Air India to NY

[boristhemini]

Hi.
Mrs Woman is off to NY and best price she can find is with Air India. Never having flown with them, can anyone give first hand recommendations before she pays over her hard earned cash?!

[agent x]

reccommendations.....simply :yuk:

[spanishflea]

DO NOT DO IT!

Pay the extra tenner and go BA or AA. There would have to be a serious lack of any reasonably priced alternatives before I booked AI over AA.

[BestonBoard]

flysilverjet business class service at premium economy prices...
nothing like you'll ever experience on the ground, or in the air...

[kingdee]

NO WAY PAY that little bit extra and travel aa/co/ba/vs or even kl via ams.:)

[angels]

While I was spending some time in New York a while back, every person I knew that flew AI there tipped up late.

Agree with the others. Unless the fare saving is absolutely stonking, pay a little extra.

[ThreadBaron]

every person I knew that flew AI there tipped up late

... and got back home even later. My experience: 3hrs late out and 5 hrs late back, thereby missing BA connection to ABZ, having to fork out £300 for new tikkits!

In letters of one syllyable D....O....N....T.

[RealFish]

Quite right ThreadBarron - AI 4 hrs late yesterday also. I didn't mind though as my ex and her new fella were on it (he, he, he :E ). I was picking little Realfish up from the VS flight from JFK due to land at around the same time so, as it happened, we didn't have to cross paths!
The VS flight, by the way, was a disgraceful 2 mins late! after a rather late departure from JFK due to a severe storm.

[Middle Seat]

OY! Must *really* be bad if you're recommending they take AA!

[boristhemini]

Thanks all. I think Mrs Boris will not be going AI !!

[fescalised portion]

"OY! Must *really* be bad if you're recommending they take AA!"

Why is that then? What's wrong with AA ?

[boogie-nicey]

Yeah I hear that microsoft I thinking of substituting the recycle bin on their desktops with the Air India logo..... :ok:

Air India are a disgrace and I have know from first hand experience as well as other relatives who have had the misfortune to fly with them. Air India are so up their own behind that it's unbelievable.

[scudpilot]

I have a close friend who emigrated to the good old US of A last week, to marry his long term g/f in Chicago. He flew AI, and has done every trip for the last 5 years or so. He swears by them, and has never had a problem, but I am guess he has just been lucky judging by the comments above.

[boogie-nicey]

You bet he's lucky... extremely so from what I've heard and had to endure.
Air India seem to think water is the only thing you can be served onboard and being courteous and operating an on schedule service is somehow to be afforded to the privileged.

When others can achieve a higher standard then you really need to start asking yourself some questions as to why your airline isn't/can't do the same.

Privatise Air India and you'll see a massive transformation that boots out all the various hangers on leeching the life out of this potentially good company.

[Bangkokeasy]

I wouldn't rule AI out completely.

I flew them last month on another route and there are pros and cons. The cons are:

- The flight will NOT be on time
- Crew and operations management are a shambles. There is less than international standard discipline in the cabin with regards to operations or the management of SLF.
- You will be cooped up with a lot of novice pax, many of whom are nervous, getting up and walking around all the time, etc.
- IFE mostly only Indian music vids and movies, which get a bit wearing after the first 6 hours....

The pros are:

- Fleet is reasonably new and in ok condition. I think they fly 744s accross the pond.
- Cabin crew are quite pleasant
- Indian food on board is good quality (if you like Indian food - if you don't, then shift this up to "cons", as there's not much choice).
- It's a novel experience!
- Safety record pretty good.

In short, if the cons don't matter, particularly the delay factor which can be severe, then why not? But absolutely don't fly them if you expect them to match other carriers in the areas I have mentioned under "cons". Caveat emptor!

[boogie-nicey]

That's just it, the 'Cons' listed above can be addressed very easily and anyone in the commercial market should aim to do so. Air India used to ferry Indian expats back to the motherland ;) however that's no longer the case and it's now found itself immersed within a truely international travel culture and needs to start looking at how to meet the needs of the various travelling nationalities. Even yesterday's expat Indians are far more prosperous and increasingly sophisticated in their choice once more AI should be meeting that need because they cannot afford to loose that custom.

[alangirvan]

If you want an Indian experience on your way to the USA, Jet Airways flies to Newark via Brussels from Mumbai. Modern planes and good in flight service. Since one of the previous posters suggested flying KLM via AMS, a flight through BRU would be as easy as flying through AMS.