Flew business class on new Air India Airbus A350: Impressive service

Storage spaces were everywhere. There was a mirrored cabinet right beside the seat for knick knacks.

BHPian alphahere recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I had flown the LHR - DEL route recently on my year end vacation to India. It was on the new Airbus 350. The service was commendable. The business class suite was well appointed with a luxurious touch to it. There was even a show lamp that you could set multiple brightness levels.

Cold drink was provided on boarding along with the customary hot or cold towel. Champagne was served multiple times and there was not any hint of unpleasant faces from the cabin crew. The quality and the presentation of the food was awesome and the crew did serve the food exactly when you felt like it. Kudos to them for their observation.

Storage spaces were everywhere. There was a mirrored cabinet right beside the seat for knick knacks. There was a coat closet right next to the IFE screen and there was a shoe drawer on the left of the seat beneath the sideboard. The IFE works. Period. And there was free WiFi that had decent bandwidth all through the trip. I have never flown an AI flight before where I could use the IFE, it would always freeze and I would give up. Not this one though, it was slick and fast. But compared to the archaic B787 business class the A350 felt a bit claustrophobic though it was loads more modern. But how well built are they and how long would they last this way is the million dollar question.

The back of the coat closet seemed to be made of a flimsy felt covered cardboard and it was already coming loose from the bottom. The cabinet mirrors had a couple of deep scratches as if some careless work was done on it. And mine was the only suite where the number illumination graphics was not working. It is a minor cosmetic issue but looked sore nonetheless. Then the front camera view was dead. Only the tail camera feed was live. I have never seen a camera feed on an AI flight and this one is partly dead already.

The one design problem that I had was with the window shades. There seemed to be no way to open the window shade partway to be able to look outside. The aircraft was fitted with mechanical motor driven dual shades. The first one is a white diffuser like shade and the next one is a blackout. And they work in series one after the other leaving us no option to open both only partway.

It was a comfortable 8 hour long journey and I was well taken care of. If this continues then Air India would definitely be lifted up from it's current status, though there are much better offerings out there (Read Middle East and a few others). A few pictures..

The seat along with the fancy lamp and sideboard..

View of the business class cabin..

The legroom..

The amenity kit by Ferragamo and pajama set..

Finally, a sample of the food presentation..

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