powerhouse

Has anyone flown with Air India recently? We are about to book flights for 4th / 5th October and they are by far the cheapest but I have heard that they are awful. Any comments would be appreciated

noni

It was full of Indians who were extremely rude to the staff.
Prefer Jet and Kingfisher.
Is it that much cheaper? Saw flights with Kingfisher for 7th Jan
£343 (approx) last night for three weeks. may have been a bit less with gocompare.com

powerhouse

I have just been back on the Southall travel web site and Jet dropped to £386.00 from £460.00, so I have booked. Arive in Goa on Monday 5th October, will someone tell the weather to improve asap!!

king kong

flew with them once when they were flying into perth years ago ,stopped off i think in mumbai .Half the passengers got off and the rest of us stayed on ,engines off it didnt take long for the plane to heat up with the aircon off then the cleaners came on and started cleaning the bloody plane . never again they were just about the worst ive flown ,except maybe thomson airlines when they were flying into perth at xmas time , their engine conked out .

powerhouse

I think I have had a lucky escape...

powerhouse

Are you in Goa yet?? I was wondering how bad the weather was

prestonjohn

They have the oldest fleet in the business and are nearly bankrupt too.Even the most patriotic of Indians avoid them like the plague.Wing and a prayer mate.
My fondest memory is being on an over night flight from Mumbai to Heathrow and before we had even cleared Indian air space, the toilets were blocked and some sod had nicked all the toiletries and spewed up in the sink. Then the babies started crying and the valium came out quicker than a bacon sandwich in a synagogue

noni

Lucky escape - I have never been on a plane that got SOOOOOOOOOOOOO DIRTY. The occupants were disgusting, no respect for the crew, plane, or other travellers.

wheatsheaf

AI is not rated too well by anyone. If you dont mind other passengers placing their feet on your lap and armrests, spewing up phlegm or ordering you to move so they can lay down then go ahead n pay for it. Flight crew are as rude as can be as their inflated egos prevent them from being of service. Also, they are rarely a pleasant carefree airline to fly with because of their reputation with lax security and previous disasters. Unbelievable that in the late 60s they won global awards for quality.

Mum2randa

blimey - glad I booked to go with Jet - just gutted I didn`t wait until the price had dropped!!!!!

king kong

the tolilets on our plane were non-existant ,it had those fabulous hole in the fusilage type with a lovely green house attachment [bunnings supplied] for doucheing .

Kinrara

My husband and I flew home with Air India, June 09, as they were the cheapest, we had previously booked a return flight last year with Sri Lanka Airways, (Sri Lanka Airways stopped flying from Goa). We were dreading it after all the reviews, but we had a brand new plane and excellent service.

wheatsheaf

A rat was aboard an Air India flight. It caused an 11 hour delay and an aircraft had to be sent from Bombay to replace the rat residence! Today's news!!

emsirrah

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/n...ow/5063507.cms


Would not like to be on an Air India flight where the guy at the front is only making this kind of money.

erinsgirl

We have flown AI several times and agree with the comments about some surly staff and shabby interiors. ( I too have never in my life seen toilet get so filthy, it was a case of locals wiping off their left hands in the wash basin and leaving it full of shit ). Did find that AI were usually very generous about luggage allowance, both hold and take on so that was our main reason for taking them as well as them being the cheapest.They are upgrading their fleet and we have had some new planes ( on the Dehli route) as well as old bone shakers which they put on the London Mumbai route once they started their direct service to New York wiht the new plane.

However what caused us to stop using them was when we had a through ticket to Goa, ( just after their merger with Indian Airlines) and the London plane was late landing meaning we missed our connection to Goa , which was the last flight of the day. AI not only accused us of being slow and to blame in terms of moving too slowly from the International Terminal to the domestic one, ( can you believe that) but they left us stranded at the airport until the following morning at 5 a.m. when the next available flight left for Goa. No overnight accommodation, no food, nothing, Not even much of an apology afterwards when we complained other than to say we should not have expected much as we had bought a cheap ticket. There were other passengers in this situation too and we all got the same " could not care less " attitude.

Their customer service skills are poor and they have struggled to integrate the two airlines post merger, which means the problems they have to overcome now are even greater than before.