Trip Reports - Trip Report: Welcome to Air India, Your Palace in the Sky

Note: apologies for the awful photography - using a broken mobile phone's camera...

I promised to post an Air India trip report on another forum, and I figured I'd post it here as well so that those of you who have sworn off AI can see what you're missing:

Cut and Paste:
Since I was flying Air India from Hyderabad to Kolkata yesterday, I figured it would be as good of a time as ever to write up a report. And since I couldn't get to sleep last night, I found the time to write the report without sacrificing valuable vacation time as well.

The greatness of Hyderabad's airport is all taken for granted now that I'm living here. I barely notice the great access roads, the little conveniences which make such a big difference, or the beauty of the terminal anymore.

I arrive at the airport at approximately 9:30, for a 10:35 flight. Having forgotten my printout on the kitchen table, I go over to the AI airport office, where there is no line. I am quickly handed a printout of my itinerary with a smile. And for free. Jet Airways, please take note.

At 9:30, there is very little line for anything. No line for CISF officers checking printouts. No line for check-in desks. No line for security check. I love the airport when it's empty.

Check-in is a quick and painless affair. I hand over my printout. The check-in agent hands over a boarding pass. The best part was when he said, “Welcome to Air India, your palace in the sky.” Not “have a good flight,” the usual Air India line, or the grunt I usually get from SpiceJet agents. This little phrase shows clearly that even with all the tough times AI is going through, he still takes pride in his company. Normally, ground services are my least favorite part of AI. That doesn't apply today it seems.

I wander over to the gate, a bit early. I ask a gate agent standing at the desk what the loads are like.
“Executive Class is completely full, sir.”
“So many non-revs?” I ask in surprise.
“No sir, all 8 tickets are revenue tickets,.”
He gestures at the manifest sitting on the desk. I'm impressed – loads look to be good this flight.
“And what about economy?”
“There are 30 passengers, sir.”
Ouch. The aircraft is an A319 – which seats 108 passengers in Y. 30 passengers in economy is a 28% load factor. Not pretty. Even when you add in the J passengers, the load factor is 32%.
I look forward to getting a row to myself.
“Is it always like this?”
“No sir, usually on Monday and Friday this flight is full. Even for mid-week flight, this is very less passengers – usually there is at least 60 or 70.”
I sure hope he's right. This flight is surely losing lots of money today – if it happens every day, this flight definitely won't last.

It's a fairly routine day at HYD – apart from a lone SpiceJet cancellation, everything is running on time.

http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0615-e1340391773268.jpg
At 10:05 sharp, boarding begins. By 10:15, everybody has boarded. On my way down the jetbridge, I catch a picture of the aircraft, VT-SCH. She's a newer A319 in Air India's fleet.
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0616-e1340391758219.jpg

The purser is standing at the entrance of the aircraft greeting passengers with a Namaste. The first thing I notice as I enter the economy cabin is the PTVs at every seat – I'm excited to check out AI's Thales i3000 system.
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0642-e1340391860890.jpg


The cabin is looking nice and clean, but sadly empty.
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0622-e1340392145874.jpg


For some reason, every seat is in a fully reclined position – FAs go through the cabin putting the seats to upright position.

Pushback happens at 10:20, 15 minutes before scheduled departure. Everybody is on board – there is no point in waiting.

The PTVs show a safety video I've never seen before.
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0623-e1340392134570.jpg

I took a video of it as well – if you'd like, I can upload... You can probably find it somewhere on the web...

I look over the Safety card:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0619-e1340392181415.jpg
The in-flight magazine for this month's cover is Ladakh, an area which is supposed to be very beautiful. I'd love to visit:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0620-e1340392165185.jpg
Complimentary headphones are provided:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0643-e1340391845602.jpg

The IFE is incredibly impressive for a 2 hour flight.
There is a moving map:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0629-e1340392108718.jpg

Recent Hindi movie Jannat 2 (with English Subtitles):
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0631-e1340392085597.jpg

Older Hindi movie, Adalat, also with English subs:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0632-e1340392070290.jpg

Hollywood picture Independence Day:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0633-e1340392053292.jpg


Lapataganj – Hai Khabar Garam Unke:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0634-e1340391967954.jpg

And a channel of Bollywood Music Videos (Mujhko Teri Zaroorat Hai – Jodi Breakers in this picture):
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0635-e1340391950344.jpg


In addition, there are 12 audio channels available with various different programming.

