I flew to Singapore from New Delhi for free on December 6th. I had enough Maharaja Club points after the Vistara merger (the best airline India had, killed by Air India).
So despite actively trying to avoid Ait India, I ended up hopping on their flight AI 382 which flies daily from New Delhi, India to Changi Airport, T2, Singapore.
Needless to say, it’s a rampant display of the shameless and pathetic service of Air India. The flight is not inexpensive like Indigo, but you get the same experience.
First things first, it took more than 40 minutes to get the check-in done. Air India staff as always was friendly and okay with their speed, but lacked efficient protocols to manage the crowd.
The flight was early, I’ll give them that. But have a look at the flight from the inside:
There is no legroom even when I am sitting in the exit row seats. There is no entertainment screen and no smartphone/iPad holder. The seats DO NOT recline to the normal levels. No, I am not talking about my seats, I’m talking about the whole airplane.
And it’s 5 hours + flight.
You’re served similar Air India food, nothing special here. But nothing bad either.
If not for the empty seat beside me, I’d have nowhere to put my phone, let alone my iPad.
The whole flight was very uncomfortable.
I kid you not, the seats are as uncomfortable as Indigo. They are absolutely shamelessly focusing on as much cost-cutting as possible and have no regard for the customer’s comfort.
It felt like it was a park bench. And again, NO recline.
We landed on time, and there was soothing Indian music playing during the landing and take-off. Our luggage arrived safe and sound. That’s one more good thing about Air India.
I have no issues with Air India being cheap and pathetic to its customers. Remember when they canceled my flight in Kenya and didn’t even bother notifying over 70 passengers who were supposed to board? I wouldn’t mind if they marketed themselves the same way RyanAir does—cheap and unconcerned.
But they charge a premium, lobby against other airlines to establish a monopoly on long-distance routes, and treat their customers worse than any other airline.
Air India is bringing shame to India’s airline industry, and they’ve ensured this by acquiring and killing Vistara.
Wanna see the difference between Air India and Vistara on the same route and lower price?
Here:
This is a Vistara Airbus A321 that now happens to run under the Air India banner. This is what I got when I was coming back from Singapore to New Delhi, on flight AI 383.
Notice the entertainment screen, charging slots, storage pouch, ample leg room, and overall quality of the interior.
2 years down the line Air India will destroy these Vistara Airplanes, I’m sure of it. That is if they don’t change their ways, and focus on customer experience. The change has to come within their culture.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “They can only offer cheap fares if they offer cheap services, you get what you pay for”.
That’s so not true. Take Scoot Air, for instance. It is cheaper than Air India, but when comparing dollar-for-dollar value, there’s absolutely no contest.
Avoid Air India wherever and whenever you can. If you haven’t had a bad experience, there are only two reasons for it:
You don’t mind being pushed around and lack self-respect. You don’t mind overpaying and being treated like a fool who goes along with anything because you have no backbone.
- You haven’t flown enough with Air India.
Check out this video below by Drew Binsky who flew business class in Air India and it’s worse than the cheapest flight in the world, literally.
Air India doesn’t deserve to be the national airline of India. Also read here about what they did in Kenya with me and others.
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