Air India Economy Class: My Impressions After Four Flights
I took four Air India economy class flights during a recent trip to Asia: These are my impressions of flying with Air India and transiting through Delhi Airport.
While there were many positive aspects to Air India’s economy class, there were also some negative ones, and overall I’m still conflicted what to think about the whole experience.
On my trip, I took two long-haul flights on Air India’s Boeing 787 in economy class (Frankfurt to Delhi, Delhi to Vienna), as well as two mid-haul flights on an Airbus A320neo (Delhi to Singapore, Bangkok to Delhi).
Although I will write full reviews of some of these flights in the near future, I already wanted to share some of my main impressions about Air India’s economy class right now.
The legroom on Air India’s Boeing 787 is decent
One positive aspect of Air India’s economy class on the Boeing 787 is that I found the legroom to be much better than anticipated.
Being 1.85 meters (6’1″) tall, I still had quite a bit of space between my knees and the seat in front of me, which indicates that the seat pitch was good.
The legroom and seat comfort on the Airbus A320neo on the other hand were average and not as great as on the Boeing 787, but that’s to be expected when comparing a widebody with a narrow-body plane.
Of course, you can’t expect any economy class flight to be really comfortable these days, but I still found my Air India flights to be better than expected in this regard.
Air India’s Boeing 787’s are in an appalling state
Although my seat was fine, the state of the economy class cabin on Air India’s Boeing 787 was clearly not.
Both Boeing 787s on which I flew (tail numbers VT-ANA and VT-ANT) showed significant wear and tear and were in dire need of a deep clean.
On my first Air India Boeing 787 flight from Frankfurt to Delhi, the doors of the lavatories almost fell out, as passengers struggled to open, close, and lock them.
Although there were power sockets, these were broken as well.
Then there were the issues with the in-flight entertainment system.
On my Delhi-Vienna flight, only the seat map function of the in-flight entertainment system worked.
Any attempt to select a film resulted in an error message: “The media content is unavailable”.
It wasn’t just my IFE screen which showed such errors, as my seat neighbour was also unable to select any film to her dismay, and people in other rows nearby faced similar issues.
On my Frankfurt-Delhi flight, none of the in-flight entertainment screens in the entire block of seats around me worked, although other passengers seated further away from me seemed to be more lucky.
If you fly Air India, you are highly advised to bring your own entertainment with you!
Air India has tasty food in economy class
Airline food in economy class can be hit-or-miss, with many airlines serving small portions of tasteless grub.
Fortunately, highly aromatic Indian cuisine performs exceptionally well in the low-pressure and high-altitude conditions of an airplane cabin, and will still be full of flavour.
As you might expect from India’s flag carrier, they certainly know how to serve delicious Indian food on board.
Instead of the typical airline choice of chicken or beef, Air India offers a choice between ‘veg’ (vegetarian) or ‘non-veg’ (usually chicken) in economy class.
I tried out both the vegetarian meals, as well as the non-veg meals, and I found both to be of great quality with acceptable portion sizes.
If I’d order Indian takeaway at home and I would be given a similar quality meal I would be very satisfied, which is all the praise you need for an economy class airline meal.
Service is hit-and-miss on Air India
When it comes to the service on board, I have mixed impressions about Air India’s economy class.
Overall, the flight attendants were friendly and tried their best to make the flights as pleasant as possible for passengers, so I have no complaints about them.
There were however some aspects about the service flow that puzzled me, as well as some other inconsistencies.
On all four flights, service began with a drinks round, followed by food being served 30 to 60 minutes later.
Although each meal did contain a cup of water, no additional drinks were served with the meals, which I found a bit disappointing.
On my Bangkok to Delhi flight, no pre-meal drinks round took place at all, as there was only a meal service with a cup of water, plus tea and coffee served after the food.
Overall, the process could certainly be more streamlined and improved in quality.
Air India doesn’t do mobile boarding passes
Although this may differ for domestic flights or direct international flights to and from India, I was unable to obtain a mobile boarding pass for my connecting Air India flights.
