Which Is Your Choice Of Airline?

rachelinindia

of course! that weepy kinda twitchy look he gives?? - perfect examples in kabhi khushi kabhie gham

Aishah

ISN - thanks for link - checked it out, terrible stories. Air India would have to rate close to bottom of list I should think.
I will never be booking with them again, I might add.

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llj

Ok these posts about Air India terrify me! My ticket for tomorrow (!) was booked for me (no choice when traveling with family) but I was wondering what I could bring with me to make the trip more bearable. Definitely hand sanitizer - what else?

Should clarify that I am going the Chicago to Hyderabad route, which stops in Frankfurt and Mumbai.

iwanttogoback

qantas do great veg meals AND your meal comes out before the rest, so that's gotta be good.

ansett folded a few years ago unfortunately.

singapore - good food, great service. the attitude of their staff is outstanding, you're never made to feel that you're a burden because you're not gay. unfortunately, quite a few flight attendants on qantas deal with customers this way.

Khandoma

Had heard many bad things about Swiss, so I'd like to report that I just had a no-problem-at-all trip with them.
It was a cheapish ticket, 534 Euros, from Paris to Mumbai. That would be 387 £ or 30,400 INR. I bought it straight from the website after going through every discounter known to mankind. For my dates, the only cheaper option was Quatar with 6 to 10 hrs stopover each way.
One stopover in Zurich. 2 hrs on the way to Mumbai, 1h30 on the way back. Enough to get to the right concourse and pass security, not enough to spend your holiday budget in the very high-end shops. Zurich airport is extremely comfortable, leather chairs, silence, clear signs.
The Paris to Zurich leg was tops : plush leather seats, excellent staff. Zurich to Mumbai, we didn't get leather chairs but still they were comfortable enough with reasonable leg room for Economy class once you dump the airline magazines. Same on way back.
Food was all right, really, for a Western airline. Except that on the Mumbai to Zurich flight that left at 1 AM all they had to feed us with was one masala croissant per person. Breakfast the next morning was OK and plentiful.
Flight entertainment was several movies including one or two Indian ones, plus documentaries and episodes of series, and the usual music and games. I hated their choice of movies, and strongly disapprove of the domination of Swiss music in their line-up, but frankly there are worse things in life.
Mostly it was an extremely civilized flight. Very quiet. What amazed me was that the toilet floors remained dry all the way to Mumbai, and back ! Also, they offer complimentary lotion and cologne in dispensers, which is exactly what I need to fight off jetlag and shrek feet.
I should also mention that boarding procedures were very fast. I waited in line for maybe 15 mn in Paris, and in Mumbai I was directly taken to a free counter ! My seat and food requirements had been taken into account, and the luggage allowance, 20 kg, was good enough for me. All planes were on time, except the Mumbai to Zurich that was actually 10 mn early and had to circle over Zurich while waiting for the airport to open.
Would fly with them again.

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Diana

Just returned from round-trip (Seattle-Paris-Bangalore) on Air France and they were amazing. On time, CLEAN, very courteous, super food (for airline food), lots of movies/tv/games to choose from (personal DVD players), adjustable head-rests that you can actually use if you are short or tall, free wine ...and did I mention that their base, Chs. D'Gaulle (sp) in Paris is the MOST beautiful airport I've ever seen. I felt bad I only had a few hours to spend there! Pastries! Jewels! Funky French toys! And it was as cheap or cheaper than any of the other (except Air India and I'll never do THAT again. )

I give a BIG to Air France!

Now...why am I not seeing anything about them here????

I fly from the West Coast of the U.S. so can go east or west to India (I'm about exactly 1/2 way around the globe from Kerala). I'm trying to book my next trip (in August for 7 months) and have found good deals (for airfare that is) on Air France, Emirates, and British Air. All are about the same price and duration (one through Paris, one London, one with a 7 hour "shopping" layover in Dubai) so...any reason I shouldn't nab the Air France ticket? I mean, I've not flown Emirates or BA so I'd hate to miss something special.

