Review: Air India Dreamliner 787 Business Class Delhi to Kolkata

India’s Flagship airline Air India has been in the news recently, for their upcoming Ahmedabad – London Heathrow – Newark flight, starting 15 August 2016 on their most coveted Dreamliner Boeing 787’s. Flying a fifth freedom flight on one of the world’s most competitive routes, is a great way to be in the news for sure. So I thought this would be a good time to post my review of the business class product on Air India's Dreamliner. Air India currently has 27 Dreamliners in service.

I had the opportunity to fly on their Dreamliner on the CCU-DEL flight in 2013 in Economy and I had a great experience, both because of the aircraft, and because of the AI hospitality and F&B quality. I am a diehard fan of AI on board food.

Last year I flew 10 flights on AI Dreamliner, on the DXB-DEL-CCU route. I will review my DXB-DEL and DEL-CCU journey simultaneously on this post.

Check in: On the day I was flying, the DXB-DEL route had many business class seats open. I decided to experience their hospitality upfront this time. At Dubai airport, AI uses Terminal 1 for their departures. The check-in and other services are managed by a third party provider (Dnata). AI uses one business class counter for all its flights and multiple counters for economy flights. Despite so many counters, the check in area was very crowded. I approached the business class check in counter and there was just onefamily ahead of me. The check in agent was polite and efficient.

In DEL, post collecting my luggage and passing through customs, there was is separate check in counters for connecting passengers. To say it looks like the entrance to a shady bar, is quite close to accurate. The counters are mostly closed even at the most crowded times, staff is yelling at passengers and overall gives you the feeling of being in a fish market.

The Upgrade – Air India offers a flat 122$ upgrade on its flight from UAE to India, pretty much all year round. 

At the check in counter, I enquired if business class seat is available for DXB-DEL and if I could upgrade. The check in staff directed me to the AI Manager on the floor. Walk up to him, tell him you are looking to do a paid upgrade. He then checks the system, confirms availability and provides a handwritten note to take to a Dnata service centre in another part of the terminal, and make the payment. Overall not a great way to start a business upgrade. The Dnata service centre charges a flat $27 as service charge. That just increased my upgrade charge by 22%. I was already starting to feel that I was getting a bad deal. Overall the process was unnecessarily lengthy.

At DEL airport, I was upgraded at the Gate, without any charge or asking. I am guessing it’s because the flight was full. I don’t have any status with AI, in case anyone was wondering.

Lounge: After taking the payment receipt back to the check in counter, I was promptly given a business class seat 1A and a lounge access card. There was no express card for security and customs for business class passengers, given by AI. Thankfully I had an egate (for UAE residents) so I breezed through customs and was in the main terminal soon enough. AI uses the Marhaba Lounge in Dubai, which is used by atleast 24 others airlines, apart from the access allowed through credit cards, so it’s always crowded. When I visited, I counted 120 people in the lounge. (Sorry, due to some privacy concerns, I am unable to upload the pics of the lounge).

The Marhaba Lounge on concourse C (there are multiple Marahaba Lounges in the airport) are small for the number of airlines they serve, but the offering isn’t bad.

The food was fresh, the staff is always quite actively working to keep the buffet well stocked and the liquor offering isn’t bad either. The lounge is airside, so there is a view of the many aircraft coming and going.

At DEL airport I did not get a chance to sample the lounge offering during my short connection time and the fact that I was booked on economy.

The Seat: Air India uses an Orange and Cream color scheme for its aircraft, which is very soothing. The seats are complete 180 degree lie flat, which is great. But overall the seats are not very wide or long. I am 5’6”, so I could stretch easily on the seats. But I can’t imagine someone who is 6’ or bigger, having an easy time on these seats.

I was in seat 1A for the DXB-DEL segment. There is absolutely no storage space anywhere near the seat, except for a tiny bottle holder next to the IFE Controls. The side storage space that held the controls, also had a charging point, and a USB charging point, in case you wanted to charge your phone directly.

