I have flown in this airline twice and then my parents have flown four times in this one, which gives me enough experience for the analysis of this torturous flight. I'll tell you everything step-by-step....so read on...
Reason for flying:
Blame it on my dad who always makes last-decisions whenever we had to go abroad.Its always in the summer vacations that we used to plan to visit London every year(till last year, when we finally settled here), and this planning was always just 3 hours long. My dad is always the spontaneous type of creature, planning simply puts him off!! Then, off he used to telephone his travel-agent uncle in Delhi who would always have tickets of this flight handy (all other flights were obviously booked in the peak season). Being one of the cheapest was an added bonus....but the real nightmare started with the actual flight....
My first encounter:
This was way back in 2000 when I was all excited over my first flight of life. I had to travel alone as dad and mom had problems.We arrived at IGI, Delhi in time and after the formalities and 'rona-dhona' I was ready to enter the flight. From the outside, the plane looked huge...it was actually Boeing 737(or 747..can't remember), the same being pictured above, and had two floors.
My heart started thumping loudly when I was nearing the door...but everything was put to rest when I entered the flight...the flight attendant wished me strangely by bowing her head in some insane language...I thought I had dropped something on the floor. I looked around in amusement and in due course, she literally pushed me inside the cabin...that was so rude...I felt like slapping her...but controlled myself.
Travelling by economy class, when I entered the cabin this is what I was greeted with.....dirty towels hanging on the seats and the passengers...oof!!all straight from a D-class village....it was so disgusting, that the very sight of the villagers and their belongings thrown on the way had me almost fainted. I never thought flights were like these even in the worst of my nightmares!!!! It was like entering a 2nd-class train coach....on top of it, my seat was beside a stinking pig who had such a bad body odour that I couldn't help offering him a deodorant. Alas, he didn't know what it was. He just opened the cap and was going to take the bottle to its mouth...I snatched the bottle away and sprayed some around me...Till now, my migraine had already started but the flight had not. I was getting more and more restless and out-of-breath by the sheer stink and shortage of air. Felt like breaking the window open and jumping out. At last the flight started and all the people in the flight started cheering loudly like wolves...Omigawd!!
When the flight had reached a steady height, we were offered food...I opted for vegetarian...and what I got was Indian pulao and tomato cottage cheese...with juice and water.Oh what a relief...but wait..I needed a refill...there was a button on top of my head for calling air-hostess. I pressed it and came a svelte girl...I asked her for a glass of lemonade or lime water (to get over the nauseated feeling) and what did I hear in return...I couldn't understand at all...I asked her if she could speak English....and the answer was a straight no...Oh God!!!throughout the flight I was practising signal language to ask for drinks...the staff was friendly, but not knowing English is an offence!! What more, even the instructions for safety procedures were all written and described in pure Arabic....to the illiterate people sitting beside me it made little sense anyways, but I felt helpless!!!
The Nightmare continues:
My flight was from Delhi to London, and guess what, it had 2 stoppages...one at Sharjah and the other at Damascus. At Sharjah, the whole lot of illiterate people got off and the flight was near-empty. Oh what a relief, I thought!!!But what came next....flight attendants with broom-sticks, that too to clean the flight....which world on earth were they living in....couldn't they have vacuum cleaners. Off they went sweeping all over and it was dust and more dust inside...I started to get nauseated and asked if I could get outside till they are finished...they said I wasn't allowed to...and know how they said it..by pushing me back to my seat..I was furious now and screamed at them...but they kept on sweeping more dust on my face...the other passengers were strangely sleeping....or maybe had fainted!!!!
The next stopover was Damascus...some relief came when I got over from the flight and into the airport (it was more of a shopping centre and definitely better than the Indian one). The outside temperature was 57 degrees, but thankfully there was air-conditioning. I roamed and loafed about, as the wait for the transit was 3.5 hrs long...but hey!!!the flight going to London had delayed and the passengers going to London had to wait for 8.5 hours...this was irritating but the previous flight had left me numb to do anything. I slept on the airport and was soon off to London. This flight was a small Airbus (in sync with the amount of passsengers) and was much better--the best thing was that the staff knew English. But don't ask me about the food....in vegetarian came some boiled vegetable which looked like a cut-away and stale bottle-gourd and the sweet-dish had me vomited there and then... In-flight entertainment was one thing Syrian Airways hadn't heard of, I think. There were no screens whatsoever anywhere on the flight, be it letting the passengers know where the flight is going or making them watch any movies....And the seating was straight out of Delhi's buses....so cramped that even a baby will topple off..
Finally I reached London and when I got out of the flight, felt like an animal out of zoo...
This flight was a punishment (this is just one of my encounters, imagine the agony when I had to fly back 1 week later,as I had the return ticket) and I won't recommend it even to my enemies....let alone readers of this review...
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