Greg,

You say "I was traveling with a colleague who was a dual US/Indian national ...".

Legally, it is not possible to be a dual citizen of India and another country. People get confused by this often. You can be a citizen of the US and acquire other citizenships but not the other way around. In fact Indian law is strict about even minors holding multiple passports. They issue an Indian passport of allow you to be part of a parent's passport if and only if you provide a sworn affidavit stating that you hold no other country's passport.

Illegally, there are many ways to be dual citizen of India and other countries. You can fail to surrender your Indian passport after acquiring a US one, etc. So your friend was lucky that he was not discovered for having US and Indian passports.

Selfdestrc......you asked about Air India. We were stuck in Memphis last year on UA, en route to Greece via FRA, and naturally missed our ORD connection. It was such a shambles that the only, yes only seats that the harassed agent in MEM could get to Europe were on Air India via LHR. We accepted somewhat reluctantly and with a slight degree of trepidation. In the event, it was a reasonably pleasant 6.30hr flight to LHR sitting beside a Brit who used it regularly on business. "By choice?" we asked. "Sure, it's half the price."

Our main memories were; the complete lack of fuss by the FAs, acceptable choice of three meals, the apparent lack of a business class balanced by 500+ in coach by my estimate, and the decorated windows of their 747. All in all, a reasonably good experience.

And the instructions show up on a page with an "In-Flight Services" banner http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

It is supposed to be a 3 class configuration. F16, J34 and Y385. The uppper deck is all J and the lower deck all F upfront. http://www.airindia.com/essentials/boe400.htm

Incidentally, Air India was the first all jet airline in the world.

AI used to be a very reputable airline however of late they have experienced a great deal of problems primarily associated with an old and insufficient fleet. In the early '80's they were actually in the top 20 airlines in the world.

now, AI have so few aircraft that any delay in the system leads to major problems throughout. Not to mention the sad state of many aircraft lead to routine flight delays and concellations. On top of this, the airline is still government owned and as such there is a general snese of apathy that exists with the majority of ground staff. AI still has very competent flight crews and passable cabin crew but their ground staff is amongst the worst possible. Actually, a lot of AI flight crew are recruited by SQ, EK, MH, etc. Hopefully once the ongoing privatization efforts are completed AI will regain some of its past glory.

as to the question of dual nationality in India. it is definately not permitted. actually it is a source of significant debate these days but the govt. is still reluctant.

I don't mean to stifle the big yuks at PIA's expense -- some of the stories ARE funny -- but my best friend from college days was actually killed on PIA in 1989. He was a "stringer"/freelance journalist flying from Lahore to Islamabad when their plane, a Fokker F27, disappeared in a snowy mountain range. What passes for an air safety agency there did a perfunctory search and investigation, but PIA unwisely painted their aircraft green and white at the time and no trace was ever found.

Paul was a great guy. PIA is the one airline I'll never touch.

very sorry to hear of your loss.

fyi, PK still paint their a/c green and white. sad that they havent learnt from past tragedy http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I have a friend who flew PIA a few years ago. He asked for, and got permission from the pilots to fly jump-seat in the cockpit. Said the pilots spent most of the flight complaining about the Airbus equipment, and how they felt it was going to fall apart on them.

Bearx220:

Sorry about your loss, as well.

2Many miles:

Was your friend a pilot? If so, did he have proper ID? This appears to me to be another potentially dangerous situation, if they would allow just anyone to gain access to the cockpit. With all the air rage stories and the EgyptAir crash, I hope they have now taken better precautions.



[This message has been edited by DOC 2 BE (edited 01-12-2001).]

Going back to the origianl issue, does anyone know what PIA's seat pitch is in "C" and "F"? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Spider,

You've either a great insurance policy or a great sense of humor :-)

Pushpak

Enjoystravel -

You are correct. He no longer retained Indian citizenship, but the place of birth in his US passport was a city in India, which was apparent to both Indian and Pakistani customs/immigrations officials, who gave him a difficult time on the way into Pakistan.

But your point is well taken re: his former Indian citizenship.

Doc 2 Be -

Many airlines still have an open cockpit policy, typically at the discretion of the purser - if you look respectable, particularly if you are traveling in C or F, you don't fit any "profiles" for troublemakers (of any sort), you could be allowed in the cockpit.

I had the opportunity to ride jump on an LH 744 landing at MUC in July.

One of the greatest experiences of my life.

Greg


[This message has been edited by greg99 (edited 01-12-2001).]

http://www.airlinequality.com/StarRanking/1star.htm

seems that PIA is a 3 star!! airline! anyone tried cubana? nay comment on theri rating system?

http://www.airlinequality.com/StarRanking/1star.htm

seems that PIA is a 3 star!! airline! anyone tried cubana? nay comment on theri rating system?

I stumbled upon this thread as I was searching for Peshawar and was amazed at how people looked down on PIA and Pakistan as a country. Then I wanted to see what people would say in post 9/11 era as this thread was started in Jan 01 but surprisingly no one said anything... I guess it must have been buried in time.

I am wondering if people's views are still exactly the same or any different??? Any new experiences with PIA and their brand new line of 777 aircraft. Or with the brand new ATR-72s in place of the ageing Fokkers??? Any thoughts of the brand new Alama Iqbal International Airport at Lahore (LHE)?

I also took the liberty of looking at the wikipedia article on PIA and many of you will be surprised to read some of their achievements over time:

First airline from an Asian country to fly the Super Constellation.
First Asian airline to operate a jet aircraft.
First Asian airline to be granted maintenance approval by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Air Registration Board, predecessor of the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
First non-communist airline to fly to the People's Republic of China, and operate a service between Asia and Europe via Moscow.
First airline in Asia to induct the new technology Boeing 737-300 aircraft.
An IBM 1401, the first computer in Pakistan, was installed in PIA.
First airline in the world to operate scheduled helicopter services.
First airline to show in-flight movies on international routes.
PIA set up Pakistan's first planetarium at Karachi.
The first airline in South Asia to introduce auto-ticketing facility.
The first airline in the world to fly to Tashkent, capital of the newly independent state of Uzbekistan.
First airline in the world to start Air Safari with jet aircraft.
First Asian airline to start flights to Oslo, the capital city of Norway.
First airline in the world to induct Boeing 777-200LR, the world's longest range commercial airliner.
First airline in the world to take delivery of the Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner (Longer Range Variant).
Pakistan International Airlines Flight Services Department was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification award during May 2006.
First airline in the south east region to offer seat reservations through mobile communications.
First airline in Pakistan to operate a flight with an all female crew at command and serving in the cabin.

So what do you all think?