I flew Air India ORD-LHR last June... what a horrible experience. Since you cant seem to reserve seats ahead of time, they assign you a seat when you check-in. AI quite possibly has the longest and slowest moving check-in lines. We were unfortunate enough to get a seat by the toilets. Mid flight, one of the toilets starts overflowing and water starts leaking out into the cabin. The floor is drenched. We were lucky that we were only flying to LHR in that mess of a plane. On our return, we check-in about 2.5 hours ahead of our departure. The check-in agent says we're lucky to get the last 2 seats on the plane. I asked him how that could be since we had confirmed seats and he said that confirmed seats doesnt guarantee a seat and there is no form of IDB or VDB compensation for AI. If you check-in later you might not get a seat.

Like blaming the politicians for problems in a democracy, blaming the airline for a bad product can be satisfying, but ultimately pointless since the ultimate responsiblity is with us in making the choice and flying AI to save the few dollars.