Samantha Rosen was one of the first 20 employees at TPG. She started as the site's first full-time social media editor and also served as its lifestyle editor.
This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.
Business Class: One Cranky Man's Review - Air India Business Class Review 2022 title=Air India Business Class: One Cranky Man's Review style=width:100%;text-align:center; onerror=this.onerror=null;this.src='https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2i_TCR4ALgx6vx9cXYf0mi63B8risZ-jwGYw5sdKkgIzd9L1GobE6_95HLr19GikrRwg&usqp=CAU'; />
So instead, let's travel back to 2017. On May 15 of that year, I joined the TPG team. The next day, Zach Honig published an article about 20 things he hated on an Air India flight back to New York. I remember that story going viral, and thinking, Who is Zach Honig? What is this Air India everyone is talking about? and most importantly, What in the world have I gotten myself into?
Air India (flights) Archives
I'm still searching for an answer to that last one, but my airline knowledge has definitely grown in three years. And now it's time for my own review of Air India. The one Zach wrote back then predated our scoring system for flight reviews. How would India's flag carrier fare today?
Well, long-haul business-class reviews have scored 79 points on average in the past year. And this flight on Air India was nowhere near that. So, fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a wild ride.
We used 75, 000 American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to Aeroplan to book this flight, and paid about $67 in taxes and fees. That's equivalent to $1, 567 at our valuations, i.e., cheap for a very long flight in a good biz-class seat, which this one was not.
Air India Customer Reviews
If you book on points and want to select your seat, you'll have to go to the Air India website and call the number listed under Customer Support. I called them to select mine, and although I had a hard time understanding the agent, it didn't take me more than a few minutes to get through to someone.
A word of advice: Stock up on Amex points with a card like the The Platinum Card® from American Express or the American Express® Gold Card. The former is offering a welcome bonus of 100, 000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6, 000 on purchases on the Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Then, if you're looking to fly nonstop between Delhi and New York, use those points to book a seat on United's service to Newark. It's better than Air India.
It started when my first flight from Male (MLE) to Delhi (DEL) with a stop in Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) was delayed. By the time we landed in Delhi, I only had 45 minutes to get to my flight to JFK. I was supposed to have three hours between the two flights, with the first landing at 10:35 p.m. and the one to JFK departing at 1:35 a.m.
Air India Business Class Review
Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), our original departure time of 1:35 a.m. was delayed until 2:00 a.m., giving me a bit more time to make my connection. Thankfully, I did not have any checked luggage.
Once I got off the plane, an airport staffer escorted me to the international transfers desk. It appeared that he had a list of people with short connections and my name was on it. At the desk, an agent chatted on the phone for over five minutes, all while scanning my passport and printing my boarding pass. The dreaded SSSS (secondary screening) was printed in the corner. Great.
I hustled through security and into the departures terminal. Thanks to my SSSS designation, I had to get my hands swabbed and go through an additional screening, but it didn't take much time and I didn't have to go to another part of the airport.
Inside The New Air India Boeing 777 300er Delivered Today!
While I was speedwalking through the terminal, I did notice a few shops open – even though it was the middle of the night —and how clean the airport was.
There is a business-class lounge, although as you might have guessed, I did not have even a second to take a peek. It's an Air India lounge, and Zach was able to check it out during his flight three years ago. He noted that there's a business-class section, as well as a hallway you can walk down to access the first-class lounge.
At the gate, all passengers were required to go through yet another security screening. There was a decent amount of seating at the gate, but not enough for all of the passengers on the Boeing 777-300ER, which seats 342 people in Air India's configuration. There was one charging station, and people were huddled around it. Naturally.
See Air France's New Long Haul Business Class Seat With Sliding Door
I made it right on time for boarding, so I didn't get to take a picture of the plane. We found in our archives a photo of the exact same jet, a 12-year old 777 registered VT-ALM, taking off from JFK in 2013.
Once we boarded the plane, at 2:15 a.m., we were told that we would be delayed by a mechanical issue but it would only take about 45 minutes or so. At this point, I was completely exhausted, so I sprawled on my lie-flat seat (more on that in a minute) and dozed off.
Ith a middle seat? Yes. Really! Granted, Emirates does that too, on most of its 777s. But Air India is, well... not Emirates.
Exclusive: Air India B747 Experience In The 1970s
I had picked an aisle seat, 12C, avoiding the middle. Rows 12 and 14 — row numbers on Air India 777s aren't consecutive, by the way — are located right behind the bathroom and kitchen. Usually, these mini-cabins are the place to be. Not in this case, even though there are no passengers in the two middle rows of the mini-cabin because the airline reserves them for crew rest. Coach class is right behind the mini cabin too, with no bulkhead, only a curtain betwen the two.
The woman sitting in the window seat behind me asked if I would switch with her so she could sit next to her husband. I politely declined, as I'm firmly on Team Aisle Seat. The passenger in the window seat behind me ended up switching, though, so it all worked out OK.
Upon boarding, flight attendants served water, juice or wine as a welcome drink. I opted for water. They did not offer Champagne until later.
Know How To Upgrade Air India Economy To Business For 75% Less Fare
My seat had a decent amount of legroom, but virtually no storage space. You see this little pocket right here? That's it. That's the storage.
To adjust the seat, you had to press one of these cute little buttons. Hard. Seriously, you had to press it with the exact amount of pressure and the right angle for it to work.
The comforters were stored in one of the overhead bins, and once we were in the air, flight attendants plopped one on my lap.
Live From A Lounge Does Air India Have First Class? No More It Seems
The two bathrooms available to the 35 business-class passengers were not kept very clean by the flight attendants. I used both at various points in the flight and neither was clean.
The one redeeming factor was the mood lighting that changed from blue to green to red. If you didn't know any better, you might look at this picture and think this plane was a super luxe, chill experience. You'd be wrong.
I was in the bulkhead seat, so the screen was on the wall. The rest of the TVs were behind the seats.
The Value Proposition Of Business Class Has Changed
You had to scroll, like a computer, with a cursor. And it wasn't a touchscreen. Not that there were any great movies to watch, but you get the point. I watched The Lake House, a movie from 2006 that I've seen a handful of times. That was literally the only thing that sounded appealing to me. They did have a decent selection of Bollywood movies, though.
In addition, they advertised a map, but every time I clicked on it, it said No flight data available. Same goes for the external cameras.
The remote would have been high-tech when Clinton was president. Worse yet, because the armrest was so thin, resting your arm on it would sometimes trigger some of the functionalities.
Air India Business Class: One Cranky Man's Review
As you might have guessed, there was not a Wi-Fi network in sight. Air India doesn't have it. It might, in the future. Maybe.
For starters, there wasn't a menu to be found. I literally had to track down flight attendants to ask them what the options to eat were. I slept through whatever the formal first meal service was, and they failed to wake me up. When I woke up on my own and asked, their response was Vegetarian or meat?
I didn't want to take my chances with meat, so I ended up getting the vegetarian meal. It was ravioli, which was actually pretty decent, as well as some bread and a side salad. Though the food wasn't bad, per se, the entire thng felt more like an economy experience.
Air India Flight Information
For example, when the flight attendant came over to bring the food, she held the tablecloth while I assembled the tray table which came out of the left
0 comments
Post a Comment