Airline Carrier to India

[bobby_kvisa 7]

Whenever my family thinks about going to India - they spend a LONG time looking at flights. I'm not sure why, but they seem to enjoy talking about different airlines, which one is the best for baggage, food, service and routes and then calling agents regularly to ask about rates.

Usually my family does not have a handle on the dates they want to fly - so they book a flight on an airline and then cancel the ticket within 24 hours so they can re-book it with new dates !

Anyhow I thought to see which airlines people prefer to fly to India and what they think.

I have flown KLM but they are very strict about baggage and carry-on requirements. The Amsterdam airport is excellent !

I have also been on Continental and found them to be expensive - though they were very lenient on the baggage details. They are a little disorganized at the gate from what I remember.

Finally Emirates is a pretty good airline service as well. A little expensive but the service is good and the Dubai airport is really cool.

[sachinky 465]

I like Singapore Airlines and Jet Airways.

Do not like British Airways. I still don't get how a stale bun and a bar of chocolate is appropriate meal for a trans-Atlantic flight.

[Vijay 0]

I am from Madras and really don't want to ever go through Bombay or Delhi customs and change flights. So I always tend to go with flights which tends to gets me straight to Chennai. I have traveled Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Qatar airlines to India. I like Qatar Airways and they seem to have decent food. I have heard so many horror stories about connecting through Heathrow that I have never want to travel British Airways.

Whenever my family thinks about going to India - they spend a LONG time looking at flights. I'm not sure why, but they seem to enjoy talking about different airlines, which one is the best for baggage, food, service and routes and then calling agents regularly to ask about rates.

Usually my family does not have a handle on the dates they want to fly - so they book a flight on an airline and then cancel the ticket within 24 hours so they can re-book it with new dates !

Anyhow I thought to see which airlines people prefer to fly to India and what they think.

I have flown KLM but they are very strict about baggage and carry-on requirements. The Amsterdam airport is excellent !

I have also been on Continental and found them to be expensive - though they were very lenient on the baggage details. They are a little disorganized at the gate from what I remember.

Finally Emirates is a pretty good airline service as well. A little expensive but the service is good and the Dubai airport is really cool.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Last time (May 2009), we travelled BA through Heathrow to Chennai. I agree it is nice to avoid Mumbai (horrid airport, NOT whitewashed) and Delhi (whitewashed for Games, but still horrid)--two "bad experiences" (but neither airline-specific) on that trip:

1. Pras was scheduled to fly out to Chennai on 2009-04-05 with her mum--but forgot the extension (I-751) letter; I had to rebook her ticket to 2009-05-14 (same date as mine), and ensure that the letter was included
2. 2009 BWI Travesty

Rating: comfort-wise (according to Pras), Lufthansa better than BA; foodwise, BA better (we got a nice lamb-curry)

(I do have issues about using Lufthansa due to its having code-share with United)

Edited September 2, 2010 by Saddle Bronc

[Saddle Bronc 124]

I am from Madras and really don't want to ever go through Bombay or Delhi customs and change flights. So I always tend to go with flights which tends to gets me straight to Chennai. I have traveled Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Qatar airlines to India. I like Qatar Airways and they seem to have decent food. I have heard so many horror stories about connecting through Heathrow that I have never want to travel British Airways.

I'm guessing that most of the problems with British Airways were related to the issue of Britain not recognising US Green Cards (or temp visas) when associated with Indian passport (obviously, that is a point of "insulation-bias" for me--as I was "insulated" from this due to having never had adult Indian passport, but using Canadian passport in 1999 for trips to/through London and American passport for 2009 trip through).

It would be ideal if there was a straight-through flight (as there are to Sahar and IGI) to Chennai (the option of straight-through to IGI/Sahar followed by connexion to Chennai is one I'd rather avoid).

[Devraj 1]

I flew in Air India non-stop from JFK-New York to New Delhi twice this year. No problems. Plus did not have to deal with in -between country stay. Bought my tickets from http://us.yatra.com.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

I flew in Air India non-stop from JFK-New York to New Delhi twice this year. No problems. Plus did not have to deal with in -between country stay. Bought my tickets from http://us.yatra.com.

Was IGI (and not another city with international-airport) your final-destination?

[Devraj 1]

Was IGI (and not another city with international-airport) your final-destination?

Yes.IGI was the final destination straight from JFK - no another city with international-airport!

Edited September 2, 2010 by Devraj

[^_^ 5,021]

I love Air India's nonstop from JFK! It is awesome.

[hindustani24 7]

I flew Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Air India. Out of these 3, Air India Direct flights (JFK-BOM, though air India has canceled that flight and now only option of direct flight is JFK-DEL) are the best. I would pay any price to avoid a stopover at London Heathrow (The worst airport in the world). For me, nothing beats Air India.

[sachinky 465]

This time I flew Air India from Calcutta-Delhi-Frankfurt-Chicago. I quite enjoyed it. Food was decent. So was service.

[MitalJinal 2]

British Airways is BIG no-no for me, even if they offer free airline tickets for lifetime.

Those people are so rude and unfriendly; they make you feel unwelcome on the flight. (2 times flying experience with them was more than enough for me).

Also, I don't understand why Heathrow Airport harasses passengers with US passport who come from India. Again, they have stop of more than 2 hours which is annoying, cumbersome (taking train to Terminal 5 , do security check and again take train to terminal B...makes you feel that you are running all the time).

Jet Airways is the best airlines for me, as it stops in Brussels - which is hassle-free, people-friendly airport with stop of 1 hour 30 min.

It's decent airline with great service, awesome food and amazing entertainment options whereas in all 3 departments BA doesn't even come close to.

Heard some very good reviews of Air India non-stop flight from JFK to Mumbai.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

British Airways is BIG no-no for me, even if they offer free airline tickets for lifetime.

Those people are so rude and unfriendly; they make you feel unwelcome on the flight. (2 times flying experience with them was more than enough for me).

Also, I don't understand why Heathrow Airport harasses passengers with US passport who come from India.

It's been my experience that Heathrow allows "smooth-sail" for US or Canuck passport-holders (I've gone through there both ways), even with obvious Indian features, due to the facile perception that the person is not likely to immigrate to Britain ever. Did you mean "US visa/GreenCard holders"?

[MitalJinal 2]

Sadly, in my experience, it has never been smooth-sail via Heathrow when I traveled with US passport in Dec '09 and July '10

The security personnels are so rude, discriminating and horrible persons. It was a nightmare as I missed my connecting flight due to their stupid checking.

They opened my bag, took out all the belongings and were taking their own "special" time to check the bag.

Meanwhile, my connecting flight to USA was gone. can you believe that?

and no prices for guessing that they found nothing in my bag which can be of factor for airline security. they didn't even apologize for letting my connecting flight go away.

Also, there were couple of middle-aged couples and other couples with US passport in the security line, who were also being harassed for no apparent reasons.

agree that Heathrow is the busiest airport and is trying to be secure, but that doesn't mean that they have right to harass the transit passengers.

British Airways and Heathrow Airport *suck* big time...

[TheJesal 2]

My wallet seems to only like Air India.