Would you choose Singapore Airlines Business Class or Air India First Class?

[Human]

I'm looking at flying from Melbourne to Delhi early next year using KrisFlyer points.

On the day I want to fly, there's Singapore Airlines availability in Business Class for 100,000 KrisFlyer points. There's also Air India availability in First Class for 142,500 points.

The AI flight is direct; the SQ flight is via SIN.

The AI flight arrives at 3am, which is possibly no big deal as I'd then want to catch a 6:20am flight to Nagpur.

Which would you choose?

Same question for the return flight -- should the new AI First lounge in Delhi make me lean towards AI First for the return trip?

(SQ First Class is also available, but at the higher "Advantage" rate of about 250,000 points).

 

[Aussie_flyer]

SQ every day in business. Won't step foot on Air India

 

[Human]

SQ every day in business. Won't step foot on Air India

Noted; thanks for your reply. Are you able to give me your reasoning/s?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Noted; thanks for your reply. Are you able to give me your reasoning/s?

Safety, service, maintenance, cabin/seat quality.

 

[Scarlett]

I’d try AI, but that’s because I’d almost always default to trying something new rather than the known.

The one hesitation would be if the F flight is fully overnight then will you actually get much of an F experience or just be asleep for six hours of it?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I’d try AI, but that’s because I’d almost always default to trying something new rather than the known.

The one hesitation would be if the F flight is fully overnight then will you actually get much of an F experience or just be asleep for six hours of it?

There's no need, check the reviews

 

[Scarlett]

There's no need, check the reviews

Thank you for visiting my intentions.
I’m aware of reviews of AI and my comment stands.

 

[Human]

The one hesitation would be if the F flight is fully overnight then will you actually get much of an F experience or just be asleep for six hours of it?

I suppose my thinking is that if I flew AI it would be to take advantage of the direct flight rather than the 1-stop flight. And the timing would be potentially a little better as well.

And that being the case, I'd be trying to avoid their 2-3-2 Business Class configuration -- and AI First Class costs only 20,000 points more than AI Business. That seems a decent price to pay to have a lot more space and privacy, regardless of the service.

And, on the return flight, that Lounge in DEL looks really nice: I'd eat a large meal in the Lounge and go easy on the not-quite-as-good inflight food.

 

[offshore171]

Definitely SQ

 

[MELso]

As well as non-stop flying, I guess the plane you get would be important too. The ex-EY planes with 8 F seats would be fine. The unrenovated AI planes... not so much...

 

[MathNerd]

I've flown AI on their MEL-DEL (in whY) and NBO-DEL (J) services (both on 788).
In Y, it's absolutely terrible. Would not recommend.
In J, the seats are old, not taken care of, and falling apart. The service wasn't much good either.

If you're blowing very valuable KF miles on a sub-standard AI service, it's a terrible decision.

I'd go SQ any day of the week. Even with a layover in Changi - it's not worth your sanity and peace of mind to be choosing AI just because it's direct.

They have a long, long way to go before they can even consider themselves in the same league as the likes of SQ/TG/MH/CX who are frequent choices for those looking to go to the subcontinent.

 

[drron]

Well I would definitely take SQ to DEL
But back because it’s a 100000 points less. I would be very interested in trying AI F.

 

[Human]

Yeah, from what I hear I think I'd categorise AI First Class (especially on their ex-Etihad 777s) as an excellent Business Class experience.

So it looks like I'll fly SQ to Delhi. On the way back, the decision is a little harder because of the Delhi F Lounge which I would like to try for myself. Of course, in the unlikely event that an SQ First Saver seat becomes available, it's then a no-brainer!

 

[anat0l]

I haven't tried AI F before, and like @Scarlett , I'm always on the hunt to try new products.

Is it something worth parting with an extra 42,500 KrisFlyer miles (or 65,785 Velocity points)? I'm not so sure.

From a handful of reports, AI F is sometimes polished but the majority say that it isn't really. People who have flown AI F a long time ago seem to give a nicer impression of what's going on compared to anyone who flies it for the first time (though if your minimum standard is the ME3, you'll always be disappointed, right?)

On top of that, AI probably has carried a bad rap like a bad smell for a long time. Unfortunate if they are genuinely trying to reinvent themselves on the world stage (then again, everyone has quickly forgotten about QR violating those women, UA breaking a doctor's face, QF firing those workers, the AI pilot crashing in Ahmedabad etc. etc.).

If the award choices were limited and AI F seemed to be the only option amongst an otherwise bevy of Y options (or nothing), I'd probably take the plunge and redeem it. I value KrisFlyer miles a lot because it is so difficult to obtain them (I'm not a *A flyer), which is why I wouldn't hesitate to use KF miles on SQ R or even SQ F, or almost any other *A F but AI F............

 

[jb747]

My biases are pretty well known....but I'd choose SQ economy over that alternative.

 

[MELso]

Yeah, from what I hear I think I'd categorise AI First Class (especially on their ex-Etihad 777s) as an excellent Business Class experience.

So it looks like I'll fly SQ to Delhi. On the way back, the decision is a little harder because of the Delhi F Lounge which I would like to try for myself. Of course, in the unlikely event that an SQ First Saver seat becomes available, it's then a no-brainer!

Keep your eye out at T-29 days! But I'd love for you to take AI F (in the name of science of course). It'd be a useful data point to understand how they're going these days...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm looking at flying from Melbourne to Delhi early next year using KrisFlyer points.

On the day I want to fly, there's Singapore Airlines availability in Business Class for 100,000 KrisFlyer points. There's also Air India availability in First Class for 142,500 points.

The AI flight is direct; the SQ flight is via SIN.

The AI flight arrives at 3am, which is possibly no big deal as I'd then want to catch a 6:20am flight to Nagpur.

Which would you choose?

Same question for the return flight -- should the new AI First lounge in Delhi make me lean towards AI First for the return trip?

(SQ First Class is also available, but at the higher "Advantage" rate of about 250,000 points).

I would take AI.

It’s non stop vs two short 7 and 6 hour flights… neither of which are long enough to get a good sleep.

The service on AI is ‘fine’ the food is good, and the bed is comfortable.

SQ hasn’t had a perfect safety record either.

Agree the new FCL in Delhi looks amazing. Onemileatatime recently did a first class review + lounge, the latter which was rated very highly. The flight itself… yeah well, a very good business class, with a huge bed.

 

[I love to travel]

At least you can also waitlist SQ F too

 

[Aussie_flyer]

My biases are pretty well known....but I'd choose SQ economy over that alternative.