The controls for the IFE is very convenient and intuitive:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0630-e1340392097289.jpg


After takeoff, the meal is served:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0636-e1340391914329.jpg
I'm going to miss this like crazy when I go back to the USA in August.

Samosa, Chole, Sandwich, Water, and Jalebi for dessert. Yum.

I polish it all off:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0638-e1340391884861.jpg
The meal also comes with a coupon booklet:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0637-e1340391897833.jpg
A nice way to try to go after sales in the air.

Midflight, I notice to my amusement that the seats have inbuilt coat hangers:
http://aeroblogger.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_0640-e1340391871245.jpg

They really have thought of everything :D

Flight attendants come through the cabin every 20 minutes offering water bottles to passengers.

As we departed early, we also arrive early. It is almost disappointing to have reached my destination – for the 2 hours that I was in the air, AI was truly my palace in the sky.

Now that I've finished the trip report, some comments about this flight:
This flight was above average. That wasn't by design – I had planned to make a trip report out of this flight in advance, and AI chose a good time to deliver a great flight.
It was above average in a few ways:

It had the Thales i3000 IFE system, which sadly isn't fleetwide
The flight had a light load. On my usual route (AI 517/518 HYD-PNQ-HYD), I'd be extremely lucky to get a free middle seat next to me, forget my own row.
I didn't have to deal with rude AI/Airport/CISF (security check) employees. HYD is a great facility, but I've dealt with far too many rude and unhelpful employees at the airport. Usually, they aren't AI employees, but it still reflects badly in the flight


Assuming the incredibly low load was normal, AI needs to seriously rethink continuing service on this route. However, maybe the gate agent was right and this was an unusually low load... I trust AI to do their job of route planning – I'll just enjoy my flight :)

i would suggest reducing the size of the pictures....because of the larger pictures its a little difficult to read the report on firefox with all the advertisements shifting to the middle....

i would suggest reducing the size of the pictures....because of the larger pictures its a little difficult to read the report on firefox with all the advertisements shifting to the middle....

Yeah, I just realized that myself... I'm working on it - will probably take 10-15 mins...

i would suggest reducing the size of the pictures....because of the larger pictures its a little difficult to read the report on firefox with all the advertisements shifting to the middle....

Done :)

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Galaxy S: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.6; en-us; SGH-T959V Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Thanks PVDtoDEL. Now I can see the pictures as well as your comments.
Since my jalebis look far better tjan AI's, it still sucks. It's a piece of $hit. Ot even forced poor innocent Jet Airways to behave like Air India does. It needs to be shuy down and buried on concrete, before it can infect newer inexperienced aielines.
:D

Done :)

much much better....

unfortunately i don't see anything in your report that would make me want to switch to ai from another airline....also, the jalebi in the picture looks quite disgusting....not sure how it tasted though....

i have a unique opportunity in a few months time....i will be flying del-lhr in ba first, bru-bom a week later in 9w first & finally bom-del a day later in ai first....this would be the first time i will be flying first class on 3 different airlines on the same trip....will definitely take some pictures & try to come up with a good report to show the differences between the 3....

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Galaxy S: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.6; en-us; SGH-T959V Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Done :)

much much better....

unfortunately i don't see anything in your report that would make me want to switch to ai from another airline....also, the jalebi in the picture looks quite disgusting....not sure how it tasted though....

i have a unique opportunity in a few months time....i will be flying del-lhr in ba first, bru-bom a week later in 9w first & finally bom-del a day later in ai first....this would be the first time i will be flying first class on 3 different airlines on the same trip....will definitely take some pictures & try to come up with a good report to show the differences between the 3....

That would be unique indeed.
Now you know if you fly Air India, you have to BYOJ. :D

Jalebi looked disgusting, but tasted quite alright. A common theme in airline food..


unfortunately i don't see anything in your report that would make me want to switch to ai from another airline....

