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[neutralname]

Does any one have experience travelling with Air India between New York and London.  They are much cheaper than other airlines right now, so I am wondering if there any difference in quality of service or reliability compared to British Airways or Virgin.

[snape]

A friend of mine often flies Air India form London to the USA, and gives it good reviews.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Don't know about that route, but a few years ago I traveled FRA <-> ORD on them and thought they were quite good.  Got an Indian meal (better than most airline food) and watched some Bollywood!

[wegie]

Don't do it!

The curry is great, but the flights are incredibly packed, the planes old, tired, tatty and dirty and you have to pay for a drink to take your mind off the thought of how much maintenance they're doing on the bits you can't see if this is what you can see.

Did LHR-JFK-LHR once one summer when I was hard up for cash and they were appreciably cheaper than BA et al. Never again.

[neutralname]

Thanks for the advice from all who shared their experiencec.  I also found an India-based English speaking review site that had lots of reviews.
That had lots of complaints about Air India, but then it also had lots of complaints about BA.  Ironically, one person said that the Indian food on BA is better then the food on Air India!

My conclusion is that I can expect check in to be delayed, maybe significantly, and to be rather chaotic.  I can expect many passengers with huge amounts of baggage, and large families.  Obviously the in-flight entertainment will be rather different from BA. 

Fortunately I won't  be in a rush, and I'll have my laptop and MP3 player with me.  And I'll save nearly $200 over the nearest competitor's price.  So I booked it, and look forward to the new experience. 

Weirdly, it was considerably cheaper going through Expedia than going through the Air India website.

[science_expat]

Let us know, please.

Like Wegie, I flew with them years ago and it was awful. The curry was very good, however.

[neutralname]

I will. 

I note that I have to reconfirm the flight at least 24 hours before departure -- that's something I've not had to do for at least 10 years, maybe more like 20.

[jwormold]

I'm with Wegie and Science_Expat. Except the curry on my flight was awful!! Seriously, BA does a better curry in economy class! Oh, wait, neutralname reported the same thing.

And, apropos large families. I like window seats on long flights. On my Air India flight, I was completely surrounded by a family. And I mean, completely. Next to me, small children. In front of me, one parent, two small children. Behind me, ditto. The ones in front kept playing with my feet during the flight, the ones beside just were irritating, and the ones behind kicked my seat. Now that there aren't smoking sections, Air India should have a kids/no-kids section. The no-kids section would probably be about three rows.

[takapa]

I have had a terrible experience or two with Air India although not on this route.  The plane was in terrible shape (overhead bins were broken, tray tables didn't work, everything was filthy, and I mean filthy).  The toilets were some of the worst I've seen.  Remember that really bad bar near your undergrad college campus that people went to when everything else was closed and you had to be really drunk just to get yourself to go in there it was so bad?  Well, every Air India plane I've been on was this way, and the toilets in that college bar was like an operating room in terms of cleanliness compared to what I had in-flight on them.

Good luck!!!

[tee_bee]

Fortunately I won't  be in a rush, and I'll have my laptop and MP3 player with me.  And I'll save nearly $200 over the nearest competitor's price.  So I booked it, and look forward to the new experience. 

Weirdly, it was considerably cheaper going through Expedia than going through the Air India website.

I'd pay $200 extra to fly transatlantic if it meant not having to deal with the other passengers toting the sum of their worldly possessions on the plane (coming to an American or United flight near you). I imagine that Air India's security situation has improved since the mid-1980s, but for $200 savings I'd not take the chance.

[neutralname]

Fortunately I won't  be in a rush, and I'll have my laptop and MP3 player with me.  And I'll save nearly $200 over the nearest competitor's price.  So I booked it, and look forward to the new experience. 

Weirdly, it was considerably cheaper going through Expedia than going through the Air India website.

I'd pay $200 extra to fly transatlantic if it meant not having to deal with the other passengers toting the sum of their worldly possessions on the plane (coming to an American or United flight near you). I imagine that Air India's security situation has improved since the mid-1980s, but for $200 savings I'd not take the chance.

I guess it's a question of priorities.  It's about 8-10 hours of my life, not a week or so.  How bad could it be?  (Maybe I'll tell you how bad it could be on my return.) 

But flying BA, Virgin, or Continental, from NYC to the UK is often not a great experience, with full flights, broken in-flight entertainment, people over-stuffing the overheads, and annoying kids or teens.  It's not comparing heaven and hell: it's a matter of estimating the odds of a good flight and working out whether it's worth paying $200 to slightly increase the odds.  This time I decided it wasn't, especially since the novelty of the experience and the stories afterwards are also worth something to me.

[expatinuk]

One of the things that I LOVED about the UK's only ONE piece of carryon luggage was the fact that the overhead bins actually would hold what was put in them.

[jwormold]

Speaking of filthy...

The bathrooms did not have any soap. And I pee'd very early in the flight (so it's not like they ran out mid-way across the Atlantic).

Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

[starfleet_grad]

This website is a collection of unsolicited comments of experiences flying with Air India. Take it for what it is.

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/air_india.htm

[neutralname]

I can give an update.  I ordered my Air India ticket through Expedia, which turned out to be a good idea.  I got an email from them saying that the return flight had been cancelled by Air India.  So when I phoned Expedia customer service, they spent 2 hours trying to contact Air India to find out what they would do to solve the problem.  Apparently, when they eventually got through, they were given other phone numbers to call. There was no reply at some numbers, some numbers were not functional, and when they there was someone there, the Air India personnel were rude to them.  I'm glad that I didn't have to do all that phoning. Fortunately, Expedia gave me a full refund, and I've bought last minute tickets with a different airline. 

After that, I'm can confidently say I'll never try to fly Air India again.