Originally Posted by
ETHFlyer
I'm looking for some flights back to the West Coast from Asia (ideally to YVR but I'm flexible) and really the only routes in J/F that are available on a whim all involve travel through India. Whether that's some combo of SQ/NH/BR to India and an AI flight to YVR. I know that the hard product is abysmal, but how bad is the experience really. I've watched as many reviews as you can realistically watch but they never cover the stuff I really want to know, like how dirty are the seats really, how bad are the crews on average, how are the bathrooms, and how are the other passengers especially. I figure I can get the most fair replies here, so is it worth it taking AI direct to YVR (I know it's their worst long haul product) or should I add another connection and 4+ hours to avoid India.
AI is not as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, their older aircrafts are in desperate need of refurbishment when it comes to seats & IFE but besides that they are not bad.
In J & F you don't have to worry about dirty seats, the crew is very good & helpful, bathrooms are as clean as you would find on other airlines & the same goes for other passengers.
You won't encounter the broken seats issue in F so if you have the miles for that then go for it. In J, there are some planes were seats are not working & AI has probably taken a call not to repair them currently as their planes start going in for refurbishment in a couple of months so there is no need to repair something that is going to get replaced shortly.