To top it, the flight crew warned me against keeping anything in that tiny area – apparently things fall off and get stuck in between the seats and are very hard to retrieve. The only storage was in the small alcove below the footrest. Primarily for your shoes and may be a small bag, if you don’t need it during the flight. Not at all convenient.

For the DEL-CCU segment I was in 3A. In case you are not in the front row, there is a small storage space on the seat infront of you, where the headphones are kept. That is pretty much the length and breadth of storage space. While on the short haul flights, this is not an issues, but imagine this kind of space for DEL-LHR or LHR-JFK or DEL-SYD.

The privacy divider was basically the hand rest. So if you used the divider, you won’t have a hand rest. And the divider isn’t very effective. Also, when you are not using the divider, the hand rest is very narrow. You are practically in contact with the next passenger.

Seat Controls: There were options to move your head rest, the leg rest and the back support. There was even a massage option, but I did not try it. There were buttons for M+ and MR and I have no idea what they meant. I was too tired to try them out either. The options were not very intuitive. There was a reading light on the seat.

Amenity Kit: What amenity kit? There was no mention of any amenity kit on the flight. The passengers were given socks and eye shades in a paper envelope for the DXB-DEL sector. For DEL-CCU even that wasn’t to be seen anywhere.

Service: On the DXB-DEL, to say that it was disappointing will be understating it. Soon after we were airborne, the staff came around to ask for dinner choices. There was no menu. Passengers were verbally asked if they want Veg Biryani or Chicken biryani. The staff obviously did not receive the memo about smiling and being warm to the customers in general. The drinks were served in a hurry with peanuts in a packet.

The whole thing was barely a notch above my experience in economy. Cabin crew couldn’t be bothered to as much as reply to thank you. There was no welcome drink, no newspaper (on the DEL-CCU sector). Nothing that told you that you are in Business Class, other than the wider than economy seats.

On the DEL-CCU sector, there was no mention of a welcome drink. But for breakfast, a menu was presented and we were asked for a choice.

Food: As I mentioned earlier, I am big fan or Air India food. The presentation on the DXB-DEL sector was not bad.

But for the DEL-CCU sector, the food was presented just as it would have been done in economy class. The food though tasty, was served rather poorly for business class. Once again, the whole experience was barely a notch above the economy class.

I was thinking back to my BLR-AUH flight with Etihad and the way the food was served then. The crew on the Etihad flight even came out and asked me if they could change my wine offering, as the one I was drinking currently wouldn’t go very well with my food. Compare that to this “a pic is worth a 1000 words” situation below

Baggage Collection: My baggage wasn’t tagged priority at DXB-DEL for some reason. Honestly I forget to ask also, but then I shouldn’t have to. At DEL airport the baggage take forever to arrive. I understand it being a huge airport, but then again almost all pax on DXB-DEL segment have a connecting flight to catch. The staff on the ground had the “couldn’t-care-less” attitude towards passengers asking about their luggage. If you miss your flight, you will be accommodated on the next one as a favour, so you have no reason to complain or be impatient about your luggage (as per AI staff). Obviously value of time is not a concept they understand. When you reach the connection counter, if you are late, the staff sometimes give you an earful about not being on time and missing your flight. I wish I was exaggerating, but unfortunately I am not.

At CCU airport, the baggage take around 30 minutes to arrive, even though the flight is literally standing opposite the baggage carousel. It’s Calcutta, don’t even ask.

Other than the sleep that the flatbed affords, there is nothing commendable in the business class product and I wouldn’t be willing to pay a premier for this product.

I will soon compare and contrast this to my experience on Etihad DXB-CCU business class and Jet Airways DXB-BOM business class product. ASan published review of Jet Business product earlier too. Mine would be a comparison based on price and product.

What is your take ? Would you pay a premium for AI's business class product ?