A few days ago, I posted about a few passengers who arrived at the airport late, and Air India refused to check them in since they were beyond the cut off time. Now, much has been said about why they should have been on the plane or not, but I just thought I’d bring you perspective about why they should not have been on those plane. I asked Shipra, my fiancée, to chime in, since she has worked in ground operations for an international airline out of two major airports, and would have been able to give perspective on why this was not a done deal to get them on board. In the last few days there has been too…
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When Air India did its job and got flak for it!
There is a video making the rounds these days, where Air India employees are putting up with passengers who arrived late and the flight was closed. This is a video which was shot at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 a few days ago, with a camera smartphone and uploaded to a social network for maximum impact. Apparently, a bunch of passengers arrived at Terminal 2, Mumbai, 55 minutes before the flight. For Air India, they operate a few flights from Terminal 2 at this moment, but these are domestic legs of international flights. For instance, very clearly mentioned on their website, is this information: Assuming the passengers arrived at Terminal 2 and not Terminal 1A, which is at least 20 minutes away…
Air India passenger opens the door of the flight!
Err, ehm! I’ve kept quiet on all this business of passengers opening doors of flights. However, this time, it was one of our own, at Air India which had to face the consequences. As per the news, Air India’s Moscow flight was ready to take off to New Delhi, when they had a passenger seated in 14A open the door of the plane. Here is why: The incident took place minutes before the scheduled 8.30am (Moscow time) departure of AI’s Moscow-Delhi flight. A passenger, seated on 14A, had returned from one of the washrooms and was on his way to his seat. “I was about to take my seat when I heard a staffer knocking on the window asking to…
Air India giving away free tickets on various spends
Air India has launched a new promotion yesterday, called My Dream Destination. Under this promotion, when you make cumulative domestic spends on Air India for various amounts over a period of 3 months (February 9, 2015 to May 9, 2015), you will be eligible for free Economy Class tickets on the Air India domestic and international network. Here is how the free ticket offer works: Bill tickets worth INR 75,000 – INR 100,000: INR 75,000 spend earns you a free economy ticket one way on Air India’s domestic network/regional network including Singapore, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dubai & Muscat. For INR 100,000 spend you get a free return economy ticket. Bill tickets worth INR 200,000: You get a free economy return ticket…
Booking Star Alliance tickets with AI Flying Returns: it’s buggy & complicated
Ever since Air India joined Star Alliance, the interest in being able to redeem Air India Flying Returns miles for Star Alliance tickets has been well known, but somehow, it has been so complicated that no one has bothered to figure it out. Even in the award reservation service I am offering in beta right now, there has not been much interest in using AI miles for Star Alliance tickets. One part of the reason is that the award chart is inflated, and the other is the myth that only Air India elites can access the Star Alliance inventory. Reader Deovrat tried to crack the code, and went about making a dummy reservation. He used a request to redeem for…
Air India’s Maharaja getting new clothes? Not really!
Everyone seems to have picked up the story from the Times of India yesterday, where they gave the spin that the Air India had decided to give its Maharaja mascot a makeover to look more like the common man. Here is how they portrayed the comparison: Of course, in the battle of clicks, many stories came out calling this Maharajah hideous. I have to admit he looks hideous, but what the stories conveniently forget to tell you is how there are so many adaptations of the Maharajah and this is just one of them. Take a look at some of his other adaptations: Of course, it was left to Air India to clear up the mess. And they had…
Air India kicks off 2015 with sale on India fares
I just read the news a while back, where Air India was stated to have made a profit after a long time. And then, they declared a sale to celebrate the event it seems! Air India has on offer a Spring Sale, where they are offering full-service flights around India on narrowbody planes, and widebodies too, for incredibly low prices, starting INR 1,557 onwards. You are going to be able to book tickets all the way till 18 January 2015, and valid for travel from 16 January 2015 to April 30 2015. The tickets are valid for fare class E, so do look out for the E fare class on the flights. Some of the deals are pretty sweet, like…
PremierMiles Transfer: Air India Flying Returns
PremierMiles Devaluation w.e.f. February 1, 2015 PremierMiles to Etihad Guest conversion Since the devaluation of PremierMiles was announced last week, I am trying to post on all the options available for all of us to transfer into various frequent flyer programs, our hard earned PremierMiles. Yesterday, I wrote a post on Etihad Guest, and today, it is time for Air India’s Flying Returns program. I’ve covered bits and pieces of the Air India Flying Returns program over the times. Air India joined Star Alliance last year, so your miles on AI can now be used for redemptions on Star Alliance member carriers as well. On a whole, I find Air India’s program to be an expensive program, in comparison to…
Flight Review: AI 687 Mumbai-Delhi, Air India, Business Class (B777)
A couple of days back, I was supposed to take a Mumbai – Delhi flight, to come back to family for the holidays. Since I kind of like wide body planes and the new GVK Lounge at Terminal 2, I booked myself on AI 101 which does BOM-DEL-JFK, but is a late night flight arriving into Delhi about midnight. However, last minute, I realised Air India was also operating a BOM-DEL flight in the afternoon on their 777s. I guess this is a plan for them to be able to clear the winter rush, as well as accommodate all the people who may get displaced from other flights due to fog. So, I looked at the price, and it was…
Lounge Review: Air India Lounge, Mumbai Terminal 1A
Just yesterday, I flew over to Delhi from Mumbai, yet again. I was originally scheduled to get into Delhi on AI101, which is perhaps one of my favourite flights given it gives me access to the Terminal 2 GVK Lounge, and I get to fly a Boeing 777-300ER between the 2 hour Mumbai Delhi segment (the flight further heads to New York from Delhi). However, given that it is winters and Delhi has a massive fog problem, and I did not want to really really get into home middle of the night, I decided to change my plans. I now was going to depart from terminal 1A, from where Air India operates, and this meant I had access to the…
Air India’s system’s go down in Delhi, Y pax help themselves to Biz class seats
Earlier this week, I was in Delhi for a quick trip for a day, and I was on my way back to Mumbai yesterday. Circumstances changed and hence I wanted to be on an earlier flight than what I booked myself on (From 10 AM departure to 9 AM departure). Thank god for mileage redemptions, AI did not create a fuss and gave me a ticket on an earlier flight since they saw space there, once I arrived at the airport. However, that may have been one of the last things that their reservation system, installed by SITA, did for them. After a coffee and some breakfast, I headed to board the flight and it all looked okay. There were…
