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Review of Air India Business Class - LHR-BKK June 2024


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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Gonetothedogs said:

180 degree lie flat beds is pure business class. Nothing about it is premium economy 

Climbing over your sleeping neighbour to get to the toilet….in pure business class? 

Edited by Trevor
Posted
41 minutes ago, Trevor said:

Climbing over your sleeping neighbour to get to the toilet….in pure business class? 

I've used Air India before purely for the price and my low criteria of just getting lie flat bed, I once had this really hot chick sitting next to me that I had to climb over when she was sleeping, I am such a creep :) :)

  • Like 1
Posted

There is a 2 week old video of that journey in first on YouTube 

Posted
6 hours ago, Yogi007 said:

I've used Air India before purely for the price and my low criteria of just getting lie flat bed, I once had this really hot chick sitting next to me that I had to climb over when she was sleeping, I am such a creep :) :)

I’m not sure whether it was lucky or unlucky that she didn’t wake up whilst you were straddling her!  🤠

Posted

Air India will be using their new A350's on the majority ( 14 out of 18 weekly flights  i believe ) from September 1st between London and Delhi which are 1-2-1 in business. You will still have to put up with the heap of junk between Delhi and Bangkok as that route is going to be pretty far down the list for new aircraft i would imagine

Posted

I used the great offer to upgrade my economy flight from Dehli to Vienna for only 12000baht.

Bkk to Delhi was not available anymore.

I was pleasantly surprised about the business lounge and food options in Dehli as well as the lie flat seat in the 787.

The service was excellent and the food was of course not comparable to Emirates or Qatar, but not bad at all. Only 8 seats of 16 were occupied.

The economy ticket was in my case half the price of Emirates etc ( departure on Jan 6 - high season ), a business ticket you should get for the price of an economy ticket of the most popular airlines.

In the future i will use this option in business at india air, coz lying in a flat bad for the same price as sitting in a small chair with hardly any chance to sleep, makes all the difference to me.

The 4 hrs flight from Delhi to Bkk in the very old A320 without entertainment is bearable as well as the very strict security check.

Up to you as we say in Thailand.

 

Posted

Return Journey

I booked Nam’s taxi about a fortnight ahead of time. Quick response as usual and all correct. I had to bring forward my flight by a few days due to a family funeral and they changed the booking, again quick response. Usual email the evening before with details of car and driver but this time I got another email a couple of hours before travel with a change. I book an SUV now and it was a very nice car as usual. I went down from the condo about 25 minutes before time and the driver was already waiting in the lobby. She drive safely and well. There was traffic on both Thepprasit and Sukhumvit and the motorway was busy. There was a hold up a couple of kilometres before the service area due to a car going into the back of a lorry. We got to the airport in 1h 45m.

Drop off area was very busy but car managed to pull over and I went in to departures. Air India were on one half of M row. It looked as if check in hadn’t long opened and there was a small queue for Biz check in. It was still pretty quick though. No need to remove shoes this time. Fast track is right down the end of departures so a bit of a walk, you then walk back up after going through immigration. It was quick through immigration. For some reason the IO called someone over to check my reentry permit, I think, but I was soon through. She wished me a Happy Birthday.

Check in had directed me to the Singapore lounge but said I could use any Star Alliance. I had thought of using Turkish as I’d read good reviews but when I went down in the lift I could see the Singapore lounge and there was no obvious sign of Turkish. I went past the Turkish lounge when going to my gate later, it’s further than D8 as you head towards the F gates. About halfway between D8 and the intersection. Anyway, Singapore lounge was quiet and comfortable with a good choice of food. Only one cubicle in the gents and no bum gun. I wasn’t expecting to eat much for the next 16 hours, until I was on the LHR flight so I had a 3 course meal and enjoyed it.

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Cauliflower Soup

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Roast Beef

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Dessert

As usual I made my way to the gate to get there before boarding started. It was F5 so a bit of a walk, especially as they always keep this area uncomfortably warm. They checked hand baggage and used a hand scanner at the top of the gate which I’ve not had before. I went down to the gate area at scheduled boarding time, a relief that it’s cooler down there, but there was no aircraft at the gate. Plane arrived at gate 50 minutes before scheduled departure. I checked and it arrived on time so it’s a very tight turnaround here. One hour between scheduled arrival and scheduled departure. Flight crew changed but same cabin crew. Boarding started 25 minutes before scheduled departure.

