Originally Posted by shah94

I flew AirIndia SFO->BOM->AMD business class on Jan 20, '24. Returned BOM->BLR->SFO. It was on a single PNR AirIndia ticketing. SFO->BOM (AI180) connecting to BOM->AMD (UK939) in BOM with a 3 hr 40 minute gap. I had high hopes for a reasonable experience on business class, now that Vistara and AirIndia have Tata / SIA investment. AI180 was delayed by about 2 hours. As a result I did not make the UK939 connection in BOM.

The transfer desk was overwhelmed by passengers pleading for help. AirIndia ground staff was just pathetic. They did not anticipate problems because of the delayed arrival of AI180. It was utter chaos and no organization on part of AirIndia. From the time of the landing at 5 am, AirIndia kept me hanging out without commitment of any kind at the transfer desk at the arrival level first and then at the departure level, until Noon. A total of 7 hours with no word on where I stood. Then at noon, they gave me food voucher to eat / drink at a snack bar in the departure ticketing area. They made no attempt to put me on any other flights (there are many BOM-AMD) flights. I had no way to get into the business class lounges in departure without a boarding pass. Finally at 1 pm they gave me boarding pass for AirIndia flight departing at 6:30 pm. Predictably, that AirIndia flight was also badly delayed and I reached AMD and collected luggage at 10pm.

All throughout, I was regretting flying AirIndia. I had a bad experience once in 1983. I had avoided flying AirIndia since then for over 40 years. While the direct SFO->BOM business class in-flight experience was ok, the horrible ground staff behavior and disorganization was just plain agony. Similarly, on return flight BOM->BLR was so-so, BLR->SFO was better. Again after landing at SFO, luggage took a full 2 hours after I cleared customs and immigration, Global Entry not withstanding. If AirIndia wants to be world-class airline for business class flying, they have a lot to catch up on, particularly in their ground operations. Even if there are flight delays, surely they can treat their international business class customers better.