From: vdasigi@valhalla.wright.edu (Venu Dasigi)
Newsgroups: rec.travel,soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Don't fly on Air India
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:11:07 GMT
Reply-To: vdasigi@valhalla.wright.edu
Organization: Wright State University

From article <1992Aug12.195101.27774@linus.mitre.org>, by rajiv@hilltop.mitre.org (Rajiv Kohli):
> 
writes about the hassles his mother-in-law went through when she
traveled by herself and two grandchildren (ages: 1 and 3).

I sympathize with much of what he said. However, to me it looks like
he could have done HIS part to make their trip a little more
comfortable, e.g., let them travel with less luggage (in their case,
it included 4 suitcases, a pram and presumably one or more diaper
packs).

I do agree that in his case, Air India could have provided much better
service than they did (or didn't).

...

I do want to share my experience about Air India, to make almost the
exact opposite point. For several years, I heard many negative things
about Air India, and although I had never traveled on Air India before
1991, I used to wonder if I ever would want to! I never deliberately
tried to avoid AI or tried to travel only by AI, though. (Mostly the
airline that most of us choose is dictated by economic considerations,
I guess, which was the case with me.)

Last year, I got the only chance so far to travel by AI, on the leg
between Kuala Lumpur and Madras.  And boy, was I impressed!  I hold
that experience dearly in my memory. The impact was more the way it
was because of the mostly negative things I had heard of about AI, i
guess.

The food served during the short trip was great! (THIS was about the
only positive comment I heard about AI, though.) The cabin crew - both
men and women -  were very pleasant and professional. They were very
polite, something that I never expected given the stories that had been
narrated to me... I happened to sit next to an old lady, perhaps 65+
years old. She was very slow in eating her meal and was still barely
done with a quarter of it when everybody else was done and they came
to collect the empty trays. The stewardess (who, by the way, was very
pleasantly dressed in a beautiful saree), came to my neighbor a couple
of times to tell her that she should eat at her own pace ("Aaraam se
khaa lo") and not worry about their collecting trays, etc., and helped
her with other things. I was visibly touched by this incident. (Not
that old people are ill-treated on other airlines; it's just that AI
was not all that bad...)

Later, they served some very tasty dessert; I rarely ate that kind of
stuff, so I asked the same stewardess what it was. She wasn't sure,
but sure enough, she found out and returned to tell me what it was.
(For those who are curious, sorry I forgot what it was. Why don't you
find out by flying AI next time:-)

I say all this not to discount the main points Rajiv Kohli was trying
to make; I think AI could surely improve on that front. When my
parents traveled here by Lufthansa, TWA, Alitalia, etc., they got a
a free escort service to guide them from one terminal to another at
transit points, which made their trip considerably more comfortable!

--- Venu
Dr. Venu Dasigi      vdasigi@cs.wright.edu    vdasigi@valhalla.wright.edu
Dept. of CS&Eng, Wright State U, 3640 Col. Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435
Newsgroups: rec.travel