FlyerTalk Forums - Biz class to India

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- - Biz class to India (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/india-based-airlines/1970146-biz-class-india.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anish (Post 31119034)

If the OP needs 32x2 from DEL-PNQ he can book Vistara J which will honour his ORD-DEL 32x2 allowance.

or the op can book a single ticket & not have to pay for a separate business class ticket or take the risk of missing his flight in case the ai international flight is delayed....

After a bunch of searching, we exhausted our options and booked the ORD-DEL long haul on Air India 777-300ER. We secured aisle seats, so the middle seat in business was not a problem. Will report back on the experience - I should have never flown EK.... that first class experience will be seared in my memory for a long time!

Please report back. I need to fly Iad-Hyd with a one-day stop in Del and from a schedule perspective, AI is a no-brainer but the reputation is holding me back. In the past I’ve flown QR.

hi,

I just did the exact same route (IAD-DEL-HYD). I had flown AI last December for the scheduling benefit. The cabin staff were very good, professional and very helpful but the aircraft is old and the lie flat seats are not fully flat. The bed was ok, but I preferred a better sleeping arrangement for such a long haul flight.

I just flew the same route three weeks back and I took the IAD-YYZ-DEL route on Air Canada. I enjoyed the Signature suite in Toronto and a wonderful flight on AC dreamliner pod seat (window). I was able to work for a few hours and had a wonderful uninterrupted sleep. I did have to buy a domestic ticket for DEL-HYD-DEL, but it was quite convenient as there are several flights between DEL and HYD.

Ok, just completed the trip and wanted to report back:

A couple weeks from departure AI changed our return flight. This meant either lose our work day on Friday or spend a full day in Dehli on a layover. I needed to be in Pune Friday, so opted to take the take day in Dehli and delay my return by one day. Not the end of the world as we were able to see the Taj Mahal.
A few days before the flight, AI moved our ORD to DEL flight up by 1.5 hours. Who does this last minute??? Also changed our DEL to PNQ flight, so we now had a six hour layover and arrived in PNQ much later than expected.
Our MSP to ORD flight was delayed and we hit the ground at ORD one hour before departure. With taxi time and transportation between terminals, I was nervous. Also, the AI app works poorly, so we still needed to get our boarding passes to get through security.
We arrived at the AI ticket counter about 45 minutes before departure and it was closed. Not an employee in sight. I managed to see a ticket agent in the backroom surfing the web and asked if he could help. He told us we were too close to departure and couldn't help us... I pleaded with him as our inbound was delayed and he decided to help us and print boarding passes. There were 4-5 people behind us that walked up and he refused to help telling them they should have arrived three hours before departure.
We quickly made it through security and were the last to board. But we made it.

In flight:

I would compare the flight attendants to any other government employee... not happy or generally helpful
Water and juice served before takeoff but nothing else
About 30 minutes into the flight, they came around with a drink cart
There was no menu for food... they just offered an Indian or Continental option veg or non-veg.
We had been waiting a while for dinner and I happened to walk back to the bathroom... there was no less then 4 flight attendants eating their dinner before anyone had been served. It was bizarre.
Food provided calories, but that was about it... it was pretty bad
No snack service, desert or anything like that. They had a cart in the galley with cashews and water.
IFE was pretty bad... watched a couple of movies. Selection was limited
Lie flat seat is ok... doesn't really lie all the way flat and is incredibly hard

Additionally:

Lost our luggage and took two days to arrive. There is almost no tracking ability with their luggage system.
To their credit, the flight crew from Dehli to our refueling stop in Stockholm on the way back was VERY good. It was like a completely different airline staff. They disembarked in Stockholm and the government employees finished the flight from DEL to ORD.
On check in for the return flight in Delhi, we were told that the seats my travel partner and I booked together were now separated... I argued with them for 5 minutes and showed that we booked the seats and they finally fixed it.
Seat was broken on the return flight... couldn't use my tray for meals

Avoid this airline at all cost. It was not worth the pain and I'll make less trips to save money before I will ever fly them again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiltsy (Post 31306435)

Avoid this airline at all cost. It was not worth the pain and I'll make less trips to save money before I will ever fly them again.

sounds like a terrible experience....i've stopped flying them on long haul sectors but still end up taking a few del-dxb & del-sin flights with them every year....they are fine on short & medium haul sectors but it sounds like long haul sectors should be avoided....

Agree, my Mum does BOM-DEL-ORD on Y every year since 2012. Experience with AI has never once been good. Switched to EK last couple years and it is far better.

That’s just an awful experience. Almost everything that could go wrong did.

I’ve generally found service & food to be decent on AI BOM - EWR and DEL - EWR/ORD sectors (in Y & J). Seats, IFEs, IROP treatment etc. has been horribly horrible.

And I can sympathize with some comments more than others... not getting alcohol before take off or counters closing T-45 min is pretty standard the world over. You don’t get mobile BPs for travel to India (and many other countries) because manual verification of passports/visas is mandatory.

Crew eating dinner before serving, wine lists not presented (AI has revamped their wine list in the last couple of years or so and it’s quite decent), bad/dirty/broken seats and losing luggage is terrible.