Air India domestic Experience (Nov 2023)

I flew air india after about 2.5 years. Last flight was just before covid- Chennai to Muscat and back in Feb/March 2020. So many things changed after that- Air India got acquired by Tata Group and they have started revamping the airline. I was curious to try the air India now but none of my plans fitted with Air India schedule and pricing.

Recently while returning from South Korea, I saw a 4300 INR flight from Mumbai to Mangaluru on Air India. My original plan was to stay for sometime in Mumbai and take a train to Udupi but the 4300 INR flight ticket was tempting

I save about 1500 on hotel, + 500 odd bucks on auto/taxi from airport to hotel hotel to railway station, another few hundreds on food plus cost of 1 full day spent in travel between Mumbai and Udupi

The 4300 INR air India ticket looked tempting- I don’t have to change terminal- just go from arrival to departure- no taxi spend, flight was just 5 hours away, so I can sleep in airport for a few hours and go to departure-no hotel spend plus 90 min flight vs 16 hours in train- made a decision to buy flight ticket

Wanted to buy on Air India official website but they ask 300 INR extra convenience fee, so booked on Easymytrip.

Same flight is selling for 7500 INR for December.

Did web check in immediately- Air India is also into seat selling now- a random middle seat was free while other seats cost 200-350 INR each. I decided not to pay extra, did a web check-in with a free seat and went to the counter to drop my bag. Thankfully the staff at the check in counter was kind enough to allocate 1A or a first row seat with extra leg room for me.

I was hoping to have some nice meal Air India was famous for. But mine was an early morning flight and just 1 hour 15 mins long, so they only served a paneer roll. Not even tea/coffee. I felt tea/coffee could have been served along with their snacks.

Flight was delayed by an hour citing bad weather at Mangaluru. Eventually took off at around 6.45 and landed by 8 AM. Flight was fine without any issues. Got several notifications on gate change, time change and other things via sms, email etc

Staff have a new uniform now, which looks like neither proper saree they used tower earlier, nor a skirt- some kind of hybrid.

Air India is also changing its logo. The plane I flew had an older logo.

Air India is killing AirAsia India brand. Saw an Air Asia plane with the Air Asia logo removed.

Air India is launching Mumbai-Sydney direct flights for 55000 INR return from December 2023. They also launched a sale for USA return flights for a similar price. Looking forward to see how the airline revamps under Tata Group.

Overall fine experience. Wishing Air India all the success.

Similar: Air India experience in 2014 * Air India experience 2013 *