Air India is like good or bad, there is no middle ground, when you are about to ditch Air India, the last flight gives you a very good experience, but next time when you fly it back to zero. still fingers crossed, hopefully Vistara will rub some of its charm on Air India.
NO ARMRESTS 😮 That would definitely be a dealbreaker for me. However lovely spacious suite with lots of privacy. Great new intro and lovely additions in the preview of video’s to come. You keep raising the bar Kevin 💪🏼💫
In India generally there's a habit that if something's broken - a window in a house, a dent in a car - it stays that way. In an airline this habit needs to be overcome. So far it seems they haven't perceived that.
I agree with the conclusion but in my mind it gets there a bit different. In my experience it’s a lack of detailed very small maintenance matters. The dimmer switches on their 787s for example- they’re the only airline I’ve ever been on where I’ve seen totally town open switches (multiple times). That doesn’t just happen, it happens in drips overtime until suddenly, it’s properly broken.
I was waiting for this video like a hawk and was watching the whole thing with bated breath. I am so glad our national carrier was able to serve you well this time. It is definitely a departure from the last video. I agree with you as a regular traveler on this A350, the armrest issue is real and hitting those buttons is a common issue for me as well. All of us avgeeks and Indians are hoping that Air India extends the same experience you had on this specific flight. It remains to be seen. Based on my chats with the crew, I have been told that air India is trying hard to regain the trust. Videos such as yours provide a great way to see the current situation and I hope someone from AI is watching and taking notes. As always a fantastic video and very much looking forward to your next ones.
I am always thrilled by the exterior design and capacity of the a350. Whenever there is a notification from your channel I have to tune in as soon as possible. Sublime video as always Kevin!
Kevin, its a weekday and it is also 11 pm here in Australia , you gotta stop uploading video at this time, I had to see the full video. Jokes apart, another great and very much consistent review. Safe travels on your next flight.
yesterday i had an air india flight from hong kong to delhi, it was pretty pathetic, 30 min delay, plus screens were not working and also the bathroom door fell off, but the crew were really friendly and the food was good.
Completely agree with you on the Air India inconsistency thing. I regularly fly them, A350, B777 and the B787 other than A32x of course. Its just bizarre to imagine that I would fly some of them on a 15 hr+ flight, when I can barely tolerate it in a 3 hr domestic route. Luckily, my experience on long haul has been good till date in the business class
The acquisition of Air India by Tatas has in fact been detrimental to the competition. Air India group under AI and Vistara under it, now has monopoly on the long haul international routes to Europe and North America. I wish Vistara was left alone as it was.
I mean... before Tata took AI, Vistara only flew to Paris and London... so do they have a monopoly now? Sure, but did AI also have a monopoly 2 years ago? Yeah lol
Great video, imo you are the best flight reviewer out there as your videos just flow perfectly. If you get a chance Emirates has released their new 777 cabins with new business class and premium economy so I would recommend trying them.
6:44 This reminds me of my trip on Air India a few weeks ago. When the boarding starting, they had all kinds of doors/carts blocking the aisles, making it feel super hectic/messy/clumsy. It seems like they are never ready for the passengers.
I think what is happening at Air India is that transition to new owner, new fleets & upcoming creating all sorts good, bad, ugly service. They have yet to stabilize hopefully soon
Great review as always Kevin - many thanks! Good to see Air India taking small steps to hopefully turn a much needed corner under their new ownership. Obviously they've still got a long way to go to raise standards consistently.
Holy hell! You where not kidding with the tray table. You could make a comedy skit with it, without....well making it. 😕 Isn't the narrow isle a good thing? I mean its a hassle if you are hauling more than one bag. But surely wider seats must be a good trade off?
For the aisle, and I say this sincerely- it is narrow enough that there will be a substantial number of people are have trouble navigating it. Yes it's nice to have the width in the suite and most would probably prefer it there (myself included) but the aisles were so narrow and tall, I couldn't not mention it.
You mentioned in the last video you bought a domestic flight to see if the frequent flyer number can be changed afterwards, did you take that flight or just canceled it?
How to reset Air India. 1. buy outs for all senior FAs over a certain amount of years experience - make it fair to them..let's say paid annually/monthly 60% of their pay - not to come to work. 2. same for many of the non-pilot front-line staff - basically reduce staff and make operation more efficient. There's no need to check pax passports 5 times by 5 different people. Operational improvements with metrics and assessment every 6 months.
I've never had particularly poor experiences with any crew on my 8 or so AI flights and if and when I did have a problem with crew, it was due to an issue out of their control (6 out of 18 business class seats being broken, for example).
I’m on this next month let’s see. I’ve been on Dreamliner many times and it was ok till the cabin became full. Now with 1-2-1 seating this should be goood
Disappointed to hear this but have to agree with your broad conclusions. As I mentioned in my comment on your previous security misadventure with this same airline, the rot within AI runs deep. Big statements will go some way but will age as rapidly as a poorly maintained airline. With all the talent and resources they have available, management should make statements around operational excellence and safety, reliability etc., a priority focus. Get the basics right, get the customers coming back and you’ll be in the sunshine. I flew AI as a kid back in the late 1960s through the’70s, frequently (boarding school, expat parents 🙄). It was brilliant. I have not even explored AI as an option in recent years, but I speak as a true supporter.
