Air India Reviews

I have been faithful Air India customer for over 40 years, in-spite of few bad experiences, never complained but justified saying a lot is due to unruly passengers. But what happened this time leaves me an awful feeling. I cannot imagine TATA run company can be this abysmal! Air India’s system had all my information including my full name as it is in my passport (I filled it all out upon checking in online the day before) as well as the name on my ticket. No alert was given about middle name. These are the nuisances levels of ** officers use harass ordinary people to secure bribes day in and day out. Spreading that culture elsewhere in the world is TATA’s contribution?

When I asked why this was necessary, I was told it was to include lounge access. However, my original boarding pass already showed lounge access. After issuing the new passes, the staff member disappeared, leaving us without any guidance. To make matters worse, when I finally reached the lounge, the staff informed me that lounge access had not been included in my new boarding pass at all.

What was the purpose of this entire procedure? We spent over an hour in poor conditions for no clear reason. This was absolutely unacceptable: long delays, no communication, poor service, and incorrect documentation. The seat was not functioning properly. When I tried to recline it, it didn’t move at all and got stuck in one position. This made a more than 10-hour flight in business class extremely uncomfortable. Additionally, it was impossible to watch anything on the in-flight entertainment system because the volume control did not work, there were only two settings: no sound or maximum volume. Overall, this was a very disappointing experience for a business class cabin.

Despite repeated follow-ups, there has been no accountability, no proper updates, and no concern shown for a passenger’s health and safety. An airline should understand that luggage is not just “stuff” — it can contain life-saving medication. This level of irresponsibility and lack of compassion is shocking. I would strongly warn anyone traveling with medical needs to think twice before flying with this airline. This situation has caused emotional distress, anxiety, and put my father’s health at risk.

Flight hours from BLR-SFO were more than 22hrs with fuel stop at Delhi and flight arrived at SFO 2hrs 30 minutes late. The fuel stop is the most annoying part of the return journey as the plane landed in Delhi at 10AM in the morning and left Delhi at 1:30PM. It was already late to arrive at Delhi from BLR. All the while passengers must sit in the plane.

Check-in issues. In the onward journey for the flight from Mumbai to Visakhapatnam via Bangalore at Mumbai airport they gave boarding pass only till BLR citing technical issues. At Bengaluru airport we have take all our baggage out and recheck-in and clear security. And again, board plan to Vishakhapatnam. And there was some issue providing boarding pass for Vishakhapatnam the staff at the counter were rude and could not provide the boarding pass. I have literally fight with the Air India Express staff to get boarding pass to Visakhapatnam. How on earth can this happen? They could neither do thorough check-in of my luggage nor provide boarding pass for the full journey. Really… Really… frustrating.

On the return journey at the Visakhapatnam airport (VSKP-BLR-SFO) Air India Express staff could not do through check-in of luggage again citing technical issues. Because of this we need to collect our baggage and again re-check in Bangalore. I raised this issue with Air India staff at Bangalore, but they rudely said you should ask Air India Express and not us. This I totally don’t understand as they are same company or related companies and there is absolutely lack of coordination between them. Post check-in the immigration team would not allow us as we could enter only 4 hrs prior to flight departure and we have wait 2 hrs. outside before immigration let us in.

Baggage issues. Torn baggage. On onward journey the baggage we received at Mumbai Airport is torn with some of the belongings in bag coming out. I approached the Airport staff and after 2 hours of struggle they provided me another bag and all this after 20hrs of flying with kids and 2 hrs. flight delay. Because of this delay our onward journey program was completely disturbed. Lost Baggage. After 22 + hrs of travel in a very inadequate Air India flight cabin we reached SFO airport cleared immigration only to wait almost 1hr to know that 2 Baggage’s are missing. There was no clear communication by the Air India staff at the belt which left us stranded with kids for more than 2 hours and we were asked to wait in huge queue for PIR. Since I am already having issues with kids I could no longer wait and left the airport with my 2 Baggages missing.

Long queue is because one single Air India staff dealing with lot of passengers. The explanation provided is some 96+ baggages did not board the flight at Delhi as they could not accommodate. Delhi is fuel stop only as per the Air India announcement how can they leave luggage at Delhi if they are already checked-in and loaded at Bangalore.

Inadequately equipped Cabins. In International flight with flying hours more than 20hrs the cabin inside the plan is very inadequately equipped. In the onward journey – the infotainment screen is either not working or slow to respond, and crew cannot help to resolve the issue. In the return journey we could not turn on the reading lights as the remote that controls it is not functional and 90% of screens are not functional and they asked us to use Vistara Wi-Fi and our own devices. If this would have been any other developed country, they would never accept such a journey that Air India is offering to its international customers.

Looks like they believe they can get away with any sort of lapses with Indian customers. Overall... It Is Worst Experience of My Life to Travel In Air India and Recommend Not to Travel with Air India. I wish Air India will improve though I haven’t seen any signs on it since last 5 years of my travel (6 round trips from SFO).

