Air India - Sfo To Delhi

Hope this answers your question.

Passengers get ‘warm and dark’ ride from San Francisco to Delhi

Travel issues involving ameneties, comfort, hygiene and customer service are common on Air India flights in economy class.

One of my grandparents travelled business class mumbai to nyc nonstop and it was smooth and comfortable. I have travelled on economy on the Nyc to mumbai nonstop nearly 10 years ago and it was miserable making it my first and last with air india. There were roaches in the bathroom and maybe because of the vast senior citizen crowd there was always urine on the floor of the bathroom. The air hostesses were sparing with their smiles & service, making their guests feel less than welcome.

After all these years i wanted to check if air india had improved as they seemed to have some competitive prices. But one look at yelp and trip advisor has convinced me that nothing has changed dramatically.

Look up online reviews for this particular leg you are interested in. That will give you the feedback you need. But i cant imagine being trapped like those customers mentioned in that news item, for 15 hrs on a nonstop flight with no air, light or entertainment.

I had an option of taking this flight recently and i steered clear of it after reading that news item.

 

Hi OP,

I flew AI once couple yrs ago. At present in our city, we do not have direct AI from our airport so its expensive and inconvenience for us to fly AI from another city so we do not go AI much. But now planning to fly with my LO, so I will go by AI and fly from another city since its direct to delhi.
I do not feel much difference in AI and Emirates other than dress up for air hostesses. AI and Emirates are big carriers.
Only difference I feel is that European airlines, smaller carrier had 2-4-2 seat configuration which worked for us and being small flight there was more room and bigger bathrooms and mostly available.

Btw, last time when I flew AI, I liked it very much and was very excited. I liked the fabric lined, indian themed seats and finally real silverware and not disposables and real blankets (If i remember correctly, before that I had not seen that). Also that time, I was going to India after long time so my emotions could be different.
Food was v good and I like that we get Indian tea.

For us and all my parents who came, timing wise it was no issue from US to India. Infact it reaches before scheduled time. Only for my parents once, from India to Us, there was lot of problem and 1 full day delay and sleeping at airport gate floor. There was technical delay and flight coming from Mumbai came half a day late.
Btw, from India to US, I have had little bit timing issues with almost all the airlines
Being big carrier and direct to India, flight is usually crowded, lot of Indian faces and senior citizens. Yes, bathroom could be unclean.
I do not remember my time. Again I have seen dirty bathrooms in many carriers. It may not be just senior citizens or kids, people drink free liquor and guess what you get.
So you have to decide price wise, distance wise and convenience wise. With kid or alone, I would prefer, direct flight if not lot of price difference. Convenience is also important with kid so there is this and that issue everywhere.

 

I like AI In general and travelled multiple times out of choice , I like the food. I don't have much expectations of service as I never had any requirement for service except for their scheduled meal services ... I also travelled with small child and liked the service I got for milk etc .

I travelled multiple airlines and the worst was Cathay pacific.