Quote:
Originally Posted by B747-437B
The 319s are all brand new planes (< 2 years old) and feature PTVs with AVOD.
|
Okay, flew on the "new Air India" A319 (VT-SCI) SIN-BOM on Jan 8. Only around 40 passengers on the flight, so almost everyone had three seats to stretch out on -- nice (for the passengers, not so much for Air India!).
There were PTVs, but it was not AVOD. Programming was rather limited by today's standards. Also very poorly worded default screen message that says "Programming will be available shortly" all the time, even when programming is already on. There is an airshow (map) channel that is non-obvious to access; not labelled on the controller, almost have to accidentally access it.
Service was good, food was decent. Only odd aspect of the service was when I asked for a beer about 90 minutes prior to landing, only to be told the bar had been sealed and therefore they could not serve any more alcohol.
However the experience went south after arrival in BOM, where despite being 12.30pm and the AI flight being the only arrival in Terminal 2C at the time (resulting in immigration being cleared in 5 minutes flat!), there was so sign of any bags over 45 minutes after landing, and no announcements of any kind about the delay. When we finally approached the "Duty Officer" office, we were given al kinds of excuses, ranging from "the are no baggage tractors available" to "we cannot locate the baggage operator" to "this is a busy time, too many aircraft taxying, so bags are delayed".
After an hour of waiting (again, just 40 passengers, and no other arrivals during the entire period), the passengers were irate. When we said that we would file a complaint, we were told to go ahead. When asked for a complaint form, we were told there was none available. There had been no announcement made of any kind apologizing for the delay or offering any kind of information. We were told this was not Air India's fault; it was the airport operator's fault. In other words, this was the classic "old Air India".
The bags finally arrived after about 75 minutes of waiting. Again no apologies or explanations.
When will Air India understand that no amount of advertising, new airplanes, or new color schemes will help unless they get basics like timely baggage delivery and adequate announcements and customer communication right? Until they do, the more discriminating customers will continue to avoid Air India.
Cheers,
Sankaps.
