I just flew BA from Toronto to India and back(4 flights in total) and must admit they proved my inhibitions absolutely wrong. I was fore-warned about their racist crews and frequent loss of baggage. But the tickets being cheapest, I thought of trying it out what may come. Right from the time of boarding at Toronto I started sensing a bit of difference from what I was told. Being in the evening hours there were many boarding announcements going on but BA did it differently to catch the attention.Other airlines would say something like.Attention passengers.Lufthansa is announcing the boarding of their flight.so on. Whereas BA did it like this "This is British Airways from gate no 34. Thank you for choosing us ." and the rest with beautifully flowing choosy English words(after all their language). However I had not yet overcome the wrong conceptions about BA so decided to doze off immediately on boarding. Didn’t find much noteworthy things in the flight except that they had made it a point to serve Hindu meal to me as per my request. Just before landing at LHR the captain made some interesting announcements about London and again thanked us for choosing BA among so many other options we had.
Now the second leg was a turning point to my pre-conceived ideas. This was to Kolkata(9+ hours) and to my surprise they started the announcements in Bengali(followed by English)! Ooops.they made it a point that Bengali announcement would always be made first. This food was typically desi and IFE was loaded with Indian stuffs. After this flight I started to think it is not always wise to go by what people stay. Reached before time at Calcutta and got all the luggage safe & sound.
Our return was 10 days later & from Delhi. It was 747 this time quite spacious and ground staffs(all Indians) were extremely helpful. The flight crews were Brits & Indians and it surprised when they informed that they were having crews from 4 different Indian languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi & some southy.wow.attention to what all details! A few times when a passenger pressed the bell the air-hostess would appear with a glass of water knowing that it is the most common request.racism? far from it.The flight from LHR to Toronto was interesting too. It wasn’t too crowded and the crew as usual hospitable & charming. Some of them were amusing my 5 yr old son and keeping him thrilled all thru the journey. The last test was whether we would receive all the 6 baggage safely. This fear was also outwitted and I couldn’t believe that BA can be so pleasant. My family & I are longing for another trip whenever possible.