In my ten years here in the US, I have flown back to India every year. Usually I fly through Asia, and either use Malaysia Air or Singapore Airlines , and I have been very happy with their service. However, this summer, I did not want to fly through Asia because of the SARS scare, and wanted to take an alternate route. The only option my travel agent was able to offer for a reasonable price ($1500/ticket) was Air India through London, and Mumbai (a short hour layover) to Bangalore, India.

When faced with a choice of going, or not going to India, I chose to go, even if it meant that I had to fly Air India. In all these years, I have never once used Air India because of the horror stories I have heard about them. Some of my Indian friends who had flown Air India recently, assured me that flying the airline will not be very bad as long as I made two assumptions:

1). Most of the flights will not take off on time.
2). Checked in baggage will not arrive in the same plane as you do.

With these two assumptions, and with the expectation that things would not be very smooth sailing, I boarded the United carrier to Chicago from Seattle on August 3rd, last month. Our (my son and I) itinerary was to fly to Chicago from Seattle, and thereafter fly Air India from Chicago to Bangalore, India.

The United flight to Chicago was delayed due to bad weather in Chicago, and instead of the regular 4 hours, it took us 9 hours to reach Chicago. The Air India. flight to India was to take off at 9:30 PM, and I reached the Chicago airport at 10 PM. I was hoping that assumption number 1 about Air India would actually work in my favor, and that we would probably still make it to the plane.

But, remember Murphy’s Law: for the first time in many months, an Air India flight had taken off exactly as scheduled. The next flight to India was only two days later, and I spent two days at Ramada Inn, Mt. Prospect near the airport.

Having spent two nights at O’Hare, we were really eager to board the Air India flight, and get out of the place. However, the jinx had to continue. After going through security, and boarding the flight, and finishing off our dinner onboard on the runway, we were told that the flight was delayed for 24 hours due to a technical snag, and that we had to deplane immediately. We were offered a complimentary stay at the Hyatt Regency, O'Hare for the night.


The Good:

After spending 3 days at the O’Hare airport, my son and I sort of got used to the place, and it was with some reluctance that we went to the Air India counter for checking in. The check-in process was fairly smooth. The baggage that I had checked in Seattle was identified, and I was assured that my luggage was safe.

After going through security at O’Hare, and just before we entered our gate to board our plane, Air India put us through another passenger security screening. All of us and our carry on baggage were thoroughly checked. Much to my son’s consternation, his action figure (woody from toy story), was also subjected to the test. Some people find this annoying, but I felt really safe boarding the plane.

About 30 % of the passengers traveling Air India are senior citizens from India. Most of them are making the trip to visit their children in the US, and Air India is their preferred carrier, because the crew speaks Hindi, and vegetarian food is always available on the plane. I observed that the crew was especially nice to this section of the crowd; they addressed them with respect, and helped them fill out the immigration forms. Kids, sometimes traveling alone, form another big group traveling this airline. The crew was extremely patient with them, and even joked around and played with them. Even otherwise, the service on the plane was warm and friendly, and vegetarian food on the flights was excellent.

Due to prolonged immobility on a long distance plane ride, senior citizens and sometimes every age group, is susceptible to a condition known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is a blood clot that develops in a deep vein of the legs, and can lead to death or other complications if it breaks off and travels in the bloodstream to the lungs. Air India screens an informational video about DVT at the beginning of every flight, and later screens an exercise video that helps prevent DVT. I have not seen many airlines doing this.


The Bad:

There is one common complaint about the airline in all the reviews I have read so far: To say that the cabin interiors are not in good shape is an understatement, they are in really bad shape. Almost every seat has its cushion almost slipping off, the pull-down trays have to be yanked out, and in general the planes show a lot of wear and tear.

The bathrooms start off being very clean; but towards the end of the flight they are a real mess. I think that the crew neither bothers to clean them, or to replenish the toiletries (including toilet paper) during the flight.


The Ugly:

All this would not have bothered me much, if not for what happened when I landed in the Mumbai airport. I had been told by my travel agent that once I deplaned in Mumbai International Airport, all I had to do was change gates in the same terminal, and a connecting Air India flight would take me to Bangalore. This meant that Bangalore, and not Mumbai would be my port of entry to India, and customs would be done only in Bangalore.

However, as soon as we landed in Mumbai, the Bangalore passengers were rudely informed that there was no connecting Air India flight to Bangalore on the same day, and that we had go through immigration and customs in Mumbai, and then talk to an airline representative to find out what our options were to reach Bangalore!

After going through immigration, when my son and I went to the baggage claim area to collect our checked in bags, assumption number 2 asserted itself. Only one out of my four bags had arrived on the plane.

The next step was to report the missing bags to the “Lost baggage” counter. Since I was not the only person whose bags were misplaced, it took me three full hours just to get through this process, because there was only one person in the counter.

After lodging a complaint, I set off to find the airline representative who was to tell me what my options were to reach Bangalore. It took me 30 minutes just to locater her, because nobody knew where she was! She told me that I had to go to the domestic terminal of the Mumbai airport, and talk to another airline representative there.
Now, the next step was to reach the domestic airport. The only shuttle that takes you to the domestic terminal can handle only 50 people at one time, and there was no other way to reach the domestic terminal. And so, it took me two hours to get to the domestic airport.

Once I reached the domestic airport, the airline representative, who was a little more conspicuous this time, informed me that reservations had been made for me to go to Bangalore, by Jet Airways( a domestic carrier in India). But when I reached the airline counter to check in, they informed me that the flight to Bangalore was full, and their next flight was leaving five hours later.

At this point, I lost my cool.

I tracked down the Air India representative, and shouted at him like I have never shouted at anyone else in my life.

The guy quickly sprung into action, and my son and I were sitting in the plush interiors of the Air Sahara (another domestic carrier in India) onroute to bangalore, within a span of about 15 minutes.


Final Note:

My missing bags showed up in Bangalore a couple of days later, and my compensation was Rs. 4000 ($ 90) for all that I went through.

My return journey from India to the US was pretty smooth, but I understand that this is a rare occurrence.
Air India, an airline run by the Government of India epitomizes all that is wrong, and can go wrong with a public sector undertaking; A lethargic work culture and bureaucracy, are the reasons why this airline functions like it does, and why this airline is not yet bankrupt.

I have two suggestions for Air India:
1) Close down the airline, and quit gracefully NOW, or
2) Hand over the airline to a private company that takes pride in its work culture.

Unless you have masochistic tendencies, do not book your tickets on this Airline.


Recommended: No