Sans Maharaja Treatment . Review on Air India

With so many private Airlines foraying into the Air market, by now the air travelers, must have established a baseline as to how the Air India's On board staff, ground staff must have got on your nerve most of the time. I have been traveling by Air since age 4. My first flight had been with Air India. Such horrible tales to tell, but owing to the 8k limit imposed and my poorer memory and recollections, I have to turn this review around in a different way for the benefit of reading pleasure.

The treatment you get once you board the AI carrier is somewhat different. Chennai is known for auto drivers who charge you way too much for a destination. But the best part is at least they treat you with respect in return. Coming to Air India, Right from the ground staff to the stewardess I had to, in the past, put up with the obtuse staff.

What is the first impression you get from any Aircraft while you enter? Or rather who is the first impression? You are greeted with a Namaskaar and you are told where to go for the seats. After receiving 95 such Namaskaar Here is how I categorized Namaskaar in broadly 5 categories with effect to what message I actually got from them.

break up of the 95 Namaskaar - I have traveled by this airline 24 times. That’s one Namaskaar per stewardess pays you for boarding and one while you leave. So 24 multiplied 2 times is 48. Usually there are two stewardess' so that makes 48 times 2 makes it 96. But then there was this stewardess who didn’t give a Namaskaar to me while I was disembarking. She told me to move fast because I am blocking the way. I was only 11 years old

Namaskaar # 1 - I hope to never see you again..

Namaskaar # 2 - Hijack this airline for all I care

Namaskaar # 3 - Ok, I have to put up this, so here goes...

Namaskaar # 4 - Oh my gosh, I hope my dentures don’t fall off.

Namaskaar # 5 - What ever you do, don’t ask me for help when you throw up.

I heard lot of them say that the staff is mostly old. Well, I don’t have any problems with that. I don’t fly to drool at the young Hostess’ either. The problem is they are just too brash and sometimes they make you feel that you’ve chosen the wrong airline. I don’t say that they are all like that. Just the reference to the times I've traveled. And most of the time I’ve traveled, they were bad.

I recollect one particular Incident though. I was 8 years old and I was traveling alone. Unaccompanied minors do have a privilege of constantly being monitored and taken care of by the flight attendants and ground staff till they are handed over to the guardians or parents who come over there to receive them. Traveling from Hyderabad to Bombay and Bombay to Riyadh, I was supposed to be under the responsibility of the ground staff as well as the flight attendants. After My dad picked me up at Riyadh, I swore that I would rather travel alone than go as a ''Constantly supervised'' kid. I was given non-vegetarian food in the flight in spite of me asking for a vegetarian food.

Attendant: You are a Christian you should have this

Me: I don’t want Non Vegetarian when I travel.

Attendant: Look, be demanding all you want when you are with your mom.

Me: I don’t want food, I rather starve (I said this in Brit accent that got me on her nerves)

Attendant: I will throw you off this flight if you behave like this.

Me: I dare you.

Attendant slaps me, I slapped her back. Insulted that an eight year old got the best of her she neither gave me food to eat, and even forbid me to even walk down to help myself for water. Well, I took my water bottle and had water. I remember the beaten look on her even after 18 years have gone by.

Well, how does it affect now, or rather the question is what has changed? Well, the last time I traveled was last year. It’s still the same. Slight improvement though - They have improved on the Namaskaar. They actually smile, but then you would know clearly if it’s a forced one.

Bottom line is, travel by this airline, but don’t expect to be treated like a Maharaja.

Comments most welcome.

Davieboy

In case you were wondering what happened to the flight attendant who slapped me, My dad made a written complaint. We recieved a response 6 years later that action had been taken. It took us one week to figure out what the letter from Air India meant.