THE GOOD: During my travel I noticed that the flight personnel do their best to accommodate their passenger needs. The in-flight crew were visibly disturbed by the disruptions experienced by the customers and showed their empathy towards the travelers. So, I give the crew including the flight attendants and the pilots an A+ for their sincere hard work to take care of their customers. In addition, the airline has worked to provide healthy and tasty meals to their travelers by carefully choosing their supply chain vendors.

THE BAD and THE UGLY: I experienced extreme discomfort and stress when I had to unload my suitcase and golf bag after my arrival in Delhi from Manila. The person that was supposed to load my golf bag on to the belt refused to do so and complained that the golf bag is too heavy! I had to beg and plead with the person and finally I put the bag on to the belt! This caused a delay and I had to literally run to the gate to catch my flight to Bangalore. This is the worst arrangement that Air India has adopted to make the passengers recheck and go through customs and immigration in Delhi instead of Bangalore.

My return to Manila on December 15th was the worst experience I have incurred in my 50 years of international travel! Here is how it went: When I checked in to my flight in Bangalore, I was told that the flight is delayed by one hour and the ground staff worked to put me on an earlier flight which took off 45 minutes late! When we arrived in Delhi, we were told that our flight to Manila was on time. When we went to the gate at the time of boarding we were told that the gate was changed and we had to literally run to the new gate and we found out that, there were passengers on an earlier flight looking confused and noisily arguing with the ground staff and the ground staff had no clue about the status of the two flights; one to Manila and the other to another Asian city!!!

We were requested by the ground staff to wait in the lounge (Business passengers) and we will be informed by the ground staff about the departure time. Much to my chagrin, this charade continued in the most chaotic manner until we were told to board the bus that just stopped outside the gate after 4 hour delay in the Delhi airport!! Potential solution? I am sure TATA management brought in an experienced New Zealander to head the airline to bring in western style of management, like, discipline, punctuality and customer service, but, I never saw any of those concepts implemented in this self-inflicted pandemonium by the CEO!

I wondered (as I am an engineer) what would I do if I am faced with this management issue? First thing came to my mind was "communication". It seemed like there was no proper communication from the top to the bottom rung of of the management ladder. I would have formed groups of travelers in accordance with their flight numbers and a lead person is appointed and that lead person takes care of feeding the travelers with lunch from the local eateries and be in constant communication with the travelers. A simple arrangement like this would have avoided all the chaos and confusion in the Delhi airport. Constant, orderly communication will always avoid the misunderstanding, anxiety and stress for the travelers.

The situation was made even worse by what happened at the airport. After boarding, we were made to sit inside the aircraft for nearly 4 hours while engineers attempted to fix a technical issue. When the problem could not be resolved, we were instructed to deboard the aircraft and wait for several additional hours until the faulty part was replaced. This caused significant discomfort and frustration for everyone on board.

After arrival, our baggage was delivered only more than 48 hours later, and even then, it was delivered in two separate trips—one in the morning and one in the evening—forcing us to remain home for the entire day. Because of these delays, we missed important family functions and had to purchase new clothes, resulting in significant inconvenience and unexpected expenses.

This trip was the first-ever visit for my children, and sadly, Air India did not leave any opportunity to make it a worse experience for them. They did not have their clothes for the first three days, and even after the baggage finally arrived, their toiletries were missing. This created unnecessary stress and discomfort for the children, who were already tired from the long series of delays and disruptions.

To add to the frustration, the customer representative failed multiple times to send us the flight disruption report that we required. When it was finally sent, it incorrectly showed that the flight had departed on time, which is entirely inaccurate and unacceptable given the extreme delays we experienced. Such misinformation adds to the disappointment and raises concerns about transparency and accountability.

Furthermore, Air India did not send any feedback request for the 14 November flight, despite the severe inconvenience faced by all passengers. Given the magnitude of the disruption, collecting feedback should have been a priority. Finally, my return flight on 11 December was also delayed by an hour, adding to an overall pattern of poor reliability.

To make things worse, the routing was tampered with – instead of flying as booked, the flight was diverted, adding unnecessary stress and chaos. This is not a “minor inconvenience.” This is outright cheating. We were sold a Business Class experience, charged Business Class fares, and then shoved back into Economy like second-class citizens. The audacity to call this “regrettable” while keeping the money borders on fraud. Air India’s attitude is equally shocking. Instead of offering solutions, compensation, or even basic courtesy, they expect passengers to silently accept downgrades and schedule changes. For a national carrier, this level of arrogance and mismanagement is shameful.

Key takeaways for future passengers: Don’t waste your money on upgrades – Air India will happily pocket it and still seat you in Economy. Don’t expect reliability – flights get cancelled or rerouted at their whim. Don’t expect accountability – you’ll get copy-paste apologies and zero resolution. Air India is not just unreliable – it’s unethical. Flying with them is a gamble where you pay for Business but end up with Economy, delays, and indignity. For a long-haul journey that should have been comfortable, Air India managed to turn it into a nightmare. Verdict: One of the worst airline experiences of our lives. A shameful betrayal of customer trust.