Welcome (non-alcoholic) drinks and cold towels pre-departure. More extensive menu than on way out, no doubt due to time of flights. Pushed back on time and pilot said it would be a 4 hour flight. There was only one empty seat in Biz and it was next to me.

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About 50 minutes after departure they took food orders. I really didn’t need anything after the lounge but out of sheer gluttony ordered the cheese (nowhere near as good as in the lounge) and the fruit. They also offered alcoholic drinks so I asked to see the red wine. There was an Italian and a French (St Emilion) so I had the French. The 4 passengers that ordered alcohol were also given warm nuts. Most passengers ate on this flight and service was a bit slow but always friendly and polite. The fruit turned out to be an apple a pear and a banana 🤷🏼‍♂️😂 I kept the apple but trying to quarter and peel it with an extremely blunt knife proved to be beyond my capabilities.

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By the time meal service was finished we were half way through the flight so I just relaxed and shut my eyes for a while.

I can’t remember if I mentioned the bathrooms on the way over but there’s one for Biz next to the cockpit. Not exactly spacious and, in keeping with the rest of the plane, showing its age. On this flight the door for the container with paper towels and tissues wouldn’t stay shut so just swung open all the time.

As on the outward flight, the Fasten Seat Belt sign was on for a significant portion of the flight.

We landed in Delhi ahead of schedule. There was a very long taxi and we then had to use steps to get off the plane and a bus to the terminal. It was a long bus ride and the driver reminded me of some of the crazier Bolt drivers I’d had during my trip. We entered the terminal and a scruffy bloke checked our passports. International Transfers were signposted as straight on but the glass doors were locked. I went back to ask the one that checked passports and he said to go left and then straight on - I ended up in arrivals! I asked another member of staff and she said I had to go back to the start of arrivals and go upstairs. There were 2 escalators coming down and a lift so I went up in the lift. I checked with another staff member who said I was on the wrong side of the glass wall and I wasn’t allowed to go the other way and around. She sent me back downstairs. When I got there I looked for a way to go to the right. The only access said something like EC Control but it was unmanned so I went through and saw an unmarked entrance leading to an up escalator. I went up, along a corridor and there was a member of staff at the end. He seemed bemused at me arriving from that way but waved me through and I was finally at the International Transfer desk.

I had booked the meet & greet again but they weren’t there when I got off the bus. The Transfer Desk could somehow see that I’d booked it so told me to sit down while they phoned someone. At this point I was right next to security, which was empty of passengers, and I knew the way to the lounge so it would have been easier to just go by myself but they were adamant that someone was coming and I should wait. Eventually they turned up and 2 staff escorted me through security and to the lounge. From what I could work out, someone had gone to meet me but must have got there after I’d come through. Security was even more of a palaver this time. First one staff member slowly checked passport and boarding card then the usual putting things in trays to go through the scanner. The scanner you walk through beeped every time someone went through so a hand scan was necessary. The trays stopped out of reach the other side of the scanner and no staff could be bothered to push them on. My escort asked the staff to push and one then demanded to see the boarding pass once again and laboriously hand wrote the details in a large book. Honestly, what a shitshow of an airport.

I went in the Encalm Prive lounge and looked for the ‘nap rooms’ referred to on their website only to be told they were closed. They had 4 sleep pods that cost about £11 an hour so I asked to see one but there was no way I was going to be comfortable or sleep in one of those. Instead I had a shower and changed and looked for somewhere quiet with comfortable seating to get through my very long transit.

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Unfortunately, there are no quiet areas in the lounge and no particularly comfortable seats either - not for spending several hours anyway. I ended up moving around and trying out different areas without getting too comfortable. I looked at the food area but, other than tomato soup, there was nothing that I’d really eat and I wasn’t hungry anyway.

The time passed slowly just sipping water and checking my iPad, occasionally closing my eyes, until it was finally time to head to the gate.

