Last year, I spent some time investigating the Air India frequent flyer program “Flying Returns”. At that point of time, I kind of started to appreciate the program a bit, because they finally had some structure to it, and they have much better availability over other Indian airlines. Earlier, the tier hurdles were not clear and no one had a clue as to who got their top tier and who did not. Seemed like in the process of getting ready for Star Alliance membership, they came up with a process because they needed to. However, this post on FlyerTalk seems to have raised a few valid pointers about how the program still sucks, and in my own personal experience, that…
Air India
Tag Archives for Air India.
Air India advised to axe in-flight meals
Another zillionth committee was set up by the Government of India to see how costs could be controlled in its pet loss-making project Air India. And predictably, they have come back with the same recommendations which are the low-hanging fruits for any airline to save costs, Unbundle. Something that competitor Jet Airways has made noises for a long time about but hasn’t gone ahead with so far. According to the press, Air India will likely have to follow the Low Cost Carrier model, without having to shed its full-service tag to survive. Obviously, the first suggestion, right there on the top, is to axe in-flight meals. It has been recommended that only tea, coffee, cold drinks, peanuts and biscuits be…
Is this how flight dreams break on a middle seat?
Sigh, and sorry for the cheesy title if it looked like one. I’m resurfacing from about 40 hours of hibernation now that I am in Delhi and I landed here for being with family over the long weekend. I was flying in the afternoon, since I needed to be in Delhi by the evening, and I had run a quick day at work, because I needed to firm up some things at office rather than work from home. Missed lunch in the hullabaloo that ensued, and arrived at the airport early. Still, my time management sucked, since I wanted to try out two new lounges at the Mumbai Airport for you guys, and I only had time for one now.…
A visit inside the relics of Air India
The last I checked, I hadn’t visited an airline office in years, unless you’d count hangar visits and training facilities into the list. The internet and telephone pretty much does it for me. My last visit to an airline office was in 2008 if my memory serves me right, and this was to an Air India ticketing office in Mumbai, because they couldn’t issue my tickets to Singapore online for some reason. And then, it happened again, a visit to the same Air India office yesterday afternoon. It was not like I wanted to go or something, I’d rather have been punching away emails or making work phone calls or doing something productive. However, I was in the neighbourhood for…
Air India sale fares still available
While the Jet Airways sales came and went over last week, Air India was late to the party of announcing cheaper air fares. However, their fare announcement did not come with an expiry date it seems, and when I checked for some tickets this morning, I could still see that Air India was selling tickets at the new promotional prices they announced last week. These fares are available for dates of travel beyond 7 days, and up to September 30, and could be booked on www.airindia.in, any travel portal or an offline travel agency. This seems like a good opportunity for those who still have not been able to decide on their plans. If you know your timelines now, you…
Air India puts one million seats on sale for travel till Sep 30
I hope you guys have been enjoying the first discount party of 2013, which has been brought to you by Jet Airways, Indigo and Spicejet. I know GoAir joined the party too, but has been patchy, so I haven’t given it a big look. If you want to check out how to make good use of the sale, which exists till February 24, 2013, you should look at this post I wrote a short while back. Now, with all of them out there, Air India could have not been far behind, right? So, they have announced a fare sale too, and for those of you who cannot find Jet Airways tickets due to whatever reason, you should head to www.airindia.in…
[Video]: Air India pilot raps about the bad situation at the airline
Most of the videos I post here are humorous, but this one is trying to get across a message. An Air India pilot, trained to fly the 787 but mostly on the ground, made this rap video and posted it on YouTube about the situation at the airline and what he has to go through. Worth a watch! Your views, guys? My heart goes out for this guy! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Air India grounds 787 fleet
Air India has followed the rest of the pack into grounding its 787 fleet of 6 planes as of 17 January, following the FAA advisory issued in the USA. The Indian regulator DGCA followed into the steps of the FAA, and directed Air India to ground all the 6 planes, till Boeing could prove sufficiently to the FAA that the planes are safe. The Boeing 787 serves largely domestic routes at this moment, and 3 international services to Dubai, Paris CDG and Frankfurt from Delhi. The DGCA has formed a committee to look into the safety and engineering aspect of the 787 as well. Air India’s 787 had a technical snag on the inaugural flight as well, and reportedly had…
The mess that is Air India, feat. #snacksonaplane
Just a quick rant on Air India, looking at some very unimpressive news I read about how things are run at this government-owned airline today. Apparently, one lady pilot at the airline decided to take things into her own hands, defy crew scheduling instructions and operate a hopping Mumbai – Jodhpur – Delhi flight, because she had a food parcel to pick up at the Jodhpur airport. Best part, they let her in. The humor in this situation, the local tabloid which reports the incident has published the recipe of the speciality snack as well in the newsreport. Snacks on a plane, anyone? Yesterday, we also found out that the clerks and the top men of Air India, as in…
Air India’s attempt to sneak into Star Alliance
Air India seems to be making all the right moves while its competitor for the Star Alliance membership Jet Airways is busy trying to make a strategic alliance with Etihad. What I cannot figure out is, why was the Indian Civil Aviation ministry’s unnamed officials making all the noises about the conversations between 9W/EY before it was formally announced. Anyways, as per more noises from the said ministry and a newspaper report published today, seems like Air India and the ministry (the owner of Air India) are reaching out to the member airlines of the Star Alliance to get them to vote in favour of Air India joining the alliance. They also insist that airlines are conveying to the civil…
Air India goes 787 on Delhi Paris CDG from January 2013
Air India is flush with their Boeing 787s now, and as per the recent reports have received 4 Boeing 787 planes as of December 31, 2012. Since September 2012, when they took delivery of the first plane, the 787’s are now in operation on various domestic as well as international segments for Air India. They are frequently found on DEL-BLR-DEL, DEL-MAA-DEL, DEL-CCU-DEL in the domestic skies. Internationally, Air India first put them out on the Delhi – Dubai segment (DEL-DXB-DEL), and then introduced a flight to Frankfurt on the 787s in October 2012. Air India says the 787 has made this route operationally profitable. With the addition of new planes, now the next route which is intended to be moved…
