I would have traveled on the older plane had they not let me cancel without a penalty. I'm flying to Milan next week & to Paris next month on the older planes. If I was just looking for a business class ticket to the US then it wouldn't make a difference which aircraft was available. The newer one would definitely be nicer but the older ones would do as well. This trip was specifically to try the new plane which is why I wanted to cancel once they switched the aircraft. Like I said before, its frustrating but not the end of the world.

I believe it had more to do with the manager's intervention than AI's decision. To be fair, the fare difference was quite substantial (over INR 150K) so I'm not surprised they didn't agree to that.