The trip report wasn't meant to make you want to switch carriers. It was just to show that AI is hardly the horror many people make it out to be on this forum.

Now you know if you fly Air India, you have to BYOJ. :D

i know....luckily i will be flying ai from bom so byoj should not be a problem....:p

AI is a great carrier in terms of their onboard service and I appreciate your report. It's a shame the AI management is so corrupt...they are ruining a great airline.

Like your picture on the inflight magazine. Never knew Ladakh but will definitely do some research in this region. Would love to visit :-:

Like your picture on the inflight magazine. Never knew Ladakh but will definitely do some research in this region. Would love to visit :-:

ladakh is amazing....definitely one of my favourite places in india....

Thanks for sharing.

Very nice report! I flew 9W and 6E this winter, but I wish I had flown AI! I must agree that from my AI experience ORD-FRA, it is not a horror show, just another airline flying the skies.
Thanks!

I suggests that he have fly another airline. AI is not good at all. It was always empty flight and sometime the flight is not full or empty. Dependable if they will tell you how is the load factor doing. If your flight is not full or half-full.

I suggests that he have fly another airline. AI is not good at all. It was always empty flight and sometime the flight is not full or empty. Dependable if they will tell you how is the load factor doing. If your flight is not full or half-full.

Nonsense. AI is my favorite carrier in India from a product perspective (mgmt is another story of course), and I have no plans to choose another carrier.

Thanks for posting that short haul report.

Surprising that there were so few passengers. I wonder if that is a sign of AI's time or whether it was just a fluke that it was so empty today.

Thanks for posting that short haul report.

Surprising that there were so few passengers. I wonder if that is a sign of AI's time or whether it was just a fluke that it was so empty today.

Looks like it was a fluke. I flew the return today (AI only operates 1 flight in each direction), and it was packed in Y. Only 3 passengers in business class though... Strange :confused:

Thanks for posting the report.

I made a quite similar experience recently on an MAA-DEL flight. I was a bit surprised seeing a IFE system on an shorthaul aircraft, but it the end the selection of movie was quite limited, nothing to talk about. Food much better compared to 9W and service on par with 9W (but IMHO sub-standard).
In India I prefer flying LCC which I hardly do anywhere else in the world and Indigo became my favourite domestic airline in the meantime. I cant help it, but the staff of 9W and AI makes me feel that the passengers are just disturbing their day, an annoyance the dont need. I hardly seen them smiling.

Of course it was fantastic, like it always is (even when it isn't).

In reality, it seems like a perfectly uneventful flight; ideal, in my opinion. And it more or less mirrors my recent experiences of flying IC : good, for the purpose it serves.

And I still say IC because, despite the supposed merger, the two remain very different. And whilst I will happily fly IC on short flights by choice, AI longhaul evokes the same reaction in me as it does the majority of the country : over my dead body.

(Of course, AI/IC can afford all of the extras, because, unlike Jet and United, they don't have to worry about profits and sustanibility, but that's irrelevant to the passenger experience.)

Oh and I would put less money on "the flight may have been fantastic (sic) because it was empty" and more on "it was empty because AI aren't (percieved to be) fantastic."

Oh and I would put less money on "the flight may have been fantastic (sic) because it was empty" and more on "it was empty because AI aren't (percieved to be) fantastic."

As I said, the return was packed... I'm inclined to believe the gate agent and think that the empty flight was not normal.

It is a universal truth that each AI flight is unique...strictly a matter of luck of the draw re IRROPS or staff.

Until there is consistency ...I am out !

It is a universal truth that each AI flight is unique...strictly a matter of luck of the draw re IRROPS or staff.

Until there is consistency ...I am out !

Not really. My last 20+ flights have all been consistently decent - I haven't had a bad experience on any of them.

Everything has improved drastically over the last few years, including consistency.

Not really. My last 20+ flights have all been consistently decent - I haven't had a bad experience on any of them.

Everything has improved drastically over the last few years, including consistency.

you must be really lucky....my last 20+ flights have been as different as night & day....

you must be really lucky....my last 20+ flights have been as different as night & day....
I think it's a function of flying ex-HYD - HYD has been a really consistent station in my experience.

Inconsistency is usually at the outstation in my experience.