Originally Posted by
PiperAtGatesofDawn
You are guaranteed a new plane flying BOM - US. It's not luck of the draw there at all.
And yeah it's much better than Polaris except for Wi-Fi. 16 hours without connectivity is tough expecially when flying for work these days.
Originally Posted by
PiperAtGatesofDawn
Yeah exactly. So it was an equipment swap at some point... maybe for operational or other reasons...
I think AI is trying hard to maintain route consistency, the got some backlash when they started inducting these ex-DL planes and people weren't sure what seat they'd end up with, even PE folks. It's much more structured now.
And product consistency is probably one of the reasons they're deferring the UK integration till as late as possible.
The point is that with such a small number of new planes at the moment, there is no guarantee that you will get what you book. In 2023 I took 8 long haul flights on AI. Out of these, 6 were booked on the new planes but I came across 3 occasions when I booked on the new aircraft & they switched it out to an old one at the last minute. So it still remains luck of the draw.
Also, I booked 4 domestic flights between DEL-BOM last year that were supposed to be on the new planes. They switched that too twice.
A 50% success rate on getting what you booked is in no way a guarantee.