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Air India 126 DEL-ORD how is this flight experience?

Air India 126 DEL-ORD how is this flight experience?

Old Jan 4, 2011, 1:29 pm
  #1  
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Air India 126 DEL-ORD how is this flight experience?

Guys,

1. Did anyone took this straight flight from DEL-ORD?
2. How was the experience?
3. Is it tiresome or okay?
4. How was the leg room any better than 8 hr flight?
5. If flying from Chennai (MAA-DEL-ORD), MAA-DEL is a Indian(IC) code share with AI(Air India) lands in T3 domestic, how was the transfer to international, my Mother(no english, no hindi) can able to handle it by her own? - any suggestions on this (like wheel chair?, etc).

Please help.
iam_troy is offline  
Old Jan 4, 2011, 4:10 pm
  #2  
 
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Welcome to FT.

AI Bashers aside for a parent of indian origin I highly recommend the AI nonstop over connecting in Europe. While I've only done F and J on AI the flight is quite good and well catered. Lot of indian families travel so I have no problems in recommending them. There are threads about the problems AI faces when their flights are delayed or mechanical issues. But these are not unique to AI. Several threads highlight problems on other carriers.

The leg room is about the same in coach since they've flow the same aircraft on the 8 hr flights.

Delhi T3 transfers are much better now with the same terminal and there will be several pax transiting to MAA and it should not be a problem.

Good luck.
Originally Posted by iam_troy
Guys,

1. Did anyone took this straight flight from DEL-ORD?
2. How was the experience?
3. Is it tiresome or okay?
4. How was the leg room any better than 8 hr flight?
5. If flying from Chennai (MAA-DEL-ORD), MAA-DEL is a Indian(IC) code share with AI(Air India) lands in T3 domestic, how was the transfer to international, my Mother(no english, no hindi) can able to handle it by her own? - any suggestions on this (like wheel chair?, etc).

Please help.
rsh913 is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2011, 4:28 am
  #3  
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welcome to ft iam_troy....what class are you looking to fly????
Keyser is offline  
Old Jan 6, 2011, 12:40 pm
  #4  
 
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The non stop air experience is still ok. Connections are still bad. A friend flew on this flight last week and had a good experience in the air but once he got to the ground the AI Staff misbehaved and sent them (was flying with his family) through the wrong transfer and then would not help him get on the connecting flight. There is a lot of truth to the ground issues that AI has and it has not gotten better it seems.
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Old Jan 8, 2011, 3:18 pm
  #5  
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Flying class is economy.
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Old Jan 9, 2011, 4:50 am
  #6  
y2s
 
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1. Well i did take IND-ORD-DEL-BOM on Y

2. Check in at ORD was smooth, my luggage was through checked in at IND to BOM. Boarding pass in hand I went through security and thought I'd do some duty free to find no shops past security. Flight delayed by an hour as check in systems crashed. On Board the IFE was very glitchy with airshow not even working though I was pleasantly surprised at the number of movies available. The Food was very BAD. Landing and connection at DEL was very smooth and organized.

3. It was very tiresome, youd be better off taking a flight that breaks somewhere.I'm doing BOM-DXB-JFK-IND day after tomorrow

4. Leg room was the same as any flight

5.Like I said transfer is flawless.
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Old Jan 9, 2011, 7:24 pm
  #7  
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thanks

Thank you so much y2s, cover point, saad, rsh913.

Saad -> I am a great admiror of you (helpful).. been reading lots of your messages.

I finally booked a Lufthansa.

MAA - FRA - DTW (detroit) on 20-Feb-2010.

If you any of you or your friends by any chance fly/change over in FRA on 20-FEB. It would be a nice help.
I did request for a wheel chair access. so I think my MIL should be okay.

any other tips?
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Old Jan 9, 2011, 11:25 pm
  #8  
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Originally Posted by iam_troy
Thank you so much y2s, cover point, saad, rsh913.

Saad -> I am a great admiror of you (helpful).. been reading lots of your messages.

I finally booked a Lufthansa.

MAA - FRA - DTW (detroit) on 20-Feb-2010.

If you any of you or your friends by any chance fly/change over in FRA on 20-FEB. It would be a nice help.
I did request for a wheel chair access. so I think my MIL should be okay.

any other tips?
thank you for the kind words iam_troy....

while i have not flown lufthansa in many years, i know a bunch of people who use the airline regularly & seem to be quite satisfied by it....

if you requested for wheelchair access then they should look after your mil....

let us know if you need more help....
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 10:35 am
  #9  
 
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Just off the flight from ORD-DEL here is a mini TR.

I am a regular flyer on AA 292/293 (every three months) and had been forced to buy AI since the price for AI was about half that of AA.

I Used the free Limo service which promptly arrived at my home at 12:30 PM for the 2:45 PM flight. The limo was very comfortable (a black Lincoln Town car). Only thing I gave him was the tip.

Dragged my two suitcases from outside to the AI checkin which was pretty empty. There was a person checking boarding passes before the checkin line and saw my Business class ticket and showed me to the empty F checkin.

Check In was smooth and the agent was pleasant. I asked her if she could block the seat next to me and she said Business class was pretty empty so I can sit anywhere I want. Security was quick and I was in the lounge by 1:15. AI used the world services lounge next to gate M10 (which happens to be the departure gate). Lounge itself is pretty sparce (and had just 4 others in it .... which happened to be the other AI J class passengers.

They called the Business class checkin at around 2;15 by which time rest of the passengers had already boarded. Was nicely escorted to my seat.

