:D:D

I had mixed experience recently. Some of the flts were right on time and airport experience was excellent. Checked in bags come within minutes of arrival. The flts were fairly full - consumers seem to be returning to AI.

The poor experiences were with the delayed flts and chaos in some checkin areas. Not as bad as some experiences a couple of years ago.

I have avoided flying them internationally but will probably give another try in the next few months.

I flew IC several times. My experience to remember was when the plane was delayed a few hours. When checking-in they invited pax to have dinner at the airport restaurant (in lieu of dinner aboard). They somehow forgot to inform me :-(
When we boarded I learnt that when all I got was a plastic cup of water (for 2 1/2 hours flight) :-/

My advice is, dont

I recently flew them in J PVG-DEL and they were as bad as ever. They were late and the very very old IFE didnt work. Boarding was a mess the service was awful, the Aunty running the service was ..well. shall we say a bit stocky for the job , which meant she was sitting down most of the time. They had issues getting staff to meet the aircraft at DEL resulting in a 25 min post parking further delay.

I regretted not going to HKG and doing CX, the extra 3 hours would have been worth it IMO

They were half the price, that has to be said, though. But if quality is what you are after, avoid!

Thanks for the heads up Rathin100 - I was considering using them on the new 777's PVG-BOM, but will avoid in favor of CX... Definitely not worth it from the sound of it.

My auircraft was bizarrely a 767!!!

that is indeed bizzare, because as per their schedule's they claim to have been operating 77L's - I even had a First redemption booking on them... and its the same aircraft that flies PVG-DEL-BOM and VV...

just goes to show, probably subbed in a last minute pathetic leased aircraft - sad that AI will never change.

There are no 767 operating for AI, are you sure you didn't end up in one of the two (not ancient, yet 'well used') A332s?

Oh could be though -- I kinda think it was a 767 Anyway it was not a 310 or a 747 and certainly not the new metal

AI has no B767 in operation listed on their site (unless they procured one after Aug 2010) - AI Fleet
i think they had a few leased ones a few years ago but not anymore (someone who knows better can maybe throw some light on AI and 767s)

sad to hear that they could not get their act together

i have been tempted to use 102 / 101 to / from BOM for some time now (the price cant be beat!!) but have always shied away - maybe this summer i will muster up the courage to allow myself to be trapped with the "bit stocky" FAs and hope for the best

the inflight service does not worry me (how much can i practically expect in Y anyway?) as much as stories i hear about ground handling and non functional IFE (and yes i am impressionable and believe almost everything ppl post on the internet and there's way too much negative stuff about AI :p)

ON PVG - They did show a 332 for a few days, but reverted back to a 77L after that - loads in whY are quite good - I have some of my people using that flight and it's often hard to get seats and/or change at short notice.

Also, BOM-EWR seems to be doing well... In general I find AI loads picking up - maybe the product is improving, but like other posters on here, with their bad rep, I am scared to give them a try.... maybe *a status miles when they finally integrate will be incentive enough to give them a shot - whenever that happens... who knows.