Review: United Airlines 767-300 Economy Plus: Washington DC to Zurich
Review: SWISS A330-300 Economy: Zurich to Delhi
Review: Air India A321-200 Economy: Delhi to Pune
Review: Akasa Air 737 MAX 8 Economy: Pune to Bangalore
Review: The Ritz Carlton Bangalore
Review: Indigo Air A321Neo: Bangalore to Pune
Review: Singapore Airlines A350-900 Regional Business Class: Mumbai to Singapore
Review: Singapore Airlines NEW SilverKris Business Class Lounge Terminal 3 Singapore SIN
Review: Singapore Airlines A380-800 Business Class: Singapore to Frankfurt
Review: Lufthansa Senator Lounge Concourse B Frankfurt FRA (Non-Schengen)
Review: Singapore Airlines A380-800 Business Class: Frankfurt to New York JFK
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Washington DC to Zurich
YOUTUBE: SWISS International Airlines: Zurich to Delhi
YOUTUBE: Air India: Delhi to Pune
YOUTUBE: Akasa Air: Pune to Bangalore
YOUTUBE: Indigo Air: Bangalore to Pune
YOUTUBE: Singapore Airlines: Mumbai to Singapore
YOUTUBE: Singapore Airlines: Singapore to Frankfurt
YOUTUBE: Singapore Airlines: Frankfurt to New York JFK
After spending an hour in Air India’s quaint domestic lounge in Delhi, it was off to Pune.
Boarding is always chaotic on Indian carriers, but the ground staff did still call passengers traveling in business class and Star Alliance Gold, at which point I boarded, however economy boards in one line, and there’s no enforcement of any structured boarding process.
Air India’s A321’s, like other narrowbodies, are in a 3-3 configuration with a generous 33 inches of pitch, which is more than a lot of major carriers offer on International flights. Air India always delivers on this front. But their seats are worn and old so don’t expect any back support.
The seat backs are also bare so there’s no kind of IFE on board.
One thing good however is that Air India offers a generous 33″ seat pitch on these narrowbody A320s and A321s. That’s more than what major carriers like Singapore, Emirates, United, etc offer on their long haul aircraft.
We eventually pushed back and began our taxi to the runway.
A few minutes later we were jetting down the runway and on our way to Pune.
After turning southbound we were on our way through the early hours of the morning to Pune.
The crew began service shortly after we reached cruising altitude. One thing I love about traveling within India is that full-service carriers like Air India always give a full meal. On North American carriers you’ll be lucky to get a snack before the crew claims “The flight is too short for service”.
The 2 options were vegetarian or chicken and I went with chicken. The chicken was pretty bland and overcooked. The omelette was also on the blander side but still ok. The mushrooms were pretty good, however. Perhaps the proper distinction here to make is “Western nonveg” vs “Indian veg”. This was probably the first meal I’ve had in my life with Air India where the main wasn’t super flavorful but still enjoyable I suppose, given that this is a meal on a short flight.
The croissant was a standard packaged room temp croissant, but still enjoyable.
The mango yogurt was good, like a little too good, and sure enough, it had 12 grams of added sugar so I had 2 bites and left it at that.
Overall, the meal was filling and one of the not-as-good meals I’ve had, but probably the case given that it’s a Western meal. The vegetarian option was probably a better option to go with from the start.
One thing that I will say about the flight was that the cabin was very warm for the flight. The 2 passengers next to me were literally sweating but thankfully I was wearing very light clothes so I was fine but the cabin was quite warm.
Everything else for the rest of the flight was watching the sky become lighter as the morning went on. We never actually will get to see the sunrise on this flight but we will see the light slowly fill the sky as time goes on.
Eventually, we began our descent into Pune Lohegaon Airport.
The touchdown was smooth and our taxi to our gate was no more than a minute.
Overall, this was a pretty good flight. The seats are thin, but you have good legroom, there’s a full meal service, and the crew was friendly. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t as good as I’m used to this time around, but that may also be a function of what I ordered or just a one-off. The cabin was uncomfortably warm which is not ideal of course.
Thankyou for highlighting the truth after acquiring by Tata to Airindia. Now we can call it, Tata Airindia. Thankyou for highlighting the truth of Tata Airindia.
Haha I think the brand will still remain Air India but we will inevitably see widespread improvements in the soft product and hard product across the airline. We are already seeing a little bit of both across the airline and hopefully we continue to see that
Even I travelled very recently Pune Delhi to Srinagar
The leg room was little better than 737’s .
But we had a 3 hour delay due to Aircraft problems by the time we reached Srinagar it was 5pm instead of 1.30 scheduled time.
Our plans that day went horribly wrong
Finally the review tells that not much has changed in Air India except lipservice
Yes and domestically I didn’t anticipate too much difference. It’s the long haul experience that I expect to dramatically change and we are seeing some of these changes already in play on air India’s SFO-BLR and BOM routes
One thing for sure it’s that the bad that was done by Congress cannot be undone in one year. It’s a process and their 5 year plan that includes even buying new planes (480 to buy deal fine already) will be the way forward. We love you and will support you all the way Air India. 👍❤️
Absolutely this won’t be an instant process, but I look forward to the journey air India takes over the next few years to go back to the hospitality powerhouse it once was. We are already seeing a preview on some of their ultra long haul routes but I am excited to see a more widespread change soon.