There were a total of 5 of us in Business (total capacity around 35?) and there were 6 attendants for the service. They offered to help me with my bags (I only had one carry on .... my laptop backpack) so I declined politely.

Pre-departure they offered juice. The flight took off right on time. Noticed that the IFE screen on AI is roughly twice the size of the AA one. The movie selections both English and Hindi were excellent though the TV selections were minimal.

The service started with 4 course appetizers (of Kebabs, Shrimp, Chicken and some sort of veg patties). The beverage card seemed to be well stacked and they were quick to refill your drink.

Lunch had 3 options (two of them Indian) with some of the best paranthas served on the side.

Watched a couple of movies and then went to sleep only to wake up around Tashkent with another 3 hours of flight to go.

Flight arrived about 30 mts early (interesting the distance AI travels is about 300 miles longer than AA ... since it takes a more southerly route. Wonder why?). Was the first off the plane and whizzed through Immigration. The priority tagged bags were among the first to arrive and was in a cab 20 mts after landing.

Inside of the plane was very nice with different ambient lights through the flight. The seats seemed to be more spacious ... definitely more room between rows BUT were not fully flat. Neither were they as angled as the AA ones. For some reason the top of the seats was fully flat but the legs portion seemed a bit angled.

Overall thoroughly enjoyed the flight. The bummer remains that AI miles are useless and until they join Star Alliance people will continue to avoid AI. But if I could earn miles on a US carrier, this could have been a great flight.
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 11:33 am
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Originally Posted by cover point
Overall thoroughly enjoyed the flight. The bummer remains that AI miles are useless and until they join Star Alliance people will continue to avoid AI. But if I could earn miles on a US carrier, this could have been a great flight.
Thanks for the trip report. I too have been curious about the AI nonstop because of unreasonably high prices at AA.

If you fly ORD-DEL that often, could you not just accumulate AI miles for use on AI itself? Not ideal, but something useful in your situation.
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 11:40 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by cover point
...Flight arrived about 30 mts early (interesting the distance AI travels is about 300 miles longer than AA ... since it takes a more southerly route. Wonder why?)...
That is because AA studiously avoids Iranian air space; whenever I have flown on AA to DEL, I have noticed the plane taking a sharp left turn at the southern tip of Kazakhstan and giving Iran a wide berth. Presumably, AI has no such problem in overflying Iran.

Agree 100% that the lack of AI's affiliation to a recognized alliance stops a lot of people from flying them
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 3:28 pm
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Originally Posted by cover point
(interesting the distance AI travels is about 300 miles longer than AA ... since it takes a more southerly route. Wonder why?)
Every flight travels a different distance, depending on winds and ATC; there is no AA distance or AI distance.

If the stated distance is different, that is just the official distance and has nothing to do with the actual routing. Both should be the great circle distance, but estimates can vary I suppose. AA gives FF 7484 miles; webflyer.com estimates 7470 for the great circle route, world-airport-codes.com says 7508.

Actual ground miles are significantly greater than the great circle distance (it can't be smaller!), but effective 'air miles' can be less than the ground miles eastbound if the flight is following prevailing winds.

Originally Posted by FedUp2
That is because AA studiously avoids Iranian air space; whenever I have flown on AA to DEL, I have noticed the plane taking a sharp left turn at the southern tip of Kazakhstan and giving Iran a wide berth. Presumably, AI has no such problem in overflying Iran.
If avoiding Iran makes the trip shorter, shouldn't everyone do the same?
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 4:52 pm
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by aktchi
Thanks for the trip report. I too have been curious about the AI nonstop because of unreasonably high prices at AA.

If you fly ORD-DEL that often, could you not just accumulate AI miles for use on AI itself? Not ideal, but something useful in your situation.
Unfortunately AI miles are useless for me. I use miles for a couple of things. 1) they get me status (ExPlat on AA) and leads to 100% free upgrades domestically. And EVIPs for family on personal trips internationally

2) accumulate miles to actually go somewhere I want to (other than India). I have earned enough miles in just 2 years on AA to buy 4 one world business awards to Australia/NZ etc. Cant use AI miles for that can I?
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 4:58 pm
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Originally Posted by FedUp2
That is because AA studiously avoids Iranian air space; whenever I have flown on AA to DEL, I have noticed the plane taking a sharp left turn at the southern tip of Kazakhstan and giving Iran a wide berth. Presumably, AI has no such problem in overflying Iran.

Agree 100% that the lack of AI's affiliation to a recognized alliance stops a lot of people from flying them
Hmm ... why would AI go out of its way to go a longer route to go over Iran. When I first saw the map it looked weird. AI takes a more southerly route just hitting the southern tip of Greenland and then goes over Moscow etc. AA OTOH goes further north almost to the north end of Greenland and then comes down.

AA is 300 miles shorter (and roughly 1 hour less time). Still dont get why any airline would *choose* to go a longer route (more fuel burnt, longer flight time etc). The return for AI is almost 16 hours (AA return flight is 14 and half hours).

Something is fishy here . Since both do over parts of greenland and Russia it isnt as if there should be any permissions issue. 300 miles is a lot. An hour of extra time is a lot. Wonder who got kickbacks here
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Old Feb 24, 2011, 5:00 pm
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Originally Posted by SeeBuyFly

Actual ground miles are significantly greater than the great circle distance (it can't be smaller!), but effective 'air miles' can be less than the ground miles eastbound if the flight is following prevailing winds.
Maybe Air India does not know about the great circle mapper. They may have cut off their internet access while their programmers work on upgrading their systems to be in Star Alliance
cover point is offline  

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