class.

I read in the reviews the airline does't provide any blankets, pillows, earphones, screens don't work etc. so I had come prepared and had brought my own. However none of this was true, everything was provided although the quality was a bit questionable. The earphones didn't fit to entertainment system but you could screen on your phone via closed Wi-Fi.

The AI crew was efficient, kind and well trained. They have to put up with all types of nonsense from Indian passengers with a smile and I admire their calmness in stressful circumstances. My flight was delayed by 15 minutes because a passenger thought he could sit in an empty business class seat because it was empty before take off! The air hostesses spent a considerable time asking him politely to go back to his seat before he finally agreed. If this was a US airline they would have promptly called the police and he would have been thrown off the flight. On a recent Delta flight (which was delayed by 18+ hours!) I was talking a old lady next to me and we were wondering if the flight had been cleaned after so much delay. The big brawny air steward stood over us and said menacingly "is there a problem here?"



The interior is pretty dated and needs a thorough cleaning and updating. The washrooms were clean however and I liked they provided magazines to read even to economy passengers. I managed to read India today after probably more than a decade.

Two main meals and two snacks were served during the flight. Quality was decent and definitely better than what I have experienced on my recent travels. I recently travelled Business class on American Airlines NYC to SF (5+ hours flight) and was served chips and soda as lunch !



I am a collector of scale model aircraft and while on the flight I remembered I have a model of an Air India 777 and upon checking at home I realized it was of the exact same aircraft I was flying on I had acquired this model 6+ years ago and had posted it on the Scale Aircraft thread:

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Hogan 1:200 Air India Boeing 777-300ER VT-ALJ "Bihar"

The aircraft had earlier had the standard livery(as depicted by the model) but had later been painted the Star Alliance livery.

Massive GE GE90-115B engine over the Himalayas in Kashmir.


De-boarding was a bit chaotic but again this is more due to the passengers not listening to instructions rather that the crew. My New Delhi to Lucknow trip was uneventful and on time onboard a new A320 NEO. Snacks were served even on the short 45 minute flight. Another great plus of AI is they send updates on whatsapp about the flight status and when they receive your luggage which is very helpful.


Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. The direct flight from US to India, decent food, great legroom and the cheapest fare are all huge plus points and I would definitely recommend AI on this route and try it again in the future.

[ssoni.1411]

Hearing all these horrific stories about Air India makes me disheartened about the Vistara merger. Vistara offers one of the best flight experiences, and I really hope Air India learns from Vistara, not the other way around.

[Bhalla]

I recently flew from Delhi to London Heathrow in Air India’s Boeing 787-8. From Heathrow, I had connecting flight to Halifax in Air Canada’s B737 Max 8.
Actually, I loved my experience with Air India. Seats were comfortable with good legroom, good food, easy check in, good choice of music and movies in entertainment system and friendly staff. I choose 39H (last seat in B787-8). I’ll give 4.5 stars out of 5.

[gautam109]

We had a horrendous experience with AI in Mumbai a couple of months ago. My Aunt was visiting us from the US and suffered a mini-stroke while here. Thankfully, she got timely medical attention and largely recovered. She decided to cut short her trip and return to the US for further treatment.

So my senior citizen Aunt & Uncle booked business class AI tickets from Mumbai to New York and booked wheelchairs. We arrive at T2, and every airline has greeters or assistants EXCEPT for AI! With much difficulty, we found some AI employees & sought help with wheelchairs, but they directed us from gate to gate towards a non-existent business class/wheelchair counter. There are phones installed with assistance hotlines, but they are not answered. We found another AI employee with a walkie-talkie, but he flat-out refused to arrange wheelchairs for us. Finally, we ended up using the paid porter & wheelchair service.

So much for business class! AI clearly has ZERO CLASS, even under the much-hallowed Tata ownership.

[ishotmydog]

I flew from London Heathrow to Mumbai T2 a couple of weeks ago on Air India. I typically don't fly Air India, but it was a last-minute trip, and the fare was very good. Apart from the two-hour delay, the flight was fairly uneventful. The plane was an old 777; the touchscreen wasn't the best, but the attached remote did the job. Whenever I fly Air India, I always download a bunch of media on my phone and iPad in case the screens aren't working.

The most irksome part of the journey was the check-in experience at Heathrow. At around the same time, there were two full flights (one to Mumbai and the other to Delhi), and the queue was almost out of the terminal.

[gauravdgr8]

I took the all-new A350 with the new livery. I upgraded to Business, and the experience was a 10/10.

It is spacious and comfortable, has a nice ambiance, great food, and, to top it all off, the best of Indian hospitality.

I took this flight to experience the new plane, knowing it had a stopover in Chennai. Overall, the four-hour flight was money well spent.

[noopster]

I recently booked an Air India/Vistara combo for a direct flight from Mumbai to Delhi return. Indigo had multiple options available, but I just wanted to experience something different. Both ways, there was a delay of about an hour—mostly in the take-off phase at the runway. The flight was otherwise comfortable, the food was okay, and there were no issues at all.

My return was on Air India's new A350, and I was quite excited about it. My seat was in the Economy section, but it was quite comfortable. I had a fleeting thought that I should upgrade to Business, but the offer they made was around 10K, more than double what I had paid for my seat, so I desisted!

[rakesh_r]

I will always have a soft corner towards Air India as my father served for close to 40+ years as an AME.
It really pains me to see all of the bad experiences being faced by the passengers. The quality and commitment took a nose dive post the merger (AI and IAC). Air india was initially known as a flying palace, even the economy was a class apart. The 747-400/800s were a class apart. Sadly that's no longer the case now, its more of like a flying shanty.
I had huge expectations post the take over, sadly its gotten worst, the staff is to be blamed owing to their callous attitude.
I just flew from Coimbatore to Pune yesterday on Indigo (320), i hate the seats but the aircraft was so well maintained, the interior still looked brand new, and service was prompt. I have been flying with Indigo for more than ten years and my experience has been satisfactory.
Air India needs to pull up their socks, ASAP.

PS: My last flight with AI was way back in 2014, Delhi to Heathrow. The flight arrived on time though with me minus my luggage.