Travel and Personal

An Ode to Air India

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ November 9, 2005 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I know. I said Air India sucked. But after 5 hours on board I’m beginning to appreciate some of the subtle benefits too. Yes. the air hostesses still say, “chairs upright, fasten seatbelts!” like Generals. They aren’t all pretty, especially the ones that should have retired years ago.

Yet, there’s surprises galore. They started yesterday, when the woman at the call center spent 15 minutes answering my questions in very good humor. At Mumbai airport I ran into ground personnel that cracked jokes while they responded to my problem, at 3 in the morning.

But its in the air that I’ve found the biggest difference. The young stewardesses are very friendly and cheerful indeed. Its not often that you ask for something on an airplane and receive it with a smile. It does happen here – sometimes.

Besides, I’ve been fed like a pig since I came on board. Breakfast, juice, crackers, more drinks, more crackers, and now a humungous lunch. The blanket is fullsize. The cabin is full of friendly chatter. And years of pro-labor policies means the main cabin is crawling with crew members. Its a little chaotic, with three people coming to collect trash, but talk about good response time!

So, could this be the famed Indian hospitality? I think yes, but its overshadowed by more mundane matters. The plane is falling apart and the crew has to make do with that they have – faulty curtains, jammed food carts, and a crowded cabin. They manage nevertheless.

I still know I’ll try and avoid AI. The planes are old, and Indian’s haven’t yet grasped airline etiquette. But this, my first trip on AI, has made me seriously look beyond the clinical efficiency of European and American carriers. Sure, the checkin is faster, and the english more “polite”. But they lack a certain human quality that AI has retained – for better and worse.