Air India : HYD-ORD nonstop??

Old Feb 8, 2008, 5:31 am
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Air India : HYD-ORD nonstop??

Flew DEL-ORD in J yesterday. Interesting flight. Two guys got into fist fights with another guy in Y over booze and were bumped to J to cool them down. J was about 60% full (15pax).

On another note had a discussion of aircraft condition with two 25+ yr veteran pursars of AI. I complimented them on their very good service and they said they make a sincere effort to be good but aircraft quality needs to be improved and they are aware.

Towards the end of the discussion I asked about 777 service to ORD and they indicated AI might start HYD-ORD nonstop on 777-200LR this year but probably still fly the old 747-400s on BOM/DEL-ORD. I flew AI after 10 yrs and had mixed feelings because of the negative posts on this forum but I'd say their service is very very good and I did not see any problems with them.

Also saw in namaskar mag the AI has been "invited" to join star alliance and will do so this year.
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Old Feb 8, 2008, 7:50 am
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Interesting way to get to J
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Old Feb 8, 2008, 2:55 pm
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load factors

Originally Posted by rsh913
Flew DEL-ORD in J yesterday. Interesting flight. Two guys got into fist fights with another guy in Y over booze and were bumped to J to cool them down. J was about 60% full (15pax).

...
It looks as though there are more pax flying US-India than India-US at the moment in Feb. Is this true? If the load factors in J were 60% what was it like in Y? Was it more or less in Y. I presume that Y had better load factors but wanted to see what you experienced
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Old Feb 8, 2008, 2:57 pm
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Originally Posted by rsh913
On another note had a discussion of aircraft condition with two 25+ yr veteran pursars of AI. I complimented them on their very good service and they said they make a sincere effort to be good but aircraft quality needs to be improved and they are aware.
I think AI is focusing too much on inflt experieince. The new planes will change the product but will not improve the airport, website and customer service experiences. They need to focus on that as well to at least get up to Star Alliance standards if not SQ/CX/BA/9W standards.
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Old Feb 8, 2008, 2:59 pm
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Star Alliance and AI

Originally Posted by rsh913
Also saw in namaskar mag the AI has been "invited" to join star alliance and will do so this year.
There has been a lot of discussion on this here and in Star forum. There is a lot of skepticism on AI improving its IT and integrating seamlessly with Star. The good news for me is that their non-stops will now earn status miles on Star programs I care about. That's a bid deal. We do not have non-stops on the US-India route on the Star alliance network.
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Old Feb 8, 2008, 10:58 pm
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I dont remember Y but the F was 80% full. Question is how many were paying passengers and how many were upgrades.
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Old Feb 9, 2008, 8:45 am
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Quite a few might pay given AI F is cheaper than other airlines J in some cases.. but yes, AI tends to upgrade "vip pax" (aka someone with enough money or goon power to stuff ballot boxes successfully during the last election, among others).
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Old Feb 12, 2008, 10:34 am
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Originally Posted by rsh913
Flew DEL-ORD in J yesterday. Interesting flight. Two guys got into fist fights with another guy in Y over booze and were bumped to J to cool them down. J was about 60% full (15pax).

On another note had a discussion of aircraft condition with two 25+ yr veteran pursars of AI. I complimented them on their very good service and they said they make a sincere effort to be good but aircraft quality needs to be improved and they are aware.

Towards the end of the discussion I asked about 777 service to ORD and they indicated AI might start HYD-ORD nonstop on 777-200LR this year but probably still fly the old 747-400s on BOM/DEL-ORD. I flew AI after 10 yrs and had mixed feelings because of the negative posts on this forum but I'd say their service is very very good and I did not see any problems with them.

Also saw in namaskar mag the AI has been "invited" to join star alliance and will do so this year.
That has been my experience too. Cabin service on AI is very good, even in economy. I haven't flown AI in J. Some of the pax who travel on AI need to learn that cabin crew are not their personal servants. I am not including those who complain about AI on FT in this group who need to behave, just that AI cabin crew have to contend with a larger share of unruly passengers. I have never been involved in delays, so I am unable to comment on how AI treats its passengers when their is a delay. But given the culture of public corporations, I can believe passengers suffer in case of delay as staff on the spot probably unable to make a decision without a nod from above. On all my AI flights, mostly medium haul, cabin service has been stellar. In one case, I forgot some papers of mine at the check in counter. They were hand delivered to me by the check-in agent after I was on board the aircraft.
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Old Feb 12, 2008, 10:36 am
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Originally Posted by gmailflyer
It looks as though there are more pax flying US-India than India-US at the moment in Feb. Is this true? If the load factors in J were 60% what was it like in Y? Was it more or less in Y. I presume that Y had better load factors but wanted to see what you experienced
Just to clarify the terminology, numbers for one flight are not the load factor. Load factor is, by definition, a number derived from a number of flights over a period of time.
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Old Feb 12, 2008, 6:13 pm
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Originally Posted by Yaatri
I am not including those who complain about AI on FT in this group who need to behave, just that AI cabin crew have to contend with a larger share of unruly passengers.
You wont really find me complaining about (most) AI cabin service .. though they did have a history of older stewardesses with a grumpy attitude earlier - though not much more than (say) Northwest.

