Air India

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Flight Review: AI 687 Mumbai-Delhi, Air India, Business Class (B777)

by Ajay 3 Comments

a plane taking off from the ground

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…

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Lounge Review: Air India Lounge, Mumbai Terminal 1A

by Ajay Leave A Comment

a room with white couches and a glass table

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…

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Air India’s system’s go down in Delhi, Y pax help themselves to Biz class seats

by Ajay 9 Comments

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…

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Always check those emails from airlines

by Ajay 3 Comments

A couple of weeks back, right after Diwali, I found an email my partner forwarded to me which was sort of worrisomely worded. And, it was from Air India, harmlessly subjected about a schedule change. She did not give it much importance at that moment, and did not open the email. On check-in, we realised her flight was now rescheduled and brought ahead over an hour. In fact, the flight she was booked on was actually cancelled (AI 626 LKO-BOM), and instead they decided to make the BOM-LKO flight a circular flight BOM-LKO-VNS-BOM flight with flight number AI 625. All these details were in the email, except we did not see it in the first time. Yawn, now on the…

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Air India gets on to Twitter

by Ajay 1 Comment

Air India has been taking baby steps into the world of social media. Last year, they worked to get their presence on Facebook established. This year, seems Twitter is the project for them. While there are multiple handles on Twitter which claimed to be Air India, Air India has now established @airindiain as their official Twitter handle, and this is now a verified handle as well. What kind of inputs to expect from Air India here right now? It seems clearly this handle is being operated by a social media agency on behalf of Air India at the moment, so they sporadically reply at the moment and issue apologies on behalf of Air India, but no real information is shared…

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Air India still lacks disruption redressal capabilities

by Ajay 1 Comment

I’ve recently been trying to use Air India off and on, given their Star Alliance membership, to try and test how they react in various circumstances and whether it is in line with Star Alliance requirements or not. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. For instance, back in August, when I went with AI for my flight to Goa from Mumbai Terminal 2, AI offered me only one lounge access card, which made sure me and my fiancée could not go into the lounge together. As AI Golden Tier member and Star Alliance Gold, I was good for 2 passes due to the *A guidelines. Just this past Saturday, I made a trip to Delhi on one of Air…

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I’m coming home…

by Ajay 1 Comment

Oh boy. I hate going quiet on the blog but sometimes life takes you places where you take a plane and go, and there is just so much going on that your laptop is perpetually starving for battery and hence the posting has to wait. So, the past few weeks, while I’ve been trying to post, I’ve been over to Europe, the USA, and then after a quick trip to Kolkata, I found myself again on the road for two weeks in a row… which was essentially supposed to be one trip to start with. I was over to the Netherlands for a week, and while I was supposed to do some more meetings in other parts of Europe while…

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Air India status upgrades via SBI Card are back

by Ajay 9 Comments

A few days ago, I reported that the promised tier upgrades and status matches for Air India, which are available via their co-branded card with SBI were not going through. There was either a technology problem, or there was a snap of relationships between both parties. We don’t know. However, I’ve been hearing since yesterday days, that people have started to get their upgrade confirmations via email, for status earned via spend on Air India. This looks like it is sorted now. However, for me personally, something seems to be off, as my account is locked out. Which definitely points towards a technology upgrade of some sorts that may have happened at the back end. For those of you who…

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AI SBI Card having trouble processing tier upgrades on AI

by Ajay 21 Comments

One of the differentiating features of Air India’s co-branded card with SBI Cards is the tier upgrades you get on Air India Flying Returns every time you spent another INR 5,00,000 in the membership year. You get Silver Status for the first INR 5,00,000 and Gold Status for the next INR 5,00,000. This is now equivalent to Star Alliance Gold status, with Air India having joined the Star Alliance. SBI Cards in fact also launched a status match program for the holders of other airlines status in the meanwhile, I am assuming with Air India’s approval. Everyone who hits the INR 5,00,000 mark receives a kit automatically, because these were processed straight through back in the day. But recently, a…

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When Air India lies to you…

by Ajay 6 Comments

I’ve been a little annoyed with Air India over the past few days. Here is a post I wrote yesterday about how Air India employees don’t consistently implement benefits they are supposed to offer to their elites, including lounge access. This morning, they’ve gone public with an Air India Day sale, where they are claiming to offer INR 100 + taxes tickets. The PR machinery has been in an overdrive, and the website has been down since last night because everyone wants in on these fares. Here is their claim, which conveniently skips the fact that fuel surcharges are not a part of the INR 100. What takes the cake for me is an email I received from them last…

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Air India’s INR 100 ticket promotion till August 31, 2014 is just one big gimmick!

by Ajay 3 Comments

Air India has decided to offer INR 100 base fare tickets for travel between August 27, 2014 to September 30, 2014 on domestic sectors. These tickets can be booked between today to August 31, 2014. You can only purchase these tickets from the Air India website, which currently has this state on: Anyhow, unless the INR 100 Air India Day promotion includes Fuel surcharges as well, I don’t think these tickets are really different from what Air India has sold quietly in the past. In April, I was able to book AI tickets for INR 2500 one-way approximately between Mumbai and Delhi, which included INR 49 or so as the base fare. So, this must be much ado about nothing.…

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