Nobody I know flies AI for SQ experience. They are there for a low fare, schedule, etc. OP too was flying AI only because there was an emergency and no other airline, especially the ones whose pilots speak good English and FA's are to drool over, :) could or would fly him MAA-CCU. [I]Something AI [I]did do - and on time.[I]

This is not to apologize for AI, but to point out that AI only reflects present India and Indian reality: dirt, filth, bureaucracy, inefficiency, not creating good things ourselves but coveting what others have created (AI brass prefer to fly European carriers). Even when we do occasionally create something good, we can't or don't maintain it and it declines, eg, Indian hockey or Jet Airways. Our trains, road transport, harbors, rivers, boats, post offices, schools, markets, "resorts", cities, sports teams and venues, public facilities, even kitchens and bathrooms inside our homes, none is any different. Back to aviation: The world's fancy carriers are not fighting among themselves for landing rights at MAA or CCU. Even Indian ones seem to be cutting down. The AI pilot and FA's on OP's flight, with their accents and other charms, may well have been from these cities. We just don't like what we have done with ourselves.

Right. You make very goos points in response to being an apologist. Charge of an apologist is flayed when one has no other argument to present.
I don't know what was available o the day the OP flew MAA-CCU, but surely, he is aware of other choices, such as Indio, Spicejet, Jet, Kingfsher etc., some within 3 hours of the AI flight. Air India was the cheapest in a quick check I made at 10:20 p.m. for an itinerary the next day. It's likely that he cost was an important consideration, even more important than service. The times I have flown on Air India, I have found it to be no worse than U.S. and Europe based airlines (that I have flown on) with the exception of BA.

To rant on service when one's criteria were schedule and cost is rather puzzling to me, not having been served water instead of lemon juice notwithstanding. :confused:

low fare? Every time I've compared recently AI/IC has been more expensive than 9W or IT. CCU-BKK they wanted 3x the fare. So they are more expensive and a poorer product than their Indian competitors.

You guys obviously don't live in India. Well, whatever.

We have to take flights based on schedules. We dont' really have a choice of carriers.

Anyway, whatever, you have your opinions. Take it and be gone with it.

Oh I agree with you...the OP is just um, complaining about it...as I would...

+1

And yes, this is my experience too...AI is def not the cheapest...I just chose not to fly with them...mostly...

As to Jet, yes I complain but they are still my mainline carrier...

As to the apologists, I really don't know what to say there...if you are happy, be done with it. i have flown many miles and I know what service levels should be...it's just not all there with India. We have to live with it, like we have to to live with many things there. Does not make our complaints inaccurate, just we hope improvements will come about.

Some likely, some not. Mostly not.

I too was bothered by OP's mention of "lemon juice". I have been flying AI for decades and they do not serve "lemon juice". It seemed like an attempt to invent complaints. This one is simply not credible.

Nobody has suggested that AI is always the cheapest. But sometimes they are. I just flew SIN-DEL on AI because on that day they were cheaper than other options, which included Jet, Kingfisher, and of course several international carriers. AI was not the cheapest on my return flight and I chose SQ. Malaysian was cheapest on other days but they didn't fit my schedule. So it goes with airfares.

Right. All those people who were filling Air Deccan planes were attracted by what else but an especially convenient schedule. Also there are so few flights along BOM-DEL that poor souls have to take whatever happens to be flying that week. And they are forced to drink lemon juice. :D

Who cares??? he was referring to the point that they had water in a carton on the trolley and did not want to pass them out...

Anyway, I'll let the OP expand on that.

You know, this is getting quite boring. Fly on!

Best,

Oliver

As for the lemon juice thing, my family and I were served that on LHR-BOM-LHR this past summer. It was more like lemonade, really (sweet flavored). And I think either 6E or SG (or both) also served it on HYD-DEL-MAA.

I don't know if IC serve it on their domestic routes since I've never flown them.

can we buy the AI/IC lemon juice in the United States :D

Thousands of people read FT and I can't tell you who cares and who doesn't. Speaking only for myself, if 1/2 of a sentence is a fabrication or exaggeration, then the other 1/2 becomes less credible.

Well, I have good news: participation in this forum is entirely voluntary. :)

I too have been served lemonade and lemon-favored water on many flights, but lemon juice would be something else and certainly not sweet. I don't know if OP in his personal life refers to lemonade as lemon juice; only he can clarify. When one is complaining, it is not good to be caught exaggerating.

Indeed, quite boring, not to mention rude and arrogant. As aktchi has already pointed out, participation in this thread is not mandatory. If you decided to opt out, many here would even welcome the move. ;)

Moving on :D

Is it your contention that AI is never the cheapest? :confused:

All airlines are bad if you are in a whining mood
 

Mr. aniruddh77's complaints are silly and a little snobbish. He complains about the Pilot's english-perhaps the pilot was not British educated a but I am quite sure that it was sufficient to communicate with the tower, the crew, and most of the passengers. "Lime water" is actually better for sickness and for swalloing tablets. If Mr. aniruddh77 felt unsafe about kids in exit row, he could have protested to the FAs instead of complaining in this forum-the FAs are not here to defend themselves.
I have travelled by practically every major airlines of the world and you can always find fault with some thing or other if you are in a foul mood. I have had terrible experience with Singapore Airlines, touted to be the best but was treated like a royalty by Aerofloat!
The only point I agree is the unruly running around of kids that seem to be prevelent in India-based airline flights, perhaps reflecting that more Indian families travel by "familiar" airlines rather than by "foreign" carriers (of course unless they are dirt cheap).

