Monday, October 21, 2019

Hilarious Air India reviews reveal the perils of ‘affordable’ business class

Flying business class used to be a luxury reserved for the elite. These days, however, everyone from travel bloggers to point pinching frequent flyers can score an upgrade or even – in the case of Air India – purchase a business class ticket outright.

To put this into context, one can get a return business class flight from Sydney to New Delhi with Air India for about AU$4,000, a journey which would normally cost between AU$5,000 (Singapore Airlines) and AU$15,000 (British Airways).

While we’re all for this (and are not averse to the odd ‘affordable‘ flight ourselves), the problem is, these ‘value for money’ pointy end offerings, though tempting, can occasionally make you wish you had stuck with Economy. Do we exaggerate? Check out the following Skytrax reviews and decide for yourself.
Left by one Prashanth Shetty, whose Skytrax profile says she is an American first-class traveller, our first review of Air India’s business class epitomises the perils of opting for ‘affordable’ business. Reviewing her Air India business class flight from Delhi to San Francisco, this is what Prashanth had to say.
“This was my first time in AI business class, I was travelling at very short notice due to a family medical emergency and AI had the cheapest fare $3400 RT. My collection of experiences reaffirms why this airline which had its heyday in the 70s and 80s is now the laughing stock of the airline industry.”
Ouch. But can she back up this (rather intense) claim? You be the judge: “The staff’s attitude is unmotivated and their approach lacks professionalism – they kept trying to take away my food and drink when I clearly hadn’t finished, and otherwise wouldn’t clear items when I had finished for a while.”
“The chief purser only stayed in the 1st class section,” she added, “And never came out once to introduce himself or spend any time in the biz class section. The tray table hinge was broken (both ways of the roundtrip) which meant it was pressing against my thigh and couldn’t be moved front or back.”

Not only that but – according to Prashanth – “The seat controls are atrociously bad (it’s hard to figure out which way it’s actually moving) and the grating jerky movements make for a poor customer experience.” Additionally, she says, “The meals served [sic] was mostly lukewarm or cold and the staff didn’t seem to care.”

You might be forgiven for thinking – by this point – Prashanth was done venting. Alas; not quite: “If this is the experience in business class, I really dread to think what the economy class must be like. Clearly the airline strategy is to compete on price, not quality of service.”
21/10/19 James Booth/Dmarge
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

0 comments:

Post a Comment