A cheap trip... but was it worth it? (Air India)

Member Name: forsaken

Product:	Air India
Date:	12/12/03 (7147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, On time

Disadvantages: Lacks consistancy, Few staff

My trip on Air India was a little daunting. I travelled from london Heathrow to New York on the 1st September and paid £286 return. I found this really cheap and was nearly £200 less than the new closest airline.

I had my resvervations about travelling with an airline like this. For the most part the people on board were transit passangers from different cities in India to New York, but there were several other people boarding with me in London. Most of those people travelled for the same reasons as me, the flights were cheap.

However, it was a little bit chaotic when trying to board, they waited for all the transit passengers to come through before letting us through, and we stood up and waited for at least 30 minutes. There were few staff around and none of the other passengers seemed to hurry.

For me there was a little safety issue that worried me throughout the trip. The other apssangers around me did not seem to think they had to wear their seatbelts while they travelled (even at take off) and noone came to check, unlike any other airline I have been on. While the seatbelt sign was still on just after take off people were hopping up and down which honestly worried me.

Once on the plane I found it was hard to hear anything because of the crying babies. All the seats were full, and it definately wasn't British Airways. The first language on the plane is not english but everything is repeated in English! The films are from Bollywood and without English subtitles and there are only central screens (no Tv's in seats), however there were some Tv programmes in english. The food was pretty good, curry, with a choice of chicken or fish and lots of people op-ed for vegetarian.

The toilets however were awful and I would prefer not not to have to relive those experiences and there were very few staff on board to help, or even that you could see.

Personally I would have paid the extra £200 for the comfort o
f Continental!

Summary: