Supportive ground staff, excellent inflight service and a comfortable flight..This was my first impression of Air-India when I travelled with them 15 yrs ago.We were really treated well by the gracious ladies clad in beautiful green, red and blue silk sarees.Since then the services both on ground and on board has deteriorated considerably.
I’ve been a regular traveller with Air-India not really out of choice but due to the lack of other direct flights to the nearest airport in my native place from U.A.E with the exception of Emirates which began very recently.The difficulties of transiting through another airport especially when you travel with kids and the additional flying time gives no other option than fly by Air India.
Flying with them sometimes can be worst than a nightmare because of the unexpected strikes by their staff and other delays.I’ve experienced this twice and on both the occasions, we were informed about the cancellation of the flight only after Check-in.After a lot of pleading with the airport staff, they gave accommodation in some hotel where the otherwise cordial hotel staff treats you like refugees flocked in to some refugee camp just because you are the guests of air-India(Air India dont pay them enough to treat you well, they say).Added to this are the tension of getting stranded without knowing when you’ll reach your destination and the difficulties associated with it.The flight after that is no better than your previous experiences at the airport and the hotel.
The inflight service is nothing to write about leave alone the aircraft and its seats which makes you think the bus service offered by various tour operators are far better.The inflight food and entertainment are poor when compared to their sky high ticket prices.Often, they treat you with such attitude as ’’take it or leave it’’.I’ve seen an air hostess asking a fellow passenger to leave his main course of chicken/meat and eat the bun along with the salad and dessert when he requested for veg food.The reason they told him was that he hadnt specified his need for veg food while booking the ticket.And we are talking about the national carrier of India.
They really take the passenger for granted, especially on the gulf routes because they know we have very little options here and hence we will have to fly with them again.