Did 3 flights recently on AI -

*Jul 18 AI 131 LHR-BOM J B787*
Incoming flight was on time but the outbound was about 30 mins late pushing back. AI's lounge leaves a lot to be desired in terms of food choices so decided to have lunch on board. Business class was about 2/3rd full with nobody sitting next to me (I was in 3D). Service on board was excellent with good food, constant refills without having to ask and with some genuine smiles. Despite the late departure, we landed about 10-15 mins early. TV audio didn't work so just changed seats. One weird thing - I reached the check in counter about 75 mins before scheduled departure and one of the staff members hanging around said he was about to call me to see if I was coming. I asked him why and he said because it was close to departure time and because everybody else had checked in. I just said I had no check in bags.

*Jul 23 AI 021 CCU-DEL J B787*
Domestic flight but leaves from the international terminal (all AI flights starting with 0, 1, 2, 3 and 9 do). The contract lounge in the corner upstairs isn't that great but has good wifi. We left about 5 mins late but landed 20 mins late due to traffic issues in DEL. Another flight with good food and service.

*Jul 23 AI 111 DEL-LHR J B77W*
Flight was quite empty, saw many people in Y sleeping across the entire row when I did a walk around. Pushed back on time and arrived 25 mins early. And not surprisingly, enjoyed the food but could have used some more smiles, too many "I am just following instructions" faces.

My experience out of LHR on AI has been consistently good over the last 1 year and with fares usually about 30% below competition, it is a no brainer (on this trip, AI was around £1500 while the next best was EK at £2200).