Tag Archives for air india.
Air India has done something frequent flyer programs almost never do: it made many of its own award tickets cheaper, with especially big gains in economy and meaningful reductions on North America business class. Lowest-price awards also no longer need to be booked as far in advance, making the cheaper pricing easier to actually use.
Air India will begin weighing flight attendants under a new health and fitness policy starting May 1, with overweight crew removed from duty and, in some cases, taken off payroll until they clear medical review. The airline says the BMI-based crackdown is about safety and fitness, but it also comes in the middle of a broader effort to remake Air India’s image with new uniforms, stricter standards, and a very public brand reset.
Air India sent passengers on a flight to nowhere after dispatching a leased ex-Delta Boeing 777 that did not have enough emergency oxygen for the route it was flying. Much of the early coverage blamed the aircraft type or Canada paperwork, but the real problem appears to have been that this specific subfleet was not properly configured for the terrain-critical routing.
Passenger Ankit Dewan says an Air India Express captain confronted him in the staff security line at Delhi Terminal 1 after he objected to crew cutting ahead, insulted him as “anpadh,” and then struck him near the frisking area, leaving him bloodied. Dewan also claims he was pressured to sign a letter agreeing not to pursue the incident so his family wouldn’t miss their flight.
Air India has sold a 43-year-old Boeing 737-200 that sat abandoned at Kolkata airport for more than a decade because the airline had literally forgotten it owned the aircraft. The jet only resurfaced after the airport asked Air India to remove it, revealing how badly the former state-run carrier’s records and oversight had deteriorated prior to privatization.
He paid for luxury and got bed bugs, broken seats, and a bleeding finger instead. After a nightmare flight from Delhi to Toronto, Air India decided the ordeal was worth just $120 in “compensation.”
The crash of Air India flight 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick on June 12 may have been an intentional act. Investigators are focusing on the positions of fuel cutoff switches in the cockpit.
This may be the strangest lounge review I’ve ever written. It combines two different lounges I did not visit.
There were 230 passengers and 12 crew onboard – and there was one survivor, who walked away from the crash. Thirty eight year old Ramesh Vishwaskumar Bucharvada, who was seated in 11A behind an emergency exit, is being treated at a nearby hospital.
After a brief, steep climb to roughly 625 feet, the aircraft issued a mayday, lost radio contact seconds later, and came down in the densely populated Meghani Nagar district.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
