ckidder331

When Air India joins the Star Alliance, does anyone know what we will earn flying with them from a PQM and EQM standpoint?

Thanks!

sbm12

Not published yet. http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/mark...ePartners.aspx

Once it is there we will know.

I'm guessing 100% on most fares with lower rates on cheaper economy fares, just like most of the Asia partners.

enviroian

Is it true their cabins smell like curry? I'm actually being honest here. I've read on certain trip reports that everything smells like curry in the cabin. I know when I cook curry at home it does sort of linger around so this is why I ask.


Also don't they fly ORD-LHR? I thought so. I tried to confirm on their website and it's down. Wonder if we can get award flights soon.

demosthenes1

Well, isn't this interesting! My wife and I have an award reservation for this fall from the US to BOM with an open jaw before returning from MLE. We're traveling by ground from Mumbai to Delhi, and we have already purchased Air India tickets from DEL to MLE.

The obvious thing to do is add a leg to our award reservation and get a refund on our Air India ticket. I wonder how well that will work?

sbm12

Nope.

They've had 5th freedom routes to the USA in the past but I don't believe any are currently operating.

enviroian

Ah thanks. I'm thinking sometime years ago maybe 7+ I would have swore I saw a AI flight from ORD-LHR.

JDS747

Are you sure it wasn't ORD-FRA? They use to fly DEL-FRA-ORD but that was 5+ years ago.

mherdeg

Here's a trip report from circa 2006–7 showing Air India on ORD-LHR-DEL: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/150044/

I think they served that route as recently as 2008, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-i...a-ord-lhr.html

UrbaneGent

This is a good question to ask - the smells of certain spices makes me dizzy (sensitive nose here) and unfortunately curry is one of them. I fly AI often from CMB to DEL. Once up in the air, the cabin air gets refreshed and it is fairly clean. When it comes time for the meals, you will start to smell a little curry but it isn't so potent. I think AI has done a good job with their meals.

However, what does make me queasy - you are what you eat. If you eat garlic for a couple days, the scent will start coming out of your pores. So not only will your breath smell, but also your skin. Sitting next to someone who smells of curry is what makes it hard for me. Bless all cultures, I'm from the south of Europe and I have relatives who eat a lot of garlic and I can't be around them either.

Another issue, people bring their own food in containers. THAT is what permeates the cabin like nail polish. But it isn't exclusive to AI flights. Curious to hear others thoughts.

Keyser

i've flown more than 100 ai flights over the last 12 months....haven't come across any curry smelling cabins so far....

aacharya

The refund might be hard - at best you can arrange for aisle/window for each of you, keeping the row empty.

KTM just got a bit easier for me now, so I'm happy (except for the forced overnights in DEL/BOM).

l etoile

The moderators respectfully ask that there be no further discussion of the food smells on certain flights in this thread. We have had a respectful response from UrbaneGent and many disrespectful responses that have been removed. Let's please consider this question asked and answered.

l'etoile
UA moderator

SunLover

It will be interesting to see how much (and class type) reward availability Air India releases. Does anyone have any AI redemption intel to share?


SunLover

aacharya

The "Airlines of India" forum is pretty jaded with respect to current AI availability - and assumes the worst come July 11th.

OTOH, Eva and the other new *A carriers came on pretty easily - I imagine that *A's IT behind the scenes will force AI redemptions more easily at least for those of us not in AI's FF program.

abaheti

On the other hand, I'd bet a lot of AI flyers can't wait to redeem on other *A carriers! Maybe that will alleviate some of the load. :-)

aacharya raises an interesting point about behind the scenes IT; do *A carriers have to agree to some minimal level of availability for partner redemptions? And will LH be "coaching" AI on IT changes/processes/etc?