India-based Airlines - why do they say AI food and cabin service are good?

I flew AI in J last week, ORD-(FRA)-DEL-CCU. My last time on AI was in 1985.

First the good: check-in was efficient, flights were on time, assisted by high tailwinds (except for DEL-CCU which was one hour late taking off, because of late arrival of the previous flight, but adequate information was given at the gate and profuse apologies in flight---a big change from many years ago). I am not sure why the J seat on the 773 is neither flat nor horizontal, but it is close, and comfortable enough. For the price, one can't complain. My luggage arrived safely, and emerged very quickly in CCU.

I must say, though, that the food and service were not what I'd expected.

For the first meal there was no menu, only a surly FA saying "veg or nonveg?" When pressed she admitted that they also had "continental" (I haven't heard that word in years).

The food came all on one tray, the items still in their aluminum containers (i.e. not plated). Certainly there was a large quantity, but otherwise the food wasn't distinctive in any way. Just as an example, the hot item was a rectangular reheating container with rice in the middle, vegetable on one side, chicken on the other. The quality was comparable to economy class---edible, definitely not memorable.

I was woken up ~2.5 hours before landing in Frankfurt; apparently the fact that I might prefer to sleep rather than eat hadn't occurred to them.

No choice offered for this meal, just a tray put in front of me. Starting with this second meal we got real plates. No choice after takeoff either, just a breakfast tray consisting of convenience-store-grade baked goods. Finally, 3 hours before landing in DEL, we actually got a menu with 4 items to choose from. Again, large quantity, mediocre quality (lots of potato in the cooked dishes, lots of rice, bread). I would guess they wanted to feed us so far in advance of landing so that they could finish their work and relax.

No kits were ever handed out.

Much of my J flying is on AA these days, because I have miles and status. No one will accuse AA of being a top airline, but J meals are served course by course, with some attempt at putting on a show (e.g. sundaes). When they still had ORD-DEL, their Indian entrees were produced by Vermillion, an upscale Chicago restaurant. I'm not saying the food was great, but it was certainly better than AI.

The AI 'lounge' in Delhi T3 is the Dare Devils sports bar. The national airline can't operate its own lounge in its biggest hub? You can't even see a flight departure screen from the bar.

The former-IC domestic flight was better, perhaps because I was expecting less. Service was definitely more attentive and pleasant, and while there was less food, it was better tasting and better presented on plates, which is a great tradeoff. But my last time on 9W there were menus and options in domestic J (same route); nothing like that here.

So my overall experience was the reverse of the conventional wisdom: no irrops, but forgettable food and service.

I flew AI in J last week, ORD-(FRA)-DEL-CCU. My last time on AI was in 1985.

First the good: check-in was efficient, flights were on time, assisted by high tailwinds (except for DEL-CCU which was one hour late taking off, because of late arrival of the previous flight, but adequate information was given at the gate and profuse apologies in flight---a big change from many years ago). I am not sure why the J seat on the 773 is neither flat nor horizontal, but it is close, and comfortable enough. For the price, one can't complain. My luggage arrived safely, and emerged very quickly in CCU.

I must say, though, that the food and service were not what I'd expected.

For the first meal there was no menu, only a surly FA saying "veg or nonveg?" When pressed she admitted that they also had "continental" (I haven't heard that word in years).

The food came all on one tray, the items still in their aluminum containers (i.e. not plated). Certainly there was a large quantity, but otherwise the food wasn't distinctive in any way. Just as an example, the hot item was a rectangular reheating container with rice in the middle, vegetable on one side, chicken on the other. The quality was comparable to economy class---edible, definitely not memorable.

I was woken up ~2.5 hours before landing in Frankfurt; apparently the fact that I might prefer to sleep rather than eat hadn't occurred to them.

No choice offered for this meal, just a tray put in front of me. Starting with this second meal we got real plates. No choice after takeoff either, just a breakfast tray consisting of convenience-store-grade baked goods. Finally, 3 hours before landing in DEL, we actually got a menu with 4 items to choose from. Again, large quantity, mediocre quality (lots of potato in the cooked dishes, lots of rice, bread). I would guess they wanted to feed us so far in advance of landing so that they could finish their work and relax.

No kits were ever handed out.

Much of my J flying is on AA these days, because I have miles and status. No one will accuse AA of being a top airline, but J meals are served course by course, with some attempt at putting on a show (e.g. sundaes). When they still had ORD-DEL, their Indian entrees were produced by Vermillion, an upscale Chicago restaurant. I'm not saying the food was great, but it was certainly better than AI.

The AI 'lounge' in Delhi T3 is the Dare Devils sports bar. The national airline can't operate its own lounge in its biggest hub? You can't even see a flight departure screen from the bar.

The former-IC domestic flight was better, perhaps because I was expecting less. Service was definitely more attentive and pleasant, and while there was less food, it was better tasting and better presented on plates, which is a great tradeoff. But my last time on 9W there were menus and options in domestic J (same route); nothing like that here.

So my overall experience was the reverse of the conventional wisdom: no irrops, but forgettable food and service.

Travelled F on air India in oct 2011, the lounge was something on the first floor where all the lounges are. Not an air India lounge , but definitely not delhi dare devils bar

Travelled F on air India in oct 2011, the lounge was something on the first floor where all the lounges are. Not an air India lounge , but definitely not delhi dare devils bar
I flew DEL-PVG J in April and they put me in the Emerald lounge..

I agree with the OP.. AI's J service is pretty much a premium economy service with decent wine and good seats.

Blasphemy !

How can you even say something like that ? It is a scientifically proven* fact that AI's premium everything is the best the world has ever seen. Calling the hardware, catering, presentation and crew fantastic is also an understatement; they're all that amazing.

*I flew AI economy on BOM-AMD. Then I extrapolated that experience (by putting on my AI-stained glasses and reading a textbook which was provided to me by my "source"). That is the scientific basis for concluding everything about Air India is far and away better than what even the likes of Cathay and Singapore can dream of offering.

QED, my friend. QED.

____________________

Okay, ridicule done, I'll be surprised if AI don't have their own lounge at Palam. If nothing else, they've been rather quick to get lounges in place (eg: they had their new Heathrow lounge ready before they even moved into T4) and even at Sahar, which is basically a spoke for the now, they were putting the finishing touches on a new airside lounge.

Maybe they have one (their website claims it's on the first floor of T3) and it was - like so much else at Air India - not currently functional.

In terms of food quality, I have found AI to usually be good. But even the single best meal I have had on Air India does not match up to several meals I have had on Jet or Delta or Swiss or Air France, to use just a few examples.

And in terms of presentation, it's rather like what a BMC school will give the children on a picnic to Rani Baug. Even a much-maligned American carrier such as Delta does a rather good job with presentation and service style.

Do AI still hand out packaged wafers as hors d'oeuvres?

On AI international, what i have seen is that the quality of the service a lot is directly proportional to the personality of the IFS: inflight supervisor. usually a male on AI (though IC intl has some women doing this role), the IFS determines what happens and where and when (i think).

Generally a good IFS results in good service: properly spaced out etc. if you see a fat, balding Anglo-Indian fellow onboard as IFS, a lousy service of the kind described above should be expected. the aunties are usually good at this sort of thing.

That said, i dont think they have a plated from cart in J: never seen it. That seems to have been in F only. Most of my travel has been on A310's on regional only. My only time on 747 i remember was similar to 310 service: larger portions than Y and individual courses in tray.

>> Do AI still hand out packaged wafers as hors d'oeuvres?
last flight with them, 777 to NRT, we were served some strange warm toast with onion/tomato salad on top. dunno what that is called, it was ok but it seemed to have been dipped in olive oil or something.

>> Do AI still hand out packaged wafers as hors d'oeuvres?
last flight with them, 777 to NRT, we were served some strange warm toast with onion/tomato salad on top. dunno what that is called, it was ok but it seemed to have been dipped in olive oil or something.
That's a Bruschetta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruschetta) :)

Blasphemy !


