Air India

Returning from the US on Air India was a trip. Which is to say, it was an interesting experience.

I had decided that buying US to Germany air tickets with a 6 or 7 month durations was not the cheapest way to manage my returns to Columbus. Plus it required me to lock in my plans that far in advance, and that was becoming a problem. Of course, usually a one way ticket cost as much or more than a round trip. That is with the exception of Air India. They were offering a one way ticket for just about one half of what I was being offered a round trip. So I decided, why not.

The flight from Columbus to Chicago was on United. Checking in, I found that United could not give me a boarding pass on the Air India flight. I would have to go to the Air India check-in counter in terminal 5 and get it there. Which, of course might mean a standing in a line with other passengers checking in. United could check my bag all the way to Frankfurt, so at least I did not have to drag that along with me.

Arriving in terminal 1, I made my way to the train that connect the terminals and got to terminal 5. All the ticket counters seemed empty. I found a sigh directing me to the left for Air India and started walking pass one empty counter after another until I noticed at the end of the terminal a huge mass of people in front of one counter. You guessed it, in fount of the Air India counter. I have only seen lines like this checking in at Frankfurt. But this was different. Most of the people in this line seemed to be with a large family group, and each family had one or two carts overflowing with luggage. My heart sank as I figured that this meant a minimum of an hour standing in line to get a boarding pass. An hour and a half was more likely. I checked my watch to see how much time I had before the flight, I would still have to get through security. I wasn't sure that I'd make it.

Then a guy in a uniform asked what I needed. When I explained that I just needed a boarding pass, I got put in the line for first class passengers. In five minutes I had my boarding pass, problem solved.

Security was no problem. Surprisingly, the gate was not at the end of the terminal that way the check-in counter was. Although the gate was pretty full, I was able to find a seat to wait for boarding. After a little while, the same guy that had directed me to the first class line asked to see my boarding pass and told me that I was in group 3. I noticed that there was a team of about 5 people doing this to everyone at the gate.

Later, I found that this team where the "herders". Boarding began by calling group 1. As the line formed, one of the herders positioned themselves at the head of the line. Their job was to turn back anyone that was not in the correct group. Once the group 1 line had formed, the other herders went through the gate lobby and called group 2 into line. Then later, group 3. I didn't matter that to get into line, you had to leave the gate. Their job was to keep a continuous flow of people in the line. Never seen it done quite so forcefully.

 As I entered the main cabin, one of the stewardesses was positioned to greet each guest. The Air India uniform consisted of a black top, a white sari with black and red print, a red belt and a black sort of pill box cap. An attempt to appear modern, and still have a bit of the flavor of India.

The plane was a new one, a Boeing 777. The seating configuration was 3-3-3 instead of the 2-5-2 that I have usually seen. Each seat had a 10 inch screen and a control indicating a personal entertainment system. This might me fun. The only problem with these entertainment systems is that there is a box attached to the leg of the seat in front of you that takes some space. Why they cannot come up with a form factor that gets this out of the way of the passenger's feet, I don't understand.

As the plane started to taxi, the screen came on showing the view in front of the plane. They actually had a camera positioned so that the passengers can see the taxi and takeoff. During take off, the camera angle changed to show the ground directly below the plane, until we got above the clouds. I liked this idea.


I checked the available movies. Their where 4 relatively current US films, and about 6 classic US films. But their where about a dozen Bollywood films. I looked around, and these where definitely popular. There where also a number of games, music options and maps. There was a option to view the cameras out the front, down or sides. But these must have been turned off during the flight.

Dinner was a curry, not too surprisingly. Other than that, the in-flight service was pretty much what I have come to expect.

During the landing, the video screen once again showed the view from the front of the plane so you could see the runway breaking through the clouds and appearing to come closer up to touchdown. This is a cool idea.

All and all, I was happy with the flight. Thank goodness that I did not have to stand in that line in Chicago. Than might have changed my opinion drastically. And I wasn't all that thrilled about the feeling of being herded. But in-flight, everything was a good or better than any of the American carries I have used. Not that they are setting a very high bar to exceed.