Air India's invisible service

The excitement was palpable as I proceeded in the queue at my gate at London Heathrow as we got ready to board the flight. It was my first ever Air India (AI) international experience. I had flown AI several times in the past, but each time on the domestic sector, never internationally. I was promised a Dreamliner aircraft- a swanky, new generation aircraft- at the time of booking.

Before the flight took off- approximately an hour after I had boarded- my excitement turned into disappointment. And as it turned out, my AI flight 130 London-Mumbai turned out to be my most disappointing international flight ever. Here's why:

First impressions are the last impressions. How the flight attendants welcome you on board, assist you towards your seat and helps you settle down, goes a long way in creating a good lasting impression. But apart from one attendant present at the door to say 'namaste' and point you to your seat's direction, there were no AI flight attendants to be seen in the aisles. Some passengers struggled to keep their luggage in their overhead bins, but no flight attendant was to be seen. Few others like us wanted some water, but none around to attend us. The first sight of attendants came about an hour after the flight had taken off. Emirates and Jet Airways' attendants are always there in the aisles, during boarding, to help passengers settle down in their seats.

The languages of all announcements were hap-hazard and random. Most of the times, announcements were only in Hindi. Sometimes the pilot made announcement in just English. All professionally-managed carriers belong to some or the other country and I have always noticed that all their announcements in local as well as in English languages. For instance, Emirates' announcements are made in Arabic and English, always. What stopped AI to make all its announcements in both Hindi and English, is a mystery.

Many TV screens- including mine (on the seat in front of me) did not work. The flight attendant casually told us that one of the three servers is not working, so he will try "once more to re-start." This was my first. I have travelled on many airlines and to many places internationally, but this has never happened to me before. In-flight entertainment has always worked in my experience so far. It is, infact, a big draw by many airlines. Emirates goes to town about its in-flight entertainment (ICE; Information, Communication, Entertainment). But AI was nonchalant and blaze about it.

That reminds me; it wasn't a Dreamliner. It was a Boeing 777-300 ER. And I had heard very recently that somebody else too complained about the fact that his own recent London-Mumbai AI flight was also not a dreamliner as promised. I had hoped that that was an aberration. I was wrong.

The on-board service was almost invisible. Throughout the almost 9-hour flight, there were hardly any flight attendants who walked up and down the aisle looking after the passengers. We could call them through our remote on our seats, but I did not know how to operate it since the icons on it were too tiny and one needs some experience to navigate them. But still I'd expected to see some faces floating around. Instead, when I went to the back of the aircraft, I noticed two of them resting in the last two seats. Water bottles were plenty at the back of the aircraft for us to pick up. It was self-service.

The one flight attendant lady who I requested to help me understand the remote control and operate the TV, said to me "can you ask him?"...pointing to the other flight attendant. She was busy and only came to pick up something from a food trolley in my area. She couldn't be distracted.

Food was little above average; not bad. The salad was cold and I didn't know what it was. The rice and chicken gravy were quite decent. The snacks before landing time were also quite decent.

Seats were comfortable. Since it was a 3x3x3 configuration, it was good for solo travellers like me. I choose seat 19F (economy class; towards the front) the middle-row aisle and I got a couple to fill the other 2 seats. Hence, I did not get disturbed even once. Seats and legroom were comfortable, though Emirates' better.

Price? This was the best part. I paid just about Rs20,000 for a one-way London-Mumbai ticket. This is dirt cheap. And that's the only reason why I will fly AI again in future if I have to.

To put it in a nutshell, AI is just a cheap way to take us from point A to Point B; nothing more, nothing less.

(image courtesy: The Hindu newspaper)