Of course, the same is true of Indian weddings, concert halls, political meetings, stores and shopping malls, etc. :) Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, that's what we are. Cheers.

I do think the incessant harping on "lemon juice" is boring. Obviously the OP meant lemonade, not 100% juice from lemons. In any international forum, you can't assume an uniform vocabulary, you have to figure out what people mean.

Are we going to have spelling and grammar flames next?

I have never gone back to fly with AI after seeing a cockroach in the aircraft.

And you get mice on UA, DL and AA ..

http://www.eturbonews.com/732/mice-plane - united, AA
http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/...6-82/index.xml - delta

And this old (1999) article in Salon makes for fun reading.
http://www.salon.com/travel/diary/he...ter/print.html

Not to mention restaurants and cinema halls. Though I'm yet to find an instance where it's been for better - it only ever annoys the hell out of me.

I am suspicious when people err in their own favor, and in this case OP's slip, if that's what it was, made AI look more ridiculous. I don't know how obvious it is to everyone that OP meant lemonade - it wasn't to Neltron in post #7.

Why not? You are late to the party, but we already started that fun by flaming the pilot's English in post #1. :)

I have been to a few events that were so excruciatingly boring that I was grateful to watch children play. :) Mostly, however, I agree with you. As one poet said of the children running around during his poetry reading, "It is true that these children are our nation's future, but why are they ruining my present?"

At least they are meaty. Cockroaches are just crunchy. :D

Just to set things straight - out here in India, lemon juice is a much more common term than 'lemonade', to mean the same thing - lemons squeezed into water, sugar and/or salt added, etc etc.

On the contrary, it's quite entertaining. To hear someone complain about the pilot's English yet using "lemon juice" themselves is quite hilarious. I am sorry if you find it boring you are not compelled to laugh at it.

What's really boring is when people miss clues in a rant
that give a very good indication of how credible their claim/rant is.

Going to a children's party, is one I can think of. ;)

^

It maybe among some quarters. I was born and raised in India too. Lemon juice and lemonade have always been two distinct things to me. Only one of them is a beverage.
It appears to be a common term among those who do not know the distinction, but want to make fun of others. ;)

-What he said

Totally agree. Have a look at the thread "Got infant, gonna pay" thread on the Cathay forum. Some mighty unhappy people over there on the same topic:eek:

You guys are full of it - another Indian habit of talking hot air to score a point, with no regard for the facts? :D Here in India, or there in India, "lemon juice" and "lemonade" are different things. The nearest expression from accepted Indian English would be "sweet lime" for "musammi", but the qualifier sweet is always there.

Of course, many people speak and write bad English, Indians and others, but that is a different matter. Presumably someone flaming "a Bengali chap" airline pilot's English is not among them.

Let me be absolutely clear that I am not criticizing OP for using "bad" English. After all, this is an Internet forum and there is no bad English here---as long as we speak for ourselves and do not put words in someone else's mouth to make them look ridiculous.

I cannot resist adding that Sweet Lime juice is the most refreshing drink ever!

Whenever i go to India, i cannot get enough of it. Strangely its an Indian phenomenon, ive yet to see it replicated in any other country.

That's fine if it's not in a public place where it invades other peoples' privacy. If it is in a park or at someone's house, that could be enjoyable. I'm not sure I'd appreciate someone hosting a party in a narrow metal tube 36000 ft up in the air.

As a kid I often spent vacations in the small town of my maternal grandparents. One of the neighbors owned a juice stand and as kids we got free juice, free fruit pulp, etc. We also watched some tricks of the trade. One was to soak fruits overnight in slightly-sugary water. This wasn't necessary with sugarcane of course, :D but worked wonders with oranges and musammi's: no surprise others can't duplicate that taste anywhere else!

Next to fresh lime soda I'd say.:rolleyes:

Mr. Evangelist, before you criticise others (yaani, OP) perhaps you ought to know that a popular, packaged drink maker in India markets a tetrapak brand beverage called "Lemon Juice", which is often distributed in flight. Hence, it may not have been the case of the OP not being able to distinguish Lemon Juice from Lemonade, but simply referring to the drink by its brand name.

I was born and raised in India, and I don't say "prepone" or "What is your good name?" But that doesn't prove anything, because others use these words/expressions, and we understand what is meant

Some people do say "lemon juice" to mean lemon-flavored drinks. See, e.g. this link: "our humble nimbu pani (lemon juice)..." We understand what is meant, so who cares.

This thread has degenerated into a series of increasingly sharp personal attacks on the OP, and should probably be closed.

How to request something from a FA
 

The author of the above link is careful to define "nimbu pani = lemon juice", which avoids all confusion, as no Indian can fail to know what pani means. So yes, who cares. OTOH, the OP of this thread has missed every opportunity so far to clarify what he meant, even as some tried to say what he may have meant (including myself in post #10) while others ridiculed AI for serving lemon juice.

I would suggest simply deleting the text of any personal attacks. AI continues to fly, it will remain attractive to many pax each for their own reason and its service will remain a deal-breaker for many others. So, discussions like these have their place.

Let me end by making a suggestion to all of us that I hope would be useful.

When you (ie, any one of us) want something from the cabin crew, don't interrupt them in the middle of something else. Instead, press the call button - it is there for precisely that purpose, and this facility is included in your fare with no extra charge. :) This allows them to come to you when they have a minute. Then say something like, "When you get a chance, I would like some water please." That beats pouncing on them in the middle of another chore with "pani lao". :) This is good advice for any carrier, but especially AI, where both the pax and the staff tend to carry an extra ounce of boorishness and self-importance.

Cheers and safe flying!

I believe this thread has outlived its usefulness, and deserves a decent burial.