Indian Airlines

India Airlines is a good airline, good food but lots of bad things (See Below)Er lots. 1) The flight was deylayed nearly 2 and a half hours becuase a "passenger was missing". You are told that you need to come 1 and a half hours at least before youre flight takes off to check in. And it turned out "the missing passenger" had gone on a differnt flight an hour ago. That meant that all the staff were looking for this missing passenger. That meant that there was an extremely limited amount of choice on the menu for ford even in buiness class. It said on the website that buiness class passengers get a choice of 3 differnt meals but we were offered "Vegitration" or "Non vegitarion" like being treated ecomy class None of the audio channels worked and one of the seat ajust buttons was broken. Also on the webiste it siad well poisnted movie screens for vewing pleasure in encomy. When we traveeled back we were in encomy but there was one 14 incg screen that was black and white and this was supposted to be for 12 rows!!. Also the headphones did not plug into the headphone socket on my chair

I booked flight from heathrow to mumabi on 17th october 2008 through air india. The tickets werent cheap but only advantage as i thought intially

was firstly its an indian flight and secondly its direct flight from Heathrow To Mumbai.

When I was in queue, the lady asked me which seat I will prefer and I told her window seat if possible but i dnt mind any seat as far as me and my girlfriend get s

seat next to each other.

WhenI boarded on aircraft our seats were totally seperated by yards. The crew members were damn rude.

The lady who was directing us to plane does not have simple courtesy t talk polietly with senior citizens.

The aircraft as to its reputation start 3 hours late .

when I asked the staff only answer they gave is techincal problem.

The food was cold and aweful. There were no display screen to watch movies etc.

The airhostess were kind enough but few of them always wore grim look on their faces as if they were not paid for their duty.

But more shocked came in the morning when they took us to ahemdabad and then mumbai . I was shell shocked as I paid extra for direct flight and they took us via ahemdabd

I reached mumbai 7 hrs late. totally tired and exhausted asif I came home from some battle ground. From Day onwards I have decided never to travel by Air india even if they pay me for travelling with them.

BUT since my flight was return ticket so while returning from mumbai to heathrow aircraft was verty good , good scrreen and latest movies , kind staffs etc

but stil My advice is BIg NO for Air India unless they took some serious lessons from other airlines.

I travelled two times and flight was delayed both times at Frankfurt.

Rude staff. Worse at frankfurt airport. I would never even think to travel via Indian airlines.

I decided to tag along to NYC with friends on the spur of the moment, with Air India being the only flight I could get for under £300 with such short notice. I was expecting no entertainment, smelly seats and an old fleet. I got all these, plus cabin crew who didn't care. Having got to LHR 4 hours early to try to get an exit row seat (I'm 6ft 5), I was given one, only to find my seat occupied by an Indian gentleman. Having asked him to vacate, his response was to lift his hands in prayer. The stewardess, after speaking to him in hindi, asked me to swap seats with him. I was eventually given another exit row seat on the other side of the plane. The stinking toilet began to overflow and was locked up, although this did not stop many customers attempt to break it down rather than queue for the other one. My clothes even smelt of the toilet after 6 hours.

The food wasn't bad, although I would have preferred a different dish on the return flight.

The flight was delayed several hours, which meant my friends, who were flying on another airline at the same time, got to NYC much earlier.

I was expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised by Indian Airlines. I believe that the airline has made vast improvements recently.

The food was surprisingly good. Service was not bad. Seats a little tight, but this is the case in economy on most airlines these days.

I took my boyfriend and on a dream trip to NYC, but by the time I confirmed the time off work the only flights I could get were with Air India. I wasn't concerned about this as after all it is the Indian nations airline, I couldn't have been more wrong, the food was vile both the Indian and the English version, the Indian seemed to just be pieces of meat dipped in some curry powder. The staff were rude, made no attempt to communicate with the passengers. 70% of the passengers were British and I couldn't find one steward/ess that could speak English.

The staff did not know how to use any of the facilities on the return flight and 20 mins before we landed I found out where the TV's were and we showed one steward how to use it, his excuse was that they had just bought the planes from another airline. To top it all off it was a night flight and most people were sleeping except us who had to keep swapping seats (cause whoever sat nearest the window couldn't move their legs!) Someone rang the steward call button above their seat constantly for an hour and no-one answered there call when I got up to go to the (revolting!!) toilet, most of them were asleep at the back of the plane. I ended up on the floor with a blanket by the emergency exit, no-one batted an eyelid so that's were I stayed.... It was such an awful experience my boyfriend has now refused to EVER fly again!!!! Don't do it!! Avoid Air India at all costs.

Being an Indian travelling to India (from the UK) I was quite excited about travelling aboard Air India for the first time.

Having travelled extensively and flown several airlines, Air Canada, Olympic Air, British Airways, Singapore Air, Lufthansa, Alitalia I have a pretty good idea what the flying experience should be.

Air India was the most awful experience I have ever had; I was embarrassed that this was the national airline of India. I will NEVER fly them again.

- Late departures - I had 3 separate legs on my journey and on each leg the flight was delayed from between 1 hour to 4.5 hrs.

- Food - terrible. Either bland or extremely spicy. They distributed a menu on one flight but the food served was not what was shown on the menu?!

- Service - terrible, the stewards are awful and seem hurried and not interested in helping passengers. When approached for assistance they were surly, rude and in one instance rather aggressive.

- Airplane - OLD. They aqre flying ancient 747's bought from Korean Air. The seats are rock hard, the interior of the plane looks dated and dirty, the toilets are always filthy. Its scary getting into their planes.

- Seats booking - I always book the exact seats I want when I fly. On the Air India flight my booked seats were unavailable on check-in!! And I was bumped to some other seats. No explanation given. On the plane I found several others complaining of the same. It seems that Air India employees routinely bump passengers off the choice seats and allocate them to their friends or fellow employees on the flights. Talk about unprofessional.

STAY AWAY FROM AIR INDIA!!!