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mridula

How about whichever throws the lowest fare or the one that my sponsoring agents prefer?

I liked BA, Emirates and Swiss, even Air Lanka was good as it gave me quite low fare to Singapore.

For domestic flights, the cheapest rule! Jetlite has been good so far, exit row seats every time till date.

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mridula

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Ignite

wow is Air India really that bad? Because everyone that goes from here always tells me that they're really nice, and even better than Air France. Maybe things are different from LAX? The prices for Singapore airlines and Air India are about the same, both around $1900 for a ticket in mid-July.

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Valini

Hey diana, I prefer to fly Air France too. From Bordeaux i only have two options really (unless i want two changes which is just silly!). either Bdx Lufthansa via francfurt or Munich then on to delhi or, as I much prefer, Bdx - Paris Air France then Paris- demhi air france.
It's great, i have a flight every hour from bdx to paris firstly a very short flight for which I only need to arrive half an hour in advance if i've already checked in online!!!!

Then as you say Diana, the long haul flight is very comfortable, great service and fun if you have a plane with the personal dvd thingy (NOTE: not all of them do!).
The best thing is though if you have any unusual requests or travel options, like say carrying a pet cat or something, they are really good and used to it, no worries.

It's also worth noting that Air India have teamed up with Air France. SO if you buy a ticket from the air india website from Delhi to paris you will actually fly on an Air France plane!!!!!!
(PLUS it is approx 150 euros cheaper! depending on the time of year).
However do note: if you book Air France from Bangalore to Paris you will fly on an Air India plane! (ive never done this but was what i was explained by the staff: confirmation anyone?).

Basically, something about Air India not flying over Pakistan? Don't know how right or wrong this is but worth noting.

All said, i'll be flying Air France again purely because its practical and since my final destination on the return trip will be france, with Mowgli the cat i'll be much safer!

oh and you get nice air miles too!

huimaster

ETIHAD is the one to beat

The rose on the toilet shows that money does not matter.
The airline flys via Abu Dhabi, U.A.E

dhans

My few cents:

Singapore Airlines, Malaysia, Cathay: tops.
BA, AF and Lufthansa allright, KLM not too good as they only hire FA's with an attitude.

Against flying BA: Heathrow.

A few words about code sharing. Find out whose really flying a certain flight on Amadeus
and then decide where you will book.

Hans

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Diana

Glad I'm not the only one having a good AF experience. And as you say, they do the little "extra"..for example, in my short layover in Paris (en route from Bangalore - Seattle) I dashed and bought a Citrone Tartellette (?) and REAL coffee. Made it all the way to my seat balancing the coffee and treat on a cute little (very Paris) tray and juggling my carry on when the cup of precious java took a dive. Before I could even stoop to mop up the spill a (very cute I must say) steward was on the scene. He even brought me a refill of coffee BEFORE take off! Made my day!

I don't know about the air miles (yet, haven't looked) but I don't think the info you received is correct. I just returned from Bangalore on a lovely AF airplane (logo, wine, DVD...) to Paris.

I do know they are partnered with Delta in the U.S. as that's who I originally booked with...the AF part was a nice surprise.

nycank

AI might code-share with AF hence sometimes a swap in metal. AF is the founding member with DL of the Skyteam alliance. I dunno if AI flies daily to CDG.

I do know that in the past, the business product of AF was not as good as DL between CDG-BOM, having flown both - I stuck to DL

Elsi

I'm flying wit FinnAir in 3 weeks time, guessed no one has flew with them?

karuna

We are slowly mounting a Welsh invasion of Indiamike!

Elsi- have you visited airlinequality.com? You'll find lots of reviews on there.

Best for me: Qatar (via Doha)
Worst: Turkish Air
Etihad were at the top end of OK. Inflight ents not working.
Gulf were ok.
Sick to death of indirect flights and suspect I may have to fork out for a direct one next time. If they promise not to lose my luggage I'll go with BA.....

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Indian Mona Lisa credited to Dinesh; can't find original uploader to credit in full.