AI492 Jaipur 13:30 - Delhi 14:30
Airbus A321
Economy Class
I booked an Air India flight from Jaipur back to Delhi, where I would then stay overnight before my Finnair flight the following day.
I figured I was in for a pretty easy day of travel. I would just take an Ola to the airport, then take my flight. What could possibly go wrong?
The problems started before I'd even left the hotel. After checking out, I tried to book an Ola but the hotel wifi was not working. It took them 10 minutes to fix this.
With the wifi working, I tried booking an Ola but, after accepting the ride, the guy drove away from my hotel for 5 minutes. I cancelled the ride (which Ola charged me a cancellation fee for...)
Next, I tried Uber. The guy showed up after a few minutes in a rather run-down car, but couldn't accept the ride - for some reason there was a problem with the Uber App and it kept giving him an error message. I'd already wasted enough time and needed to get the airport, so I just offered the driver a fair cash price to drive me there. He agreed.
We were almost at the airport when the driver ran a red traffic light and got pulled over by the police. The policeman asked to see his licence, but it turns out he didn't have one. A very lively conversation in Hindi ensued, with lots of arm waving and the driver appearing to be begging the policeman to let him off. Eventually some money was surreptitiously exchanged and we were on our way.
The airport experience in Jaipur was terrible. After getting my bags x-rayed twice (which itself took ages), I had to wait for ~40 minutes in the check-in queue. With the amount of queue-jumping going on, I think I was further back in the queue after 10 minutes than when I joined it. I have Star Alliance Gold so should have been able to use the priority queue - and there was a priority queue - but it was not being policed so was just as long as the other two lines. On that note, 3 check-in staff to process the several Air India flights that were departing around that time was not enough.
At check-in I was offered a half-price upgrade to business class as a "gold card holder", which would have cost 4,500 rupees (about $93). For a one-hour flight, I decided it wasn't worth it. I was also given a lounge invitation, which was strange because I couldn't find any lounge anywhere in the domestic departures area!
There was a huge queue for boarding and priority boarding, although announced, was not enforced.
The reason I chose Air India was that I thought I would get some benefits as a Star Alliance Gold member. Ultimately, the only benefit I received (other than the upgrade offer) was a priority tag on my checked bag. (The benefit being the physical tag only, as it was not actually given priority and I waited an hour for it to arrive at the other end!)
This was our aircraft:
Once on board, I found the seat incredibly hard and uncomfortable to sit in. The legroom was good, though.
There was no in-flight entertainment, no in-flight service whatsoever (not even water) and the staff looked downright miserable.
All things considered, it’s safe to say that my first experience on Air India was not a positive one.