Most of the reviews of this airlines are not in glowing light, so I will try to present all the facts and let the readers decide on the rating or suitability to fly.
Itinerary:
JFK-MAA-JFK in Nov 2012. My planning was relatively late in the game, and this was the cheapest option at that time.
Checkin:
The checkin was kind of standard at both JFK and in Chennai. At Chennai the ground staff actually work for Air India. No major complaints in this regard. They have good baggage allowance, they allow 2 checkin bags for transatlantic flights on economy. The flight departure was delayed by approx 75 minutes.(Given that there was a snowstorm one day earlier and the flight one day earlier was delayed by 6 hours or so, I think this was not so bad).
Inflight:
This is where the real fun begins. The flight between JFK and Kuwait(via London on alternate days) is extremely old.(One another occasion my friend's flight was delayed in Kuwait by 10-12 hours because the plumbing on this ancient flight would just not work.)
The boarding was as chaotic as it can be and pretty free for all. The passengers try to dump their luggage without any concern all passengers need to find a place on the overhead bins for their cabin luggage. No sign that there was any concerted effort on behalf of the crew to bring some order into the chaos. The flight started taxiing and lo! and behold! a couple of overhead bins near my seat were still open and there were some pax who were trying to still fit luggage somewhere. Finally, the cheif cabin crew(I guess she was the chief), directed a puny male member to do something about it. Finally they moved a few bags around and managed to fit all the bags(with some help from passengers) before the plane started picking up speed! This greatly gesture was applauded by passengers on the front who were happy that the luggage would not fall on their heads as the flight was air borne. At this point one American teenager(of south asian descent) was wondering what kind of alcohol would be served and I could not but smile(Kuwait airline is a dry airline).
The flight appeared mostly full. Some screens work, but a lot of screens dont work and some seats would not recline(this is terrible on a long haul flight).
The flight starts with an islamic prayer followed by safety instructions. IFE is nothing to talk about, the screens are tiny and the choices of programs are very limited.
The cabin crew was all Arab/Kuwaiti and are rather stiff, not very friendly. They also dont seem to work very well as a team.
Once the flight was air borne, dinner service started in due course. Food was good. There were good vegetarian and non veg choices. Food was good as compared to any other good airline. This was the highlight of the trip. Good choices of fruit juices and coffee/tea concluded the dinner.
Good breakfast was served before landing. The flight landed in london morning a little late. All passengers even those continuing on the same flight to kuwait had to deplane. Get into security again and then reboard the aircraft.
At this point, I became a little more proactive and helped the passengers around me fit luggage in overhead bins to avoid the chaos we had in JFK. But, there was still chaos in other sections of the aircraft. But overall better than at JFK. Lunch was served after takeoff. Close to landing at Kuwait, they served some snacks again.(One thing nobody would probably complain on this flight was food).
In Kuwait airport their own home airport, we were stuck in the tarmac(an already delayed flight with most passengers connecting for other destinations in south asia) for about half hour due to lack of a slot!.
As soon as I deplaned, I rushed to my connecting flight to chennai. the flight was delayed, thanks to connecting flights. This flight was an airbus flight, and certainly the seats were better and the flight was newer. Mostly an uneventful flight. Left a little later an landed a little late. Food was served as soon as we were airborne, and snacks before we landed. Thankfully, both my bags arrived(I was concerned because of the short connecting times in Kuwait).
Return flight about 2 weeks later was uneventful, mostly along the lines above. There were some passengers from Bangladesh who were probably taking a flight for the first time and were not following instructions to sit and buckle(well they wanted a seat exchange in a crowded flight) despite instructions from the crew, and the crew got angry and raised voice a bit. This was a little surprising to some western passengers who were next to me. Although, the crew could have more polite in this case, uncooperative passengers are also to blame a bit.
Website:
I had booked through a travel agent, but I did not find the website to be very appealing or maintained well. I took their frequent flyer membership(Oasis club), but not very helpful either.
Overall:
In my personal view, please take this airline if it is cheaper by 30-40% compared to other good quality airlines like Emirates, Qatar, Etihaad or even widely criticized Air India. Otherwise you might want to choose other airlines.
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