Travel

Fall / Winter Break 2019 - 2020
21 November 2019 - 4 January 2020

“Air India managed to turn the Dreamliner into the Nightmareliner.”
Mattopia Jones

---

Air India: World's Worst Airline

Who knew it was even possible to take a modern aircraft, remove all contemporary conveniences, and then retrofit it with all of the old-school inconveniences of yore?

Matty will get back to that thought. But first, how about the challenge of even purchasing a ticket for an Air India flight?

Matty recounts how innocently it all began. He was anxious to leave Seoul — it was cold — and get to India — a place he’d been wanting to visit for years. Everything’s on cruise control as he arrives at the Seoul Incheon airport. At check-in, he was asked to provide information regarding his flight departing India. He didn’t have it. He, after all, likes to make it up as he goes. Plans all depended on how well — or poorly — things went.

The courteous attendant at the counter advised Matty they could be fined by the Indian government if they allowed him on the plane without a documented departure. Purchase a refundable ticket, she advised, in order to maintain that flexibility.

So, Matty stepped aside from the queue and attempted to book a ticket on his iPad. No biggie. That’s how the flight from Seoul to Mumbai was booked, on the iPad while on the road. And yet, all efforts to book through AirIndia.com failed. He kept getting a “multiple windows” error when attempting to complete the purchase. The site was only on one browser, one tab. He tried alternate browsers on his iPad. Safari. Chrome. Firefox. VPN on, VPN off. They all failed. iPad, iPhone. It didn’t matter. How about the app? He downloaded it, went through the booking rigors. Same issue. It reminded him of a problem he encountered using Orbitz; that incident led to taking a complaint all the way to the BBB, with no resolution. Matty's convinced he found a glitch in the Orbitz system. Of course, they did a big no-no; they blamed the end user and demonstrated no interest in getting further information about the problem encountered.

This was taking way too long. Matty then booked the desired flight — leaving at 23:00 on 23 December — through a third-party site. That makes for 11 full days of travel in India.

It’s not his favorite way to do things — he prefers the direct purchase, without the hassles and entanglements of the middle man (the Orbitz incident paved the way to this stance). Nonetheless, the flight got booked. And all his airport “leisure” time had evaporated.

Now for the planes.

What happened to the cushions? Were they baked for a pre-set level of discomfort? The entertainment system didn’t work. Comfort of any sort seemed to have been intentionally removed.

All told, Matty endured four Air India flights — three were an absolute nightmare.

1. There were mechanical issues prior to departing Seoul for Delhi. Everyone was left on the plane for a couple hours while the problem was fixed. Several weeks into the trip, Matty didn’t particularly mind the forced down time, but concerns grew about making the connecting from Delhi to Mumbai.
2. Surpisingly, the Mumbai connection was held back. That was good. What was bad was a torrential downpour in Delhi further aggravated the situation. With the connection delay, Matty and a handful of others were escorted from gate to gate in order to make the flight, but that didn’t stop yet another security check from extending the tension. Matty was the last soul to get on the plane headed for Mumbai. And then it was another round of hurry up and wait. People were starting to protest and asking to be let off the plane. "I don't want to go anymore," protested one woman. Ultimately, Matty arrived in Mumbai and made it all the way down to the hotel. Bummer: it was too late for a beer, per Indian law.
3. The one tolerable flight was from Mumbai to Aurangabad. A mere 80-minute puddle jump of a flight. Air India got lucky.
4. The worst of the worst was the horrible late-night Delhi-Bangkok flight. The air blower blew warm air. It was remarkably uncomfortable. By the time Matty arrived in Bangkok, he was totally stuffed up. It was so bad, he couldn't even hear. Even so, he managed to make his way through immigration. While waiting for his checked bag, he blew his nose. What a revelation. After an astounding amount of crud was evacuated from his nostrils, he was able to hear again.

And, of course, there were the protests hampering Indian travel. Matty was lucky to have arrived in Delhi when he did; after checking into his hotel room, news reports started surfacing of flight delays as protestors blocked traffic, making it impossible for passengers and flight crews alike to make it to the airport.

But let's double-down on the challenges. Fog. Lots of thick fog. As Matty looked to exit India, the fog became a major concern as more flights were grounded.

From the original Mattskrit:

“I spent the Christmas holiday staying at the Hard Rock Hotel in Pattaya. I loved the place. Fantastic location right off the water, plus I had a room with a terrific view of the pool and the ocean. It's the first time I've stayed at a place where I vowed I would not only return, but also request the same room. What was going to be only two nights kept getting extended. I wound up staying for four nights.

“A huge motivator for staying longer was the fact I simply couldn’t stand the thought of getting on another plane after that horrid flight from Delhi. As I lounged by the pool, it turned into one of those ’I know it and you know it’ conversations that I have with myself on occasion. In this case, it was about the importance of putting Air India behind me and getting back on a plane in order to go to Chiang Mai for New Year's Eve. I was so disgusted and sickened by the flight from Delhi to Bangkok, I really didn't want to fly anywhere.”

There was no surprise as Matty sifted through the daily newspaper in his hotel room and saw stories about the likelihood of Air India going bankrupt. A road show attempting to entice investment from other airlines flopped.

Here are some of the stories revealing corruption and a government desperate to cut subsidies and set the airline on a flight to privitization.

• View from the Wing
• Financial Times
• The Hindu Business Line (in the interest of balance, this one points out some positive aspects of Air India)

---