My brother will be studying abroad this summer in Paris. There%26#39;s a savings of $300 if he flies Air India. The most recent thread for Air India I can find on this forum is from November, so I thought I%26#39;d post and ask again if a $300 savings would be worth rolling the dice for. Obviously a $300 savings is huge to a college student. Any experiences would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
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Sorry, I should mention the flight he%26#39;s looking at is a direct flight Newark to Charles DeGualle (and sorry if I spelled that wrong...)
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We just came back from Paris this week and we flew Air India. Ironically we are indians, and we have flown it before to India (we were very hesitant at first to book this, but the $400 savings per person was too much).
I gotta say, I hate Air India with a passion. To be honest, its worth it to spend the money to fly another airline. The flight there was ok, since we had a new plane with our own tvs. But the flight back was AWFUL. An older plane that was FULL. I hate to be racist against my own people, but a plane full of Indians from india does not smell good... The service is mediocre at best, and the food is terrible. I won%26#39;t do it again, no matter how much cheaper it is!!
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I don%26#39;t think you are being racist. It%26#39;s a perfectly valid observation. Out of all the check-in desks at Chicago last time I was there, the Air India one had a strong odour around it. Now, people might say %26#39;ooh, you can%26#39;t say that%26#39; but as an objective review of an airline, all aspects must be taken into account.
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kat - a friend of mine flew Air India from Mumbai to Paris a few months ago - he said it was the worst flying experience he%26#39;d ever had - besides the incredibly poor service inflight, his major complaint was the terrible communication between the Air India airline personnel and the passengers pre-flight. I would say the extra $300 to fly on another airline would be money well spent.
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Well alright then, I%26#39;ll let him know! He%26#39;s pretty laid back, but three fairly emphatic %26quot;NO!%26quot;%26#39;s will probably steer him to invest the extra money... And will certainly make me spend the extra when and if I visit him. Thanks for the advice!!
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I am doomed. I just booked a flight on Air India out of sheer desperation as I am leaving in 10 days. The flight was over $400 less than the others. Sounds like I will need a big dose of Benadryl, nose plugs and my iPod pumped loudly. I just pray I get to and from Paris in one piece.
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College students must be more mollicoddled than they were in my student days if they%26#39;d be put off by these kind of moans. The crucial question is surely whether he%26#39;ll get to his destination in one piece. If the answer to that is %26#39;yes%26#39; any student worth his salt will grin and bear it and keep the saved cash for something more useful.
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I am flying Air India to Paris next week. I have had the reservations since November - last week they canceled my return flight and I have to take a flight the next day. Now an extra day in Paris is wonderful, but the extra lodging and food is very expensive. Since I booked it through Expedia, they handled the changes in flight and lodging for me - I gave up doing it myself after hanging on hold for 45 minutes listening to horrible Indian music. Everyone I spoke to at Air India gave me another number to call and several of them were very rude. Since everything is paid for, I have no choice - we%26#39;ll see if everything goes well after this. I%26#39;ll be back on the 24th and will respond again after that.
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I just returned from Paris flying Air India. The flight there was very good, on time, and comfortable. However, the flight home was a flight from Hell. I called the day before to verify times and our reservation and was told we would be leaving at 2:30 PM Paris time. When we got to the airport the next day, we were told we were leaving at 6:40 - we didn%26#39;t leave until 7:40. The plane we were changed to was a connecting flight from Bombay to Newark, so many Indians were already camped out around their seats. As we were boarding, they made us take our shoes off in the loading hallway to check for bombs (I guess), then they made us put everything down again at the plane%26#39;s door and patted each of us down. On the plane, none of the controls worked at our seats, so we had no sound for the movies, no radio, and no reading lights. We were near the galley, and there was a bell that went off every second (no lie) and it went on for 7 hours! The staff was rude, the other passengers were pushy, and the bathrooms were filthy by the end of the trip. The food was lousy, but we expected that and brought some pretzels. I would pay more rather than put up with that mess. Good luck.
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Great.....we booked cheap Air India tix through skyauction for our trip late May. Well, the good news is that the flight there will be taking us to Paris :-). The bad news is that the (now expected) lousy return flight will be taking us away from Paris. Sounds like I better stock up on food at the airport before boarding the return flight.
Yikes!!
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