Unruly pax (first time fliers, or at least on short haul routes like SIN, BKK, the Gulf etc, a lot of people going to work as domestic servants etc, or petty traders sending people to SIN to buy / smuggle in loads of cheap imported stuff etc. AI pours "IMFL" (indian made foreign liquor, like whisky made from molasses, local brandies etc) and beer with unlimited refills, and some people can get quite badly drunk on even short flights. And yeah, get into fistfights over booze (though I haven't seen people getting op-upped for fighting onboard yet.. that's a new one). AI stewardesses, especially the younger ones, are very good at handling older, nervous first time pax (grandparents traveling stateside to see their new grandson and such).

Where AI truly sucks is in handling irregular ops. Or in handling sudden reroutes and misconnects. As long as everything goes fine and you're flying point to point .. fly AI by all means. If you run into delays, you wont like AI too much - and if everything goes smoothly you will love AI.
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Old Feb 12, 2008, 9:15 pm
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Originally Posted by hserus
You wont really find me complaining about (most) AI cabin service .. though they did have a history of older stewardesses with a grumpy attitude earlier - though not much more than (say) Northwest.

Unruly pax (first time fliers, or at least on short haul routes like SIN, BKK, the Gulf etc, a lot of people going to work as domestic servants etc, or petty traders sending people to SIN to buy / smuggle in loads of cheap imported stuff etc. AI pours "IMFL" (indian made foreign liquor, like whisky made from molasses, local brandies etc) and beer with unlimited refills, and some people can get quite badly drunk on even short flights. And yeah, get into fistfights over booze (though I haven't seen people getting op-upped for fighting onboard yet.. that's a new one). AI stewardesses, especially the younger ones, are very good at handling older, nervous first time pax (grandparents traveling stateside to see their new grandson and such).

Where AI truly sucks is in handling irregular ops. Or in handling sudden reroutes and misconnects. As long as everything goes fine and you're flying point to point .. fly AI by all means. If you run into delays, you wont like AI too much - and if everything goes smoothly you will love AI.
Yes, liqour does seem to be a problem with a certain kind of Indians. They can't handle free liqour nor do they know when to stop.
Sometimes US airlines are not very good at handling irregular ops either. Maybe AI is worse.
Just a couple of months ago, my SIL had to cancell a trip to India for due to weather related cancellations. She had been watching and een got to the airport early in the A.M. for an afternoon flight, so that she could be accomodated on an earlier flight. CO told her they couldn't get her to EWR at all that day, could get her to EWR the next day, but couldn;t get her on the DEL flight for the next two days. SO she just gave uo and went home. She had to miss the wedding. On one of our trips from FRA to DCA, I checked with the airline staff in FRA if there were any delays getting to the east coast, due to snow. German news already carried reports of massive cancellations. We were assured, there were not problems. When we arrived in DTW, we were told, they were so backed up, that we could not get out of DTW for three days. We were 1 PE and three GEs in a party of 4. I was ultimately headed to MSY via DCA but my famiily was headed to DCA. I had been rerouted to MSY via MEM. When I asked about hotel, we were given a number to to call. I understand airline does not provide accommodation for weather delays. I was hoping 4 elites might make a difference. Then I had a brilliant idea. I asked if they would give a platinum elite a hotel. The agent answered in the affirmative. I said, "In that case, I wasn't leaving that night". I got my wife and kids settled before heading out the next morning after ensuring that they had a place to stay for the duration of the delay. The airline paid for one night only, but at least my family wasn't stranded like thousands of other passengers. Generally, I have been pleased with my airline of choice as far as irregular ops/misconnections go, but no one is perfect.
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Old Feb 13, 2008, 1:13 pm
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Just a general comment about AI service. I too have always found their cabin service to be at least adequate; no major complaints there. However, what truly sucks about AI is the combination of its ability to create irregular situations and how its ground staff would handle those situations.

Originally Posted by gmailflyer
It looks as though there are more pax flying US-India than India-US at the moment in Feb...
This could be a simple seasonal thing. I mean, how many Indians, or anybody else for that matter, would be eager to visit Chicago in February?

Last edited by aktchi; Feb 13, 2008 at 1:19 pm
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Old Feb 24, 2008, 4:26 am
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Chicago in Feb

Originally Posted by aktchi

I mean, how many Indians, or anybody else for that matter, would be eager to visit Chicago in February?
Point taken
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