If Air India isnt by global standards by 2026 then Tata had failed. Minimum 3-4 years for turnaround is a must for any Airline with retrofits, new planes etc., Service on the otherhand should be better by now
with air india, it's how well kept the plane and condition of it after a few years.. a brand new plane will be fine but i'm interested how these new plane will be in even just a few years time
The reason I put the song titles in the description now is bc when I first used these exact songs (in an AI video) so many people asked in the comments what the names were and I got tired of replying 10 times a day. So, some like it 😅
No need to worry about not having any armrests as I'll never being flying Air India ! Definitely appreciate the info + video but after all that's happened to you - I'll PASS on this airline every time.
Its sad you say that. This video is misleading. Rome wasnt built in a day. Changes dont take place overnight. It takes time and change for good is already happening. I bet you havent flown Southwest, United, Spirit in the US, disgusting service!
@@SshivamKhopkar WTF , why do u need explain to a W@KE western Folk who will view everything even himself through western lens and gets IRK ... Just Ignore them , We are 1.4bn with domestic Consumption market which is growing every day look at our UPI Transactions its INSANE .
I must say for a 1 1/2hr flight on Air India you did really well. For reasons unknown to me I got bumped from Malaysian Airlines (Business Class) flight from Mumbi to Sydney (June) to Air India/ Singapore Airlines. Mumbai to Kulumpr (5 1/2 hrs) was on an Air India 737 seat 1A. What a dreadful flight. Less room to move than in economy, hardly any inflight service, no inflight entertainment and a seat that felt like a plank of wood.
All carry on models do on all major commercial jets, easily, yes. I’ve personally traveled this year with two of them. All carry on models are more or else the same size, give or take an inch.
Nice one! Can I ask how you make your seat maps? 🤔 As in what software do you use to create them and where you get the seat illustration components from?
@@tfft Wow … that sounds like an incredible amount of work. I notice Nonstop Dan also has custom seat maps along similar lines … wonder if he uses Keynote too. I’ve only really used it for animating graphs and the like. 🤔
Yah, his are much more about the full plane, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say my first ever attempt at one of these maps was inspired by his videos. For me though idk why I get so much satisfaction from making the finishes real to life 😂 I never mention it bc I understand no one cares… but like look at the wooden table top in the graphic for this one for example. The wood grain is on a bias pointing towards the seat in the same orientation as real life haha. I dork out with these things.
@@tfft wow - that’s some serious attention to detail! 😂 I guess we all have certain details that float our boats (or whatever the equivalent might be for aviation) in our respective videos. 😆 If it provides you satisfaction, then who can argue. 🤓
Dear Kevin. Thanks very much for your honest impressions on your flight reviews. Do you plan a flight with the last Lufthansa business class update called "Allegris"? Would be great to watch your experiences there. Best regards from Guido
I typically don't chase products when very few aircraft have it. When they have a dozen or so and there are guaranteed routes to find them on, then I'd consider.
If they can't even maintain the interiors properly, the worry is what will happen to the areas we don't see? The A350 looks so nice and light years better than their old Dreamliners with interiors that are duct-taped and broken.
Those 787s were bought under government ownership and they didint care much just look at vistara all 787 interiors are in top condition am sure tata will do the same with air india and make it world class
You assume Tata has absolute control over ALL of their new employees, which couldn't possibly be true yet- so there are still plenty of aircraft at risk.
Hi Kevin, Thanks for the vlog. Despite your generous score for this flight, it's a hard no from me for any Air India travel. The identity theft issues along with inconsistent service, (particularly if one is of Indian heritage but not from India☹️), rule the airline out for the foreseeable future. The food, meh, I can knock up something approximating that at home😋! Thanks again!
The thing that really puzzles me is the the enormous number of employees at Air India compared to it's fleet size. What do all those people do, and why isn't it better?
Like many developing countries, they do very specific jobs that simply don't exist in fully digitalized countries. Same in Vietnam. If I had to guess, there must be at least 1 million 'security guards' in Vietnam who spend their days watching over 4 motorbikes. Or perhaps 10k people who do nothing more than fan out pages of a contract and hold it in place while someone else (the Notary) seals the document. I could continue lol
@@tfft Yes, you're right as usual. I see similar in Thailand and Indonesia. What somewhat surprised me though was seeing documents being faxed and then photocopied and filed in a high tech Japanese company. Last year. 😂
nice video but just a suggestion, india has a lot of classical music but u probably chose the worst of the lot. For future videos, dont ever use it again. loved the video tho. Saying it in a friendly way btw
Sure, can’t please everyone- I have 30 other India videos with a variety of music. The music in this video was actually three of the songs I’ve received the most (complimentary) questions on in my past videos from Indian viewers. The reason I put the track titles in every description now is honestly bc of so many requests about one title in this video last year. Anyway, sure- can’t please everyone (but many still like it 😉)
Bhimsen, yashraj, Rashid, Ravi Sankar, Anushka, Ajay Chakraborty, Rashid khan, Rahat Fateh Ali khan, avida Parveen , Rajan sajan, alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, shiv kumar sharma, Rahul sharma, Amjad Ali khan and many more @@tfft
I was grooming my chinchilla when your new video came through. I stopped midway through to watch your video and ended up sending Chinchin to the groomers to finish up the grooming. It cost me a $125USD. Now you know what kind of money I sacrifice, Kevin, just to watch your fantastic videos. Thank you.