*I flew AI economy on BOM-AMD. Then I extrapolated that experience (by putting on my AI-stained glasses and reading a textbook which was provided to me by my "source"). That is the scientific basis for concluding everything about Air India is far and away better than what even the likes of Cathay and Singapore can dream of offering.

QED, my friend. QED.


ROTFLMAO...

kalia, didn't you abandon LH for greener pastures? :D

In terms of food quality, I have found AI to usually be good. But even the single best meal I have had on Air India does not match up to several meals I have had on Jet or Delta or Swiss or Air France, to use just a few examples.

well said....i couldn't agree more....

"They" don't say that. Only whatshisname does. :p

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/5.0.0.822 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Well, its good if AI have discovered what canapes and appetisers are. Hopefully they have also learnt that one should remove the film before plonking the bowl onto the First passenger's tray table. And that poking and going "Vheeg or Naan-Vheeg saar" belong in a dhaba not in a First cabin.

That said, even if AI's inflight service quality suddenly became better than Cathay and Singapore (it's won't, but let's pretend for a minute) they suffer from a much larger problem, that of perception. And AI seem to not be concerned about that at all. No matter what they do in terms of service quality, unless they acknowledge and address their disgraceful image, most people won't choose to fly AI over the competition, if all else were equal.

The truth about Air India lies somewhere in between : that they're not as bad as we imagine (or remember) and nowhere as good as some claim.

In spite of that, no matter how wonderful AI become, they will never be able to so much as break even. That alone is the only reason needed to justify AI's immediate winding up.

Let me admit that I am among those who have felt and said that AI cabin service/food was better than AI's reputation or ground service (should you be unfortunate enough to experience an irrop).

However, I never flew AI in premium cabin. It was always in coach. So a case of apples and oranges.

PS. We all feel the loss of AA's ORD-DEL nonstop. I hope it will return after chapter11 is sorted out.

"They" don't say that. Only whatshisname does. :p

:D :D

bah. what happened to the AI of old .. they used to have salvador dali designed tableware back in the day. And even in the 80s / early 90s there was this ad "the cheese, camembert, the tableware, silver, the airline, air india". AI was still no great shakes in terms of irrops back then but if you flew business class longhaul (NOT their AB3 to singapore / kl / dubai) then you would end up treated like a king.

I must say, though, that the food and service were not what I'd expected.

For the first meal there was no menu, only a surly FA saying "veg or nonveg?" When pressed she admitted that they also had "continental" (I haven't heard that word in years).

The food came all on one tray, the items still in their aluminum containers (i.e. not plated). Certainly there was a large quantity, but otherwise the food wasn't distinctive in any way. Just as an example, the hot item was a rectangular reheating container with rice in the middle, vegetable on one side, chicken on the other. The quality was comparable to economy class---edible, definitely not memorable.

I was woken up ~2.5 hours before landing in Frankfurt; apparently the fact that I might prefer to sleep rather than eat hadn't occurred to them.

No choice offered for this meal, just a tray put in front of me. Starting with this second meal we got real plates. No choice after takeoff either, just a breakfast tray consisting of convenience-store-grade baked goods. Finally, 3 hours before landing in DEL, we actually got a menu with 4 items to choose from. Again, large quantity, mediocre quality (lots of potato in the cooked dishes, lots of rice, bread). I would guess they wanted to feed us so far in advance of landing so that they could finish their work and relax.

No kits were ever handed out.
I've only flown longhaul on AI in J once (an op-up :)), so I can't really comment.

However, contrary to your experience, the meals were plated, and the amenity kit was decent.

Choices were described ("chicken with rice, and vegetable") instead of veg, non-veg, continental, etc. (and on that note, "continental" isn't that uncommon).

Meal quality usually ranges from edible to great, but I've never had a bad meal on AI.

Seems like the experience depends a lot on how hard-working the FAs are, and it looks like you unluckily got some lazy FAs.

I've deleted several posts.

Please can we keep the discussion on point: Air India and it's J product and offerings.

