Air India experience – Maharaja Reloaded.
Flew on the Trivandrum Bangalore sector on Air India after a loooong gap of 8yrs. I was feeling particularly patriotic (conveniently so since they were offering the best fares for the day). Was feeling a little uneasy not knowing what to expect when i reached the airport. To my surprise I found out that the vernacular language is the ‘one of choice’ at the checkin counter. So i resorted to malayalam with the airport staff…. Splendid malicious feeling thinking of non-keralite passengers. Some confusion regarding whether i could carry my guitar as cabin baggage or not. Finally the porter boys recco is what was decided on (That i could). Wouldn’t be surprised cos the staff at the counter thought my guitar was a violin !@%!@#!%!! Only the baggage boy identified the instrument.
Now I was thinking those legendary stories of the Indias carrier being perpetually late. But i found out that we took off 10 mins early and reached early too…. Looks like some things have changed over time.Pleasant.
Inflight experience is still ‘vintage’. The seats and cabin crew as expected look old and worn out except that the seats had stains from the ‘maharajas era’ itself. Evidently there is no cleaning done since i could see dust plastic and food particles that could have been atleast a week old on the floor. The inflight entertainment is restricted to visual since they don’t give headphones. Lucky me to have found one left unused by a passenger (thank You).
The food was an experience. I indicated a non-veg meal as preference silly me not knowing that they serve only VEG fares on this domestic sector. Was served and assortment of oily bonda bajji and rubbery paneer with some stale bread. The upside being the homely feel since it was being served by ‘motherly folks’. I was wondering… they don’t seem interested in serving it and I am definitely not interested in eating it. So…. why bother… 
All in all, I think the service would be splendid if air india domestic goes the budget airlines way. They are already doing a good job of flying people on time so i think cleaner cabins and NO FOOD would make this an excellent budget airline.
No related posts.