The lounge was a lot less busy by about 3am and the cleaning operation started. They closed sections of the restaurant in turn to clean everything. They also switched over to the breakfast menu which included a toaster and decent looking bread, croissants, cereals etc. The hot food then included baked beans, hash browns - but clearly spicy with chopped chillis, chicken sausage and boiled eggs. I had a couple of croissants that were ok but cold.

I was starting to fall asleep so I made my way to the gate about 15 minutes ahead of scheduled boarding. The gate area was quite full. About 10 minutes later a staff member came in yelling in Hindi. Other passengers started getting up to go out of the lounge so I followed suit. He continued to yell aggressively and harangue passengers, including elderly ones that could hardly walk. Everyone had to leave the lounge in order to come in again. There was no security check it was just passport and boarding card so it could easily have been done at the desks before the exit doors to the plane. Utter shambles of an airport. Soon after we started going down to the plane, no extra passport checks this time.

Again, this plane looked old and shabby. I had taken up the offer of the First Class upgrade but as soon as I sat down I wondered if I’d made a mistake. I’ve never been in such a hard and uncomfortable seat. At least I had my own space. 7 of the 8 seats in First were occupied. There was a bottle of water at the seat, though the compartment it was in was too small so the lid wouldn’t close, there was also a pair of slippers. They brought around welcome drinks, Tumi amenity kits and then a choice of hot or cold towels.

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Menus came next and, if I understood the cabin crew correctly, I could order the meals in any order and whenever I liked. She also put a mattress on the seat and gave me a quilt, so the seat was a bit more comfortable. I was then given the lounge wear. I ended up putting the quilt under me as well and that made the seat ok.

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I checked the IFE and there were 12 English movies. When I tried to look at the Music options the system crashed and had to be reset. After reset, it happened again so I gave up on the Music and tried putting the Map on but it just said Feature Not Available.

For breakfast I just ate a croissant with a cup of tea and some fruit. I then managed to sleep for a while before settling down to read.

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I ordered lunch about 3 hours from LHR.

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The roulade was good, the bread disappointing.

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The lamb was absolutely excellent.

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Same cheese and biscuits as first flight. Not very good tbh. It was the same choice of wine as well and I stuck with the very good St Emilion.

Service was excellent throughout the flight. Staff were extremely attentive and friendly.

Other than the IFE issues this was a perfectly good flight and one I’d be prepared to do again for the same price. Similarly, the outward LHR-DEL flight was ok at the price, though not as good as this one. The BKK flights really aren’t proper Biz at all and are something to be put up with not enjoyed. 4 hours is just about manageable though. The biggest issue is Delhi airport. I just don’t want to fly through there again and I don’t see it changing.

Landed on time and I set a personal record by getting to the T2 exit 33 minutes after touchdown.

 

 

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

So remember to “Enjoy every sandwich”

Posted

Glad to see the Sakura Lounge had decent food.  I'm booked with JAL business class for September, on the way backI will have time to kill after checking out of the hotel.  For most of the trip I'm booked for window seats so the pods become fully isolated with a small aisle for access in/out.

<checking watch> Is this broken????  Where's September already???   

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

I've flown Air India business class on the LHR-BKK route a few times and had similar experiences. The service is generally solid, but it's always a good idea to check recent reviews before booking.

Posted

Thanks for the report - Air India Delhi to HK around 2004 is a flight still etched in my mind for many bad things.

Went through Delhi airport many times between 2000 - 2008 LHR return - but always on Virgin Upper Class.

Your report reminded me of the constant checks of passport and boarding pass as you were embarking - civilian / police / and (?) spare?

Posted

Excellent reportage Davidge. 😎

Your experience reminded me of an American chaps story of how to treat himself he'd paid 6000 USD for his first class return to the US & the fella next to him was the hanger cleaner who'd paid 100.

They actually got on well. 

  • Haha 1

You're here now where you should have been all along.  :wink:

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Posted (edited)
23 hours ago, JulioSaphire said:

I've flown Air India business class on the LHR-BKK route a few times and had similar experiences. The service is generally solid, but it's always a good idea to check recent reviews before booking.



 If you're looking for other options, it's worth exploring different airlines that offer business class flights on this route. Sometimes you can find great deals and perks that might not be immediately obvious.