Babu
Moderator, IBA

Continental has consistently been there as an option for the last 2 years. Say what you want about food on AI, but the snacks service on The nigh flights to sin, bkk and auh from Bom is downright horrible. What's even worse is it's the same thing from right up front till all the way back. The class differentiation by meals seems to exist only on certain "prime" routes.

Also the plated service seems to be inconsistent. Certain Bom-del flights have it , some dont. Same goes for the "menu". It's either crew not doing their job or actual inconsistency. We will never know.

I've deleted several posts.

Please can we keep the discussion on point: Air India and it's J product and offerings.

Babu
Moderator, IBA

Judging from these posts, I do not feel bad at all for abandoning AI....sort of "unpatriotic".....

My last recollection years ago was a conversation with the lead FA and then captain re a totally inop entertainment system ( flying from ORD BOM. The captain very blithely said, If you don't want to fly I can off load you here ( LHR ) with no guarantees of onward travel !

Food and service were marginally better than economy

Have stayed away since !

Judging from these posts, I do not feel bad at all for abandoning AI....sort of "unpatriotic".....
That's not unpatriotic at all. What is, however, is supporting the National Beggar's continued existence, at the cost of criminal amounts of money to the exchequer of a desperately impoverished country.

And, honestly, you're not missing anything (unless you're into masochism, they you may get what you want). :p

That said, I don't even usually eat anything on the plane (too many food restrictions).

I would happily eschew meals, IFE, appearance of staff, lounges and all the bling in favour of a reduced-hassle flying experience.

So long as the seat is reasonably comfortable, the airline that gets me where I want to go with minimal fuss wins my business. For me, a large part of that is on-ground convenience and efficient, unobtrusive crew.

Of course, that's my personal preference; just because I don't care about lounges and meals, doesn't mean they aren't important to a lot of folks. And it certainly doesn't mean they don't count when assessing quality.

That's a Bruschetta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruschetta) :)
from pics in the link, it doesnt look like Bruschetta


I am attaching a photo taken on a domestic flight in J. You an see the stuff i was referring to on the left of the tray. Only on the intl it was served separately and in large portions on cutlery.

for future reference, what exactly is this stuff called?

its good if you like stuff soaked in olive oil.

PS: How do i upload the image??

Update on my return trip:

ORD-FRA on July 20 was the worst (surly staff, food in foil containers, "veg/nonveg" once and no choices offered once) and probably was responsible for my starting this thread. On the return trip (July 30), staff were efficient and pleasant all through. All food was plated. No kit, but packaged toothbrushes and toothpaste in the toilets.

Food quality was, as before, economy class level. Further, over 5 meals (1 dom and 2 long intl segments) I experienced:
(a) "veg or nonveg?" twice
(b) printed menu, 4 items (once)
(c) verbal listing of 4 choices (once)
(d) shown a dot-matrix printout listing 4 choices (once, on domestic)

In CCU the 'lounge' was the seedy bar upstairs, rather than the actual lounge on the main floor that other airlines use. In DEL I asked for "anything other than the Dare Devils lounge", and they were helpful; they gave me a pass for the Embers bar. It is a public bar, not a lounge, but it was upstairs and so a little nicer, with a panoramic view of the main floor.

All in all, it wasn't a bad trip. Departure from DEL was delayed ~2hrs because of a late incoming domestic flight, but this was no worse than with many other airlines, and ground staff were friendly and kept us informed at all times (customer service was my main complaint with IC and AI in past decades). About 1 hour was made up in flight.

The seat was comfortable enough for extended sleep, which is the main thing. Now that I know what not to expect, I think it is still a good deal, especially if they return to flying nonstop ORD-DEL. And if they don't paper the windshield as they fly.

(d) shown a dot-matrix printout listing 4 choices (once, on domestic)
You mean like this? Very fantastically First Class, no?
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z23/sutrakhk/Flight/Japan/Part1/031.jpg
Yes, that was indeed Air India's "menu" in First on a Japan flight.

The above is laser and in two languages, muuuch better than dot matrix?

The above is laser and in two languages, muuuch better than dot matrix?
Hahha ! True.

