Best carrier to India?

[stewartu]

I am planning a trip to India in October starting from MAN but wonder whether to use BA upgrading to World Traveler Plus, ort fly to LHR by any carrier and use JET to Mumbai or indeed avoid LHR completely and fly Emiirates or some other airline. Has anyone any recommendations and is BA worth the upgrade if I go with them?
Thanks

[Michael SWS]

Kingfisher is far and away the best carrier between the UK and India, offering a service that is virtually faultless in every way.

BA is a reliable product. You know exactly what you're going to get; no more, no less.

Emirates has lost a lot of the appeal it once had, and is now little more than adequate. And having to travel via Dubai makes it a very long journey.

Air India is to be avoided at all costs.

[aditya104]

Kingfisher

[Ex-RN]

India from MAN

I travel MAN /BOM every April, and usually price dictates my route/airline. It is low season in April/May, then rising rapidly for when you go though

2009: This year with Finnair via Helsinki £290

2008: Last year with Etihad via Abu Dhabi (open jaw - into Delhi out of Mumbai) £340 (Incidently best cattle class I have ever flown on, plently of leg room comfortable seats, & large seat back touchscreen with pause very handy when the excellent food arrived)

2007: Swiss via Zurich £310 required overnight layover outbound but they have excellent 'Dayrooms' near gates. Comfy bed & duvet (IKEA style fittings) & TV lounge with free tea. coffee, soup, & nice showers with towels & toiletries supplied all for €11

2006: Virgin direct from Heathrow still had the hastle of getting down there & back + parking so prefer the 1 stop option as it breaks the journey and lets me have a smoke en route

Best LOCO in India for me is Spicejet, Online bookings simple as easyJet, book months in advance for best deal - but not huge surcharge if you want to make a change nearer date. Namaste

[jet_air]

Kingfisher Undoubtedly

[TightSlot]

There is a thread running in R&N about Kingfisher that may be of relevance. They are apparently reining in some of their fleet expansion plans

[Dan Air 87]

I would go with Kingfisher and I hope that their long haul fleet survives their current problems. You could try Jet Airways. If nopt these two then look no further than Air France. To my experience they are superb.

[jet_air]

If you are an Indian Pax - Choose only betwen Kingfisher and Jet Airways.
Avoid BA and may be even AF to a certain extent.. (Who says racism
does'nt exist.. FLY BA !)

If you are an Non Indian but you are ready to experience Indian Hospitality.. then once again either (Kingfisher or Jet Airways)

If you dont like India..
You have a lot of options.

[jethrobee]

i have flown with Jet and BA WTP, would prefer BA WTP every time.

I dont know about the claim of racism by the previous poster, but I have never had any problems with either BA or Air France.....

[TightSlot]

The problem with an accusation of racism in an anonymous internet forum is that anybody can make it and the accusation is essentially and usually unprovable. A recent court case claiming institutionalized racism with BA failed (See This Link) however, despite that, jet_air feels that he/she can make such accusations freely, in the certain knowledge that their true identity is not known.

jet_air now has 24 hours to provide me with a PM containing his/her full name and contact details together with a statement of evidence to back up the claim that British Airways is racist. Failure to do so will result in a permanent ban from PPRuNe.

And YES - I am cross!

[GroundedSLF]

I have flown on many airlines to India - my advise is Etihad.

Reason - easy, they are always 1/2 full, so you get loads of space, and they have great new aircraft, and IFE is also reasonable