My first overseas journey was to Singapore on an official mission in 1997. I had to travel by Government owned Airlines that is the Air India. Being the first overseas journey, I was quite excited and did not notice the behaviour of the staff at booking office/ground duty as well as of the inside crew. But from Singapore I travelled to Sydney by Qantas Airways - there I felt the pathetic difference between the attitude of the staff of Air India and the staff of Qantas. It was so different and so pleasing.
The Air India ground duty staff did not provide any assistance at the airport but the Qantas staff was of all help to us even on a foreign land (at Singapore). The food and drinks provided by Qantas was much better than the food and drinks provided in the Air India leg of journey.
More over, the commentary during the flight about the distance to be travelled, distance travelled (on the monitor), the music systems, quality of TV programmes/films shown during the flight, information about the height and speed we were travelling at and the country/important city travelling over - was very poor in Air India.
I noticed the same difference on my return journey from Sydney to Singapore (by Qantas) and from Singapore to Delhi (by Air India).
Until you travel by Air India you would not know how bad it is.
If given a chance to visit by any other airlines, no one would fly by Air India.
Pradeep Ratnaparkhi