Continuing saga
 

I just came across this news item.
AI pilot left a cabin crew member in Jeddah because s/he talked about the must take rest period.
Flight was flown with less than minimum Cabin Crew. Wonder what the DGCA will do ?

What on earth is wrong with AI? They seem to have a lot of flight commanders/co pilots who have serious character/personality issues.

Goodness..one problem after another.

Maybe the unions are too strong and management is too weak ?

The crew member who was left behind, was earlier on deputation to Yemen evacuation flights. On arrival into JED, he mocked the Captain that he was invoking the DGCA rule of a full 22 hour rest period and wouldn't report untill then. The Captain refused to give-in and warned him that the flight will stick to the schedule and depart with or without him.

And it did depart on schedule. When a flight is short of a cabin crew, prior to take-off one of the exit is declared non-operational so that the safety isn't hampered in case of a emergency. This is a normal recourse and isn't against regulations.

AI issued a statement, stating that the crew member would be liable for his own expenses and will be investigated upon return to base.

Thank you, I will defer to your explanation. Here flts are held up if sufficient crew is not on board.
In a snow disrupted LHR BA could not release a much delayed flt as it was one CC short. Due to snowstorm ( over there four inches seems to be MAJOR :D)
. They had a 747 full of pax LHR BOM. Finally since there were a few in F, they were downgraded to J , F " closed off" and we departed.
So that to me appears to be the norm.

Scary...dare not fly with these airlines.

TLV via IST or SVO
 

Dear FlyerTalkies,

I am planning a travel to Tel Aviv later this year for a conference. Now I have two options 1. Aeroflot - DEL-SVO-TLV 2. Turkish Airline DEL-IST-TLV. LT is approx 10hrs in both cases.

My query is can I have a short trip to Grand Bazar and back in case of IST or Red Square and back in case of SVO.

Which airline should I travel, as its Research Sponsored, so flying on budget.

For an idea of cost comparison check with airlines, travel agents, various booking sites and ITA.

Re IST, how many hours do you have ?
Which airline will you bank your miles with ?

AI Firings
 

just saw a TOI report that AI has fired 271 employees including FAs for tardiness causing delays etc.
sounds like somebody is serious about improving service ?

Hi All,

I was JP Plat for very long time and hence never worried about points expiring. However I shifted outside India and in the latest review in Mid-June, they have dropped my tier to Gold and suddenly I see that I have 80K points expiring on Jun 30th.

What are my options? Not planning a trip anytime soon to a JP destination. If I book a award ticket and cancel it would they keep the same expiry date? ( I guess so, they are not stupid)

Or if I book a ticket of say Delhi to some destination for next year sometime and then move it to exact date whenever plans become concrete

or trade the points? is there any platform which allows JP trading? Outside platform to friends?

or transfer points to spouse. Gives a year extra but comes at the cost

JP points can be used for flights on a number of airlines. I had an award 9W issued for LH in F for example... @:-)

Can these be done over the phone? Or do you have to email?

Only via e-mail.

You will never be able to talk to "The Team" who handles these reservations, so you will get an *absolutely clueless* dimwit at the other end at JP if you do decide to call...

One has to effectively keep sending e-mails to them, while all the while receiving tracking messages that never result in anything positive, despite their stating that they would revert within the 3 business days!

So far, nothing.

No results, despite multiple tries - only one trip WL, and they cannot wrap their limited minds over the itinerary required...

The ease of booking an award is becoming a deal breaker for me. This was my worst experience:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...ilability.html

Something that I heard, pardon my ignorance:

"Air India levies huge taxes on its international flights"

So one of my friends who introduced me to this concept of air miles, told me that AI FR program is good for domestic flights as the taxes levied by AI are similar to Jet Airways etc, so when you redeem miles you get pretty much the same value.

However, on international flights, it is believed that AI levies huge taxes and the whole deal of "Mile Redemption + Cash Taxes" makes it a high cost flight. He believes that Jet and other airline taxes are much more rationalized and hence their miles actually give you much more value than AI.

He gave me an example: He booked a return flight to Dubai and had to pay somewhere around INR 10,000 + Miles.

According to him buying a ticket would have been cheaper.

Is there any merit to this theory?
Also, I read somewhere on FT about AI levying Fuel Surcharge which other airlines don't. Is the theory related to fuel surcharge?