Sure, I could check in online, but after completion I received a message stating that I still had to report to the check-in desk to collect a proper boarding pass, which was a bit annoying given that I was traveling with hand-luggage only.
Sometimes this is done because the airline wants to verify already at the check-in desks whether or not you have the right travel documentation, such as a valid passport and visa.
However, with Air India, it seemed to be connected more to some weird bits of bureaucracy.
At Frankfurt Airport, Air India gate agents patrolled the gate area to compare every person’s boarding pass with their passport, and then put a stamp on each boarding pass as proof it was verified.
Similarly, at Delhi Airport, you must have your boarding pass checked and stamped by an officer when you make an international connection.
Delhi Airport isn’t great for an international transit
This brings me to the next disadvantage of flying with Air India: The international transit procedure at Delhi Airport isn’t efficient.
If you connect at Delhi Airport to another Air India flight, you will likely spend a considerable amount of time in queues and dealing with bureaucratic procedures.
Before you can clear transit security, you must report to a transit desk or transit official to have your name crossed off a list of connecting passengers.
The official will then put a stamp or scribble on your boarding pass to prove that this has been done.
Only then can you actually queue for transit security, as the officials there will send you back if they find that your boarding pass isn’t stamped.
Unfortunately, transit security is an enormously slow process at Delhi Airport, as there are not only just one or two baggage scanners in operation, but there are also numerous secondary bag checks.
Both times I passed through Delhi Airport, the entire process took nearly two hours.
In all fairness, I have to say that even though the process is bureaucratic and can be stressful if you are on a tight connection, it will all likely work out fine in the end.
Airport officials will call passengers on flights set to depart and allow them to go to the front of the queue to ensure nobody misses their flight.
That’s all fine, of course, but at the same time it’s also quite annoying to suddenly see dozens of passengers being rushed to the front of the queue while you have already been waiting there for an hour.
Once you get past all the queues, Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 which Air India uses is actually a rather pleasant place, with enough bars and shops to keep you occupied.
Economy class mileage earning is excellent
Getting a decent amount of frequent flyer miles can be tricky if you are booking an economy class ticket, as many of the cheaper flight deals book into low booking classes that earn nothing at all, or just a handful of miles only.
I found that this is certainly not the case with Air India, as I managed to earn a lot of miles for a relatively cheap economy class ticket.
For my open-jaw Air India ticket from Frankfurt to Singapore, with the return portion from Bangkok to Vienna, I paid 530 euro.
The outbound ticketed into booking class G, while the inbound ticketed into booking class Q.
Air India booking class G and Q both earn a full 100% mileage of the distance flown with Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, the frequent flyer program I use to collect Star Alliance miles.
In total, I accrued 11,660 frequent flyer miles with my Air India flights – not a bad total at all for economy class!
For what it’s worth, SAS EuroBonus also awards 100% of the miles flown for these booking classes, while Aegean Airlines Miles+Bonus awards 50%.
Conclusion
There are both advantages and disadvantages to Air India’s economy class, and it depends on what you are looking for whether the airline will be a good match for you.
Overall, I liked the amount of legroom and the food quality in economy class on Air India, but on the downside the cabin on their Boeing 787 is extremely worn out, with lots of wear and tear and a non-functioning in-flight entertainment system.
There are some disadvantages too when it comes to the transit experience at Delhi Airport, especially when you compare it to the big hubs of Doha, Dubai, or Singapore, all of which make for a more pleasant place to take a connecting flight.
That said, one of the main reasons why I actually opted for Air India over other airlines was the great mileage earning.
Even on a relatively cheap economy class ticket, I earned a lot of frequent flyer miles, which wouldn’t have been the case on similar fares posted by other airlines.
It’s also worth mentioning that Air India is currently in the middle of a modernisation process, with the airline in the process of acquiring brand new planes and refreshing the interior of its current fleet.
I’m curious to see how the economy class product of Air India will look like in a decade from now, as I can imagine that many of the current negative aspects will have been resolved by then.
