"By the will of god..." that should be the new motto of Air India. Because,
By the will of god the flight will be on time
By the will of god the plane will take off
by the will of god the engines won’t quit mid-flight
By the will of god the plane will safely land
and finally, by the will of god your baggage will arrive.
Thats a typical Air India experience for you. I had my opportunity to fly Air India when I flew to Chicago last year. Although the experience wasn’t as bad as I had expected, there were some bloopers that could have been handled more "professionally"
"It doesn’t matter which seat you choose when you buy the ticket, this is the only seat that is available right now and you’d better settle for it." this is the blunt reply that you are greeted with at the check in counter when you try to show that you had selected a different seat when you bought the ticket.
The pilot does not introduce himself over the PA, instead, you get introduced to your pilot when he comes down the aisle to settle a raging dispute among two passengers who have apparently carried on excess pieces of baggage or worse the same seat is assigned to two different people.
The ear plugs you asked for at the beginning of the flight do not reach you until you reach the destination!! I know 747 is a huge plane, but not THAT HUGE!!
The food preference you give is almost always not followed. The crew decides what you should eat. It’s not up to you to decide if you want veg or non veg. But then in this case you are lucky if you are blessed with a veg meal as non veg includes everything from chicken to insects, really!!
Did you have a bath before boarding?? If not, we have a complementary bathing system for our passengers. Upon take off water will start dripping from the A/C vents, please feel free to use it. If in fact you did have a bath, please shield yourself from the water using that "newspaper" YOU carried on to the flight
In the middle of the flight you hear and feel a loud thud, and the air hostess comforts you by saying- "hmm, that sounds strange!! something must be wrong with the engine...this plane is REALLY OLD!! it’s gonna be scrapped soon" ohh thanks!! I feel more safe now!!
and the list goes on.....
Overbooking is one major problem Air India faces. I wonder who are these people because of whom Air India gets overbooked! I mean come on! the complementary bathing system isn’t all that attractive! cause they do not provide towels to dry yourself later. No one wants to sit wet for 19 hours...plus the flight time!! Anyways, lesson learned - PLEASE REMEMBER TO CONFIRM YOUR TICKET 32 HOURS BEFORE THE FLIGHT TIME. (and don’t even bother about mentioning the seat number!) My family once went to the Airport to learn that their plane had got overbooked cause the previous day’s flight was canceled, so they could not get on to the plane even though they had "confirmed" tickets. Finally, they were somehow accommodated and the plane took off 2 hrs late.
Iwould like to contrast this with my recent Lufthansa experience - In spite of being assured that I do not need to reconfirm my booking I call up about 12 hours before the flight, the call is promptly answered and the customer service provider reads out all the flight details including meal pref, seat etc using my confirmation number and well, I AM in fact given the same seat I selected when I booked my ticket
In - Flight Entertainment
After all this "entertainment" who needs other forms of entertainment!! But only Air India can show Raymond (from everybody loves raymond) sounding like Mihir Virani from the infamous K-Series.
The flight crew, don’t hesitate to call them "Aunty" - they probably are that old. And for some reason they seem to believe that the plane is a classroom and they are the teachers. Aunty or Teacher, it’s difficult to as either for a beer! but then you are saved the embarrassment, they don’t serve drinks on the plane.
Finally, the planes - We all know that they use age old, "worn out" planes. Thankfully they now use the Lufthansa Technik Hangars to service their planes. And when a plane is "not fit" to be in Air India service it is transferred to Air India Express!! I don’t even want to start with the "Express story".
Fly Safe, don’t fly Air India.