Edited by JulioSaphire
Posted

Air India will improve in next 3 years, since it is now with original owner TATA and not with corrupt gov.  They are phasing out old aircraft and replacing with newer more efficient ones, also Singapore airlines is  a stakeholder alongwith TATA.  TATA owns TCS a big IT company who is incharge implementing super efficient process.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

I may have posted on thread before but Air India are changing/have changed to brand new A350's as of few days ago to Delhi out of Heathrow

Edited by KyleReading
Posted
On 02/08/2024 at 15:18, Capt.777 said:

Air India will improve in next 3 years, since it is now with original owner TATA and not with corrupt gov.  They are phasing out old aircraft and replacing with newer more efficient ones, also Singapore airlines is  a stakeholder alongwith TATA.  TATA owns TCS a big IT company who is incharge implementing super efficient process.

yep see my post above

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Good reports. Much appreciated. Love the detail showing menus, seats and partially the lounges.

Ive flown with AI too, when I needed Star alliance miles and they had some great J class offers.

The Tatas know how to deliver, so I have no doubt that AI will be great to fly with when the new planes arrive. It might take a few years, before they are consistent at a high level, but they have the right owners now.

However not sure AI can sort out the awful transit experience in Delhi. The airport is fine, so is the lounge, but the security and immigration is not. Its slow, dysfunctional and dependent on people whose attitude and effort truly needs improvement. 

  • Like 2
Posted
On 03/07/2024 at 08:07, Trevor said:

Climbing over your sleeping neighbour to get to the toilet….in pure business class? 

Yeah 2 2 2 is shitty business class seating other than in a short flight where you're sat up for the duration. 1 2 1 you want the window, 2 2 2 you need the aisle.

CX and EVA seem to have dropped even those "regional" business class planes to and from BKK and HKG or TPE in favour of the same long haul configurations. So flat bed 1 2 1 all legs.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Boeing have just ordered an inspection of all A350-1000 aircraft over RR engine issue that caused a fire after Air India just rostered a brand new aircraft onto Heathrow-Delhi ............4 days ago !

 

(edited in...it wasnt an Air India aircraft that had the fire need to make that clear lol)

Edited by KyleReading
Posted
5 minutes ago, KyleReading said:

Boeing have just ordered an inspection of all A350-1000 aircraft over RR engine issue that caused a fire after Air India just rostered a brand new aircraft onto Heathrow-Delhi ............4 days ago !

 

(edited in...it wasnt an Air India aircraft that had the fire need to make that clear lol)

 

I am sure Boeing would love a problem with A350 engines.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, LoneCelt said:

 

I am sure Boeing would love a problem with A350 engines.

yep they're loving that for sure apologies Airbus lol

Edited by KyleReading
  • 2 months later...
Posted

Thanks for the reviews..
I just booked my ticket, only on the other side of the scale..
€550 Euro for a return ticket from AMS to BKK and back.

I have flown with many different companies, good and bad, this will be a fun test.
Worst case scenario it will be a horrible (but cheap) 12 houres.
I will bring my own food, just in case and probably some nose pluggs.
:D

Update will come in 4 months and a few days!

Posted
On 20/11/2024 at 19:26, DutchyBanPhe said:

Thanks for the reviews..
I just booked my ticket, only on the other side of the scale..
€550 Euro for a return ticket from AMS to BKK and back.

I have flown with many different companies, good and bad, this will be a fun test.
Worst case scenario it will be a horrible (but cheap) 12 houres.
I will bring my own food, just in case and probably some nose pluggs.
:D

Update will come in 4 months and a few days!

Why do you need nose plugs?

Posted
11 hours ago, Gonetothedogs said:

Why do you need nose plugs?

Because unfortunatly i have had enough interaction with Indian people to know that there sometimes is a different fragrance that surrounds them, to which my tastebuds do not respond all to positive.
I have had indian tennants in my condo and while they lived there, i could not enter the condo without  holding my nose.
I went to an international school when i was little and also there the indian kids just had a typical odor around them.
For some it might be atractive or enjoyable, for me less so.
Now i do not want to judge all indian people at once, maybe the smell will be a lot better than i fear.
and i am well aware that i am putting myself through this volunteerly.
121 days left an i will know if i made a good financial decision, or if i made the error of a lifetime ;)

 

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