On my recent trip, rather than taking a foreign airline ticket, I decided to book direct flight tickets with Air India, I wanted the firsthand experience of Air India and forget how badly it has always been criticized by the media. I was booked. Even I had doubts if the plane would take-off or would it be cancelled like we read in the papers all the time. I reached the airport a cool 5 hours before time, because I wanted to see the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 at length. It was mid-night flight, the flight took off... The crew began offering beverages, snacks, to the passengers who were awake and hungry. Mine was a special meal so I was the first one to receive my food. I asked for additional bread, to which the air hostess politely replied, "On the returning from the end", yes indeed when she returned she handed me some more and after some time, she again asked if I wanted anything else. Meanwhile, the guy in the row ahead of me, was so drunk that he passed out in the alley, within minutes another guy in the front row seat also passed out. So on my outward trip I came to one conclusion, that the crew was very well trained, and they did a great job overall, there was literally nothing which was out of order.
On inward flight, a big tour group of some 40 odd people boarded the plane, not to forget, they very jolly and friendly amongst their group. The moment the flight took off, before the air hostess` could give us anything, the people from this group started distributing wafers, gathiyas, kachoris to one another.... and then they started distributing to the co-passengers also. They were repeatedly warned to take their seats but then they would not listen, despite their wives being with them, they misbehaved and kept drinking. The Air India Employees were not able to provide food/beverage services in their regular fashion because of this confusion. Had this been the case in a popular airline then, they would have been hand cuffed or duct taped to their seats like the poor guy below.
Further, the guys from the group even started clicking photos of the Air Hostesses, in all unruly behavior. It was certainly an embarrassment to our whole culture. Some Europeans were also on board, I bet they would have pledged that they`d never fly on any airlines from India, nor have a layover at an Indian airport by mistake.
Finally we landed in Mumbai and I had a new image of Air India in my mind. I can proudly announce that the service which was offered by Air India was actually awesome, but it is us who fly on board are not allowing the crew to function properly. If we don`t allow them to carry out their task efficiently then we should not complaint either.
Dear Brothers and Sisters from India, how well behaved are we when we fly with foreign carriers, then why not behave well in our own Air India flight ??
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