Has seen better days. Review on Air India

People who have read my previous reviews already know that I travel a lot. We use Indian Airlines to Trichy, since Saudi Arabian (As was our only choice sometimes) flew only to Chennai.

Now I know it would be great to write a review on a single flight, but its not possible since I have flown countless times with them. This revu, like all my revus is a general opinion/expectation/product delivery of Indian Airlines, and then again the reason is because I have flown not just once.

Anyways - on reaching Chennai airport, I am usually tired as Saudi Arabian arrives early in the morning. And then of course the really chaotic rush at the airport to get the baggage(which usually takes an hour to get on the belt). Pass thru the nagging , often jealous customs officials, and out and into the domestic terminal.

The Indian Airlines counter for the trichy flight, on EACH AND EVERY Occasion, is located at the extreme end of the check in area (that means another walk, trudging in between check in lines). I don't know, but its always a fat Air India check in lady or another fatter IC rep who tags the bags. In fact, I travelled so much, she used to recognize me :P:P:P . Anywayz - she was ok to me, but I have seen her grumbling about her job and snapping at people(Well anywayz - at least she was nice to me).

And then again one is herded into the boarding area after being 'frsiked' by customs who also stamp your boarding card. And then comes the favorite part - the plane! yipeeeeee.

Trichy Airport is ridiculously small, so bigger planes are a big no-no. Its alwayz an A320 to Trichy. When you get on board , it alwayz amazes me to find the boarding door deserted!!! Seriously thatz a real low impression right there. Of course you find them in the plane'a aisles talking to their colleagues.

An old lady needing help stowing her bag, had to ask a particularly boisterous air hostess a million times before she turned and assisted her.

Ah hell! Who cares about the crew?

But one aspect that I DO care about is the food. And on IC, you feel so humliated, the food comes in a box, and the reason why I feel humiliated is because the food shows nothing about India. croissants,cheese sandwhich and orange juice???? COME ONNNNNNNNN!!!!!!! Ok there was this ONCE when I got a reaaaalllly spicy samosa, but then yeh to mera desh ki food hai;) I loved, but the other times itz pathetic. I always pass it back to the crew when they collect the empty boxes (lolz) After the meal service is done, they are just gone - u don't see them until the seat belt sign comes on!

Oh about the flight, I find it ok. Not noisy and quite a smooth ride.

Plane lands - periamma and periappa va paaka poren!!! (Gonna see my aunt and uncle) And its awesome, when you see that all of a sudden the crew become soooo polite , a few jokes are passed around, along with - ''We'll miss you'' , ''goodbye'', and as you pass through the aisle its nice to note one hostess say ''sambhalke ..... shukriya'' and another one on the opposite side ''Kavanam.....nandri'' (note that they alternate these and don't say careful and thankx as one sentence - that would be dumb!!!)

I think itz this aspect of Indian Airlines that keeps their customers coming back to them. When you leave the plane, you are left with an echoing ''namaste'' by a smiling (now beautiful:p) hostess. I think I would give Indian Airlines an OK sign. liked Jet Airways a lot better, and it was worth the extra money.

Recently IC has planned 43 Airbus aircraft, its now or never for them to improve. And In my opinion that orange livery is simply outdated, if they want they could keep the orange, but make the IA a little stylized, and the horrid black noses MUST go.

Comments welcome!

PS - I love their veena music when passengers are boarding the plane.