I mean, let's be real for a second... you should have just finished the grooming after the video and spent that $125 on a Patreon membership- or perhaps a Level 8 bag... 😂
Such a great review. Utterly baffling that they would weight the majority of routes on this beautiful new aircraft for very short domestic hops when the international long-haul fleet is crumbling...first class on the 787s looks like a slum 😂 let's see if the fabled Tatas can turn the airline's culture of indifference around.
Short domestic routes are only for crew familiarization procedures. Literally every airline does it when new aircraft types are brought into the fleet. By this time next year they likely won’t be flying anything under 9 hours.
Air India has faced a number of challenges from corruption allegations linked to government officials to operational inefficiencies like high operating costs, aging fleet, and poor on-time performance. Other global carriers have faced similar issues and brought themselves back from the dead, like Kuwait Airways.
The aircraft must be flying internationally on next flight so they parked at international departure aerobridge,disembarked domestic passenger from right side later connect aerobridge on left side for international boarding.
@@tfft Last Saturday had same experience with Indigo domestic,they parked at T3 whereas arrival terminal was mentioned T2,disembarked from right side them transfer us to T2 using bus.The aircraft was going International after that.
$500mn earmarked for cabin upgradation which will be done by mid 2025. Plans were to upgrade existing one first but Airbus delayed deliveries while Boeing is stuck with quality issues with 787s & 777X pushed forward. Hence, Air India had to continue using existing aircrafts.
So they went from stealing your identity to stealing your armrests!!! I call that an improvement for sure!!! Amazing work on these not so normal videos!!! It takes 1 hell of a person to keep the humor during such a shocking and negative moment!!!
The problem with Air India despite the privatization recently is they need to clean house from top to bottom. It has been a nationalized and badly managed and run airline for more than 55 years and the people working for Air India carry the same bad attitude and bad customer service and you can’t let them all go. It will take a long time to turn around Air India even with the Tata’s once again controlling the airline they lost to nationalization in the 1960s. Vistara started out well but they also started having problems. Currently, the popular airline in India seems to be IndiGo which is a low cost carrier so their time is numbered as long as it lasts before they devolve into every other low cost airline. From Newark, I would have flown the nonstop service to Singapore by the Singapore Airlines A350 service and they have A350 service from Singapore to Chennai and both flights are two class service except the EWR-SIN service is Business or Premium Economy.
@@tfft You’re welcome. I forgot to mention… man, that is really disgusting that they would serve you food they loaded in Bombay for the return leg and that too in business class. They were FUBAR and deeply in red before the Indian government decided to privatize it again and give it to the Tatas but it’s 55 years of crappy service that can’t be fixed overnight. They need to fire the employees who were working virtually for the government of India and have lifetime job security unless they hijacked the plane. Air India and its former domestic division Indian Airlines which then became Air India Express and then Air India are some of the worst.
I'm glad you enjoyed this flight. This is Air India reimagined and rejuvenated and is poised to become one of the world's best airlines. I'm sorry you fell victim to the scam during your last flight, just one of the many hurdles and shortcomings in the path to success.
the biggest issue airlines face is inconsistency. every airline has its inconsistencies, even the best like Singapore or Qatar. but with AI...there are *a LOT* of inconsistencies across the board. its not all terrible, like the hard product and food we see in the video that is marvelous, but the inconsistent structure of the airline as a whole suggests major problems that may take decades to remedy, before it can be considered in conversation with the Gulf and other Asian carriers...
@@nnnnich You're spot on with this comment. Most airlines do have inconsistencies regularly like you may not get similar level of service on different flights. As for Air India, it was historically owned by the Tata Group and J.RD Tata was AI's chairman until 1977. Since then, it became govt operation which completely ruined the airline. I still can't fathom the fact that AI still flies their planes with seats and interiors from 2009! Since the Tata takeover in 2022, they have been handed a mammoth task of turning the entire airline over which is progressing slower than expected (most aircraft are still using those ancient interiors). But I am still optimistic that AI will overcome its hurdles and should rise back to world-class levels by the end of the decade.
Kevin, spouse and I will be flying from Kolkata to Delhi on Vistara and from there to Colombo in business on Air India in February. Do you have any recommendations to ensure a trouble free transfer in Delhi?
@tfft - thanks, trust the companies will cooperate to get our luggage transferred to Colombo. Not acquainted with India 's domestic flight arrangement!?
