We just returned from 15 scheduled days in India and had planned this trip ever since we heard that AA was planning to fly to India. We found the following:
1. OUR FLIGHTS. AA 292 from ORD to DEL was completely booked on 12/10 in First and Business with all full fare passengers according to the cabin crew, and on our scheduled return on 12/24, only 4 in First and 11 were booked in J. AA's arrival in DEL is at 9:35PM with the return scheduled at 12:55 AM, more than enough time to turn the aircraft around if all goes well. On the outbound, all went well, and we arrived about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, however the return was scheduled to depart just prior to fog rolling in, but if fog appeared early as it did for us, then the airport closes down. In fact on the entire day prior to our departure, the fog never cleared, and hence when we went to the airport visibility must have been restricted to 75 feet, and quickly got worse. Some airlines chose to board their planes and push back and wait for the fog to clear, which it never did. AA had a different strategy-the CSAs tried to have us board, and the Cabin crew refused to accept the passengers, which was fortuitous. There we sat in the departure lounge and for a few of us, an escort was provided to the airline club (perhaps not as good as the departure lounge) we we tried to spread out on the floors or chairs until the crews timed out and went back to the hotel. At about 5:30AM, we (First and business) then were taken to the hotel that AA uses and told we were to depart at 5 PM that afternoon. We boarded as a "hard stand" on the tarmac in time for a 5 PM departure, but because of an extended period of time to complete the paper work, and the ever present fog, we didn't take off until about 7 PM, which placed us into ORD long after all flights had left and the customs area door was locked. AA put us up again at the Plastic Palace (Airport Hilton), and we ventured out for our 7 AM flight which ultimately diverted to Hartford.
Other crews who we talked to at our Delhi (and AA's) hotel mentioned full first and business class on almost all flights. Despite our delays, we gave the AA cockpit and cabin crews on our 777 and MD-80 high marks for professionalism, as their communications on both flights with passengers were a model for all others to benchmark. They made us proud that AA is our chosen carrier. Not so for AA's ground staff which appears eager and enthusiastic, but do not have the required training, in my opinion. I mentioned to the Captain that I would follow up with AA management in describing what went wrong for us and how it might be fixed.
2. THE FOG. It appears that the fog rolls in at night from Mid December to the end of January, and in the past the airport has been subject to frequent closings, and the airport and many of the airlines are poorly equipped to handle it. Numerous articles appeared in the paper describing the fog rolling in at 6:09AM two days prior to our departure, and the airport subsequently closed until about 10:30AM. Some flights departed as late as 4 PM. A curious story was that some passengers became enraged at an Indian Airline captain for not leaving the gate so they decided to take action and beat him up, requiring the police to be called. There was no followup on what happened other than the Captain was not seriously hurt. When we were enroute to ORD, the Captain came by and told me that the incoming AA flight was to arrive late and that the departure already had been moved from 12:55 AM to 2 PM. All expectations were that the fog would be getting worse as the month went on.
3. AA's COMPETITION. AA has stepped into the India market a bit late in my view. The Indian airline market has been controlled by the government and despite this control both the International carrier, Air India, and the domestic carrier, Indian Air, have faltered. About 6 years ago, the government allowed private carriers to begin flying, and in those few years, Jet Airways has established it self as owining over 40% of the domestic market, followed by Indian Air (over 30%), and Air Sahara (over 20%) with a recent mix of budget carriers now just getting started. Jet Airways has developed a fine reputation and has been cleared for India-US flying with an intermediate stop in Brussels. They are now studying if the 747-800 can fly non-stop to the US, and if so how many they should obtain. The Indian government apparently has a very restrictive law that requires all carriers who fly Internationally to have at least 20 aircraft and 5 years experience, so that unless this law is changed, no new Indian carriers will be able to fly Internation routes for another 4 years. One new carrier that many are talking about is Kingfisher, the same company that makes Kingfisher beer and has deep pockets. In 2006, both the Indian govermental carriers will be privatized, but there are no plans to merge them. Some government officials were revisiting the deal that will land Indian Air with 43 of the smaller Airbuses, claiming that the money could be better spent for social programs and that the airline should wet lease (yes thats right as many planes are in the US desert) the needed planes.
4. AIR SAHARA. This airline has been increasing in size but has had some problem staffing their aircraft as Indian Air has begun an aggressive campaign to recruit their trained pilots. As a results some cancellations have occurred, but despite this Air Sahara was looking to establish more code shares as well as their own International Service. The headlines in the Delhi paper 1 day prior to our departure were that the BCCI cricket teams will sport Air Sahara logos on their chest and airms of their uniforms for the next 4 years atthe cost of RS 314 crore (I don't know how much this is, but it was a 300% increase in the award. It must be huge to be the lead story in all the Delhi newpapers)
5. AIRPORT IMPROVEMENTS. The government has announced a program to improve first DEL and BOM, and then Banghalore and Chennai, and in the third phase, all other airports. At DEL, a Stage III system for monitoring arrivals and departures had been installed, but carriers such as Indian Airlines have not trained their pilots to use the guidance system. The governemnt is also revisiting the first phase, thereby delaying improving DEL further. Local newpapers carried stories that this airport was near the breaking point before the open skies policy with the U.S. We saw this first hand when there must have been 20 International flights delayed an the terminal was filled with angry passengers. We saw a few fights break out, and no police were nearby when a Indian National traveling on one of the European Carriers came up to the AA agent who was leading us thru this mass of humanity asking that he do something about the drunk Indian who was attacking his wife. Another story described waiting in line for 4 minutes to "pee", and during that time being overcome by odors of human waste from the bathroom. (We did not see anything this bad, though)

Overall, we applaud AA for opening up DEL and hope that the rumor I heard about three weeks ago that a second non-stop India flight may be originating from JFK. I suspect they can become the class of the industry and recruit much of the business from U.S. companies consulting on activities in India.

If any of you would like suggestions on India travel, feel free to contact me, as it was my third trip to India, and we (my wife, daughter, and I) did all our planning and arrangements ourself.