By the way, Babu, do you get an increasing BMC Rani Baug picnic feel? ;)

Have flown dxb-bom J class a couple of times .Kits offered , meals, service etc were nice , flight & bags arrived on time always & the best part it was always half the price of 9w, ek & it.

Once flew bom-sin-bom on AI Y class had no problems back then .

Flew them first class NYC-DEL sometime ago...there's a trip report somewhere.. All was excellent.

Things have perhaps deteriorated recently as the airline has more or less disintegrated as a going concern. Must be difficult to maintain customer service standards in an environment where everyone laughs at you because of the media caricature of the brand you work for/ pities you for not getting paid, as you walk from operations centre to aircraft door.

Self esteem is critical for good customer service, methinks.

AI120
B773
FRA-DEL
Business

Delayed departure (15min)
Delayed arrival (15min)

Long check-in queue
One family with 2 adults and 2 children - 12 pieces of luggage harassing the agent to allow a little more to be checked-in. Could a luggage screener walk the line and guide likely passengers to weigh their luggage prior to interacting with check-in agent?

4 check-in counters operational

Crew seems to saunter in, few at a time - don't they all stay in the same hotel?
Gate C8 is too cramped and involves stairs. Climb down to get to screening and climb up to board

Welcome drink - Pineapple or Apple juice
Offered choice of newspapers
Menu booklet was provided - couple of Veg options and couple of meat choices. Breakfast I was informed - continental only - due to short flight
No amenity kit in the seat but for light blanket/ shawl
Requested (twice) and received an eye mask. It came in a paper envelope with socks. Toothbrush, paste, mouthwash, lotion etc. are in the restroom.

IFE could be simplified. Controls were slow to respond.
Maps/ path did not function. "Flight data not available" was on display.

Pre-dinner snacks were standard off the shelf supermarket savories
Fruit consisted of bananas, apples and oranges
Dinner served all at once cafeteria style. Hot food was hot. Cold food was cold. Presentation could be improved e.g. Dal was served in a small cup of aluminum foil. While the table linen is fine, the bowls, glasses need to be better
FA was genuinely surprised I did not opt for alcohol. She offered several times :)

Seat/ bed is reasonably comfortable. The headrest is bit hard. The pillow is too small. The duvet is light and fluffy

Slept about 6 hours (of the 7:30 hours)

They should hand it to me. This is such a fixable airline, even with the unions and all. Not a week goes by when I am at a loss how they manage to mess it up.

I have half a mind to go to DEL and make a pitch. But then I recall my last experience pitching anything in DEL (way back in '95 to the national TV network) and I have second thoughts. Competition practically played off the playbook we gave to the national TV network and all DEL did was stand aside and watch the world move on.

I have half a mind to go to DEL and make a pitch. But then I recall my last experience pitching anything in DEL (way back in '95 to the national TV network) and I have second thoughts. Competition practically played off the playbook we gave to the national TV network and all DEL did was stand aside and watch the world move on.

?? Could you try once again please, with an extra hint or two for the slower ones among us. I didn't get any idea of what you meant here. :)

?? Could you try once again please, with an extra hint or two for the slower ones among us. I didn't get any idea of what you meant here. :)

Very subtle, nice :)

There was a time when the national TV saw that competition would sooner or later be fierce (for ad revenue) and wanted a plan. We were hired by the Director General's office to make a game plan. We did. A pretty detailed one at that. That is it. They just sat on it, because no one felt that he or she had the authority to decide. Literally that. I made so many calls, everyone said the same thing, it was someone else who would decide. One after another, Star, Zee, Sony unfolded exactly as we proposed but the good folks in DEL just sat there and watched.

So, while I can get someone'e ear in Civil Aviation, I am not sure if they even care enough to save it. My rant was because I strongly believe AI can be saved. It has many good things going for it, and, yes, many good people as well. But I am afraid DEL will just wait and watch it die. Everyone claiming that it is someone else who needs to make the decision.

But I am afraid DEL will just wait and watch it die. Everyone claiming that it is someone else who needs to make the decision.

Let it die. The National Beggar has been leeching money for way too long.