Straight forward kind of review is what I shall write. much has been written about Indian Airlines, and of course this is the airline that all of us love to hate. Especially since people have two other options to fly.
Bias
well, I do have a bias for Indian Airlines...I must admit. I belong to an IA family and have been treated like royalty when flying with my dad or when he has put in a word, etc etc.
What I do not like
The ground staff are usually miserable and the rather non-helping kind. Its really the worst possible in Delhi. I can actually also name some people who happen to be on duty usually even on the same shift. guys called Yadav, Roy, Unwal and three four others. If you land up when they are around, you can rest assured, you will get no help whatsoever.
IA also loves to cancel flights without letting people know. I was to fly out of Leh once, and I realised the night before (my hotel manager told me) that the flight was cancelled and had become an army charter. Good for the jawans, but would have helped if IA bothered to let me know, since I had bough the tickets more than two months in advance. It was a lot of string pulling that helped my tickets to get endorsed on to Jet and me getting back to Delhi.
Their aircrcraft have started getting a bit dirtier than they used to be.
What I like
Their food is by far the best in the airlines in India, no question. And way better than anyone else in business class. No, they don’t address you by your name in the business class (unlike Jet), but still service is way better.
The seats on all the A320s are wider and provide more leg room. I really feel less cramped on IA planes.
In the major metros, IA has separate terminals and that helps.
Of course IA (because of whatever reasons) has the best time slots.
and finally I still do blv IA folk are much better trained. IA airhostesses are not the best looking ones around, might not be polished, but I know that in times of crises, the babes of Jet and Sahara are the ones who will need help from passengers.