oragnised chaos (Air India)

Member Name: tuftyclub

Product:	Air India
Date:	17/05/01 (1605 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price, Food, Retro Plane!

Disadvantages: Organisation, Check in

if you want a cheap flight try air india. I got to New York from London for around £180 last September and I didn't have to stay the Saturday night. From what I have heard the standard is variable but I had no problems with the flights- they left on time and were clean with wonderful food- as a hint take the vegetarian indian option,some of the western options of those about me looked a bit unispiring.

it is different from ' a western flight'- they had this funky little map showing how far accross the ocean you were were - which was really retro. the staff are very approachable too and don't have that superior manner that I feel that some other airlines have. The one problem that I found was the organisation, I don't know if the cheaper airlines pay less to the airport and are therefore a lower priority but I waited 2 hours for the luggage to start coming down the conveyer belt at JFK. Flight landed on time at 2pm and I didn't get out the airport until 5pm- I also had a time related hostel booking so was concerned about making that. On the return flight again disorganisation held us up- it took over 2 hours to check in- there was 2 checkin desks for normal people and 2 for business class- of which there was about 10 customers- also remember that most of the people travelling are going on extended stays- most of the people that I spoke to were emigrating or visiting family for up to 6 months. This translates into a lot of luggage and also adds to the check in time. I also noticed that the people coming off the flight got a lot more attention from immigration, dreadfully unfair but again it adds to the journey/ hassle time.

In short if you want a cheap flight consider air india, but if you are in any sort of rush- or have to catch connections you might be better off paying a bit more for your flight.

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