LarsCph
Medlem
As I said it would - here is the summary of my experience travelling on Air India Business Class from Copenhagen to Bengaluru with a planned 2 hour layover in Delhi. In case you are wondering, it's written in English as I find it easier for me to do, but please do feel free to comment in any Nordic language 
I have never been to India before, but after inheriting two teams based in Bengaluru earlier this year, it was time to go here to meet them. A few options are travelling from Copenhagen apart from Air India exist, but they all involve arrival in India in the middle of the night, and in the same way travel back in the middle of the night. And then the ticket price with Air India was quite competitive at about 16.000 dkk return travelling in business class. So I thought I'd give it a try despite quite a few "interesting" reviews, but also reading that they have been put in effort recently trying to improve their service.
The first flight from Copenhagen was at 7.50 PM - it was delayed 10 minutes in departure but 40 minutes late in arrival. With a 2 hour 10 minute layover that left only 1 hour 40 minutes between my two flights. I did not know we would be late though until close to arrival so I did not spend too much time worrying about that. As I have read than transfer in Delhi can be quite challenging and as I've never been there before I had booked a service called WeAirAssist to help transfer between the flights, it is somewhat expensive at 124 USD but includes buggy transfer as well as assistance through emigration and security so thought it would be worth it given the short layover and that I had never been to Delhi Airport before.
Check-in at Copenhagen Airport was smooth, I had nothing but hand luggage but still went to the check-in counter as there was a notice during on-line check-in that they had to check e-visa and passport. Also I wanted to get proper printed boarding passes for when transiting through Delhi. All crew for the flight was queueing in the business check-in, but there was no queue in economy check-in so I went there instead, the guy at the check-in still made sure that boarding passes were still printed on proper business-class paper.
Air India offer access to the Eventyr Lounge, which is conveniently located after passport control and is just overall a nice lounge I think with view over the runway and C gates parking stands. As the flight was quite late I had a bit to eat for dinner there leaving a bit of space for eating on the plane as well as I wanted to try the food.
I went to the departure gate a bit after go-to-gate had appeared on the screen. Air India use lounge boarding, the lounge were packed with people before they started boarding the actual aircraft, a Boeing 787-8. They kept a strict boarding sequence, first boarding special needs passengers, then business class followed by those with small children. Usually, I think that those with small children get to board before business class but not with Air India. They check the boarding pass once before being allowed to pass through to the jet bridge and then once again when entering the aircraft. I was pointed to my seat by a cabin crew who welcomed me onboard, found me seat 3A on the last row of 3 in business class. It is an old-school configuration 2-2-2, but I don't mind that too much and sometimes allows a bit of conversation with the passenger next to you. They seats are very dated for sure feel like a decade older at least than the 787-8 they are in. Overall it is clean enough I think at least on the surfaces but the seat belts look worn and trimmings and so are becoming loose on the seats. Everything worked though when it comes to adjusting the seat as well as the in-flight entertainment. I do generally not use in-lfight entertainment so I will not comment further on that, but apart from the build-in system Air India offer a system that runs via wifi so it is possible to stream to any device, that was new to me I seems like a good idea. No actual internet wifi exist on the plane. The seat itself was comfortable to me both when seating, eating as well as when sleeping. There is very little space in and around the seat for personal items but after removing the water bottle in the seat there was at least a place I could put my phone
Before take-off an offer of juice or water was served, menu cards was distributed as well as pyjamas. The food options looked all OK, of course as expected mainly indian cuisine. The pyjamas was nice and I changed to the pyjamas pants but kept my t-shirt on as I prefer short sleeves. There was also slippers as well as an amenity kit from Tumi, this might have been bought cheap on Temu (pun intended), the content is very basic and for instance no toothbrush is to be found. The crew came by once more to get meal preference and drinks order for after takeoff.
Shortly after take-off, drinks and nuts were served. I had a glass of Champagne which was a nice choice - the guy next to me had a glass of red wine which was chilled - when he asked about that the crew told him that is because passengers typically want their red wine chilled(!), so he swichted to Champagne. Dinner was served a bit later with everything on one plate. The food is plated as you can see but was put in front of my like on the photo with the starter in the back. It all tasted okay though, nothing very special at all and the main course was not really hot, more semi-warm. The bread was okay and not dry. Not the worst meal I had on a plane, but indeed also not the best. And the serving of starter and mains at the same time seemed a bit off, though of course it makes it possible for you to complete the meal faster if wanting to sleep on the rather short flight to Delhi. Crew did not actively offer anything more to drink, not even for the meal - but of course brought whatever you asked for. The cabin was not full, I think we were 14 of 18 seats occupied but even with that service was slow and seemed a bit slugghish/uninterested.
After eating I wanted to get a bit of sleep. The seat is fine to sleep on I think, though probably a bit short but as I am only 177 there was on problem in lying flat. There is a thin maddress and a blanket and I managed to sleep okay for a couple of hours. They do turn on the light in the cabin already at least 2 hours before arrival to serve breakfast, here it could have been nice to just keep the lights off and serve those who wanted to eat again. I just got a coffee.
We arrived in Delhi 40 minutes late which made it slightly exicitng transferring to my domestic flight in time. As I had no luggage checked in, and as any check-in luggage has to be picked up and re-checked in India (similar to the US) that should save me some time. On Air India even when travelling in business class only one cabin baggage plus a computer bag or similar is allowed. They got quite strict weight limits of 10 kg + 3 kg - but no-one checked this though.
On the tarmac on the way to the gate I received a message in WhatsApp that the guy to help me with transfer was in place and waiting at the end of the jet bridge. First flight on Air India, it was fine overall - the service and food nothing special, but also on-par with what I have experienced on other airlines so I would say good product for the price, knowing that Lufthansa would have been almost twice the price.
I have never been to India before, but after inheriting two teams based in Bengaluru earlier this year, it was time to go here to meet them. A few options are travelling from Copenhagen apart from Air India exist, but they all involve arrival in India in the middle of the night, and in the same way travel back in the middle of the night. And then the ticket price with Air India was quite competitive at about 16.000 dkk return travelling in business class. So I thought I'd give it a try despite quite a few "interesting" reviews, but also reading that they have been put in effort recently trying to improve their service.
The first flight from Copenhagen was at 7.50 PM - it was delayed 10 minutes in departure but 40 minutes late in arrival. With a 2 hour 10 minute layover that left only 1 hour 40 minutes between my two flights. I did not know we would be late though until close to arrival so I did not spend too much time worrying about that. As I have read than transfer in Delhi can be quite challenging and as I've never been there before I had booked a service called WeAirAssist to help transfer between the flights, it is somewhat expensive at 124 USD but includes buggy transfer as well as assistance through emigration and security so thought it would be worth it given the short layover and that I had never been to Delhi Airport before.
Check-in at Copenhagen Airport was smooth, I had nothing but hand luggage but still went to the check-in counter as there was a notice during on-line check-in that they had to check e-visa and passport. Also I wanted to get proper printed boarding passes for when transiting through Delhi. All crew for the flight was queueing in the business check-in, but there was no queue in economy check-in so I went there instead, the guy at the check-in still made sure that boarding passes were still printed on proper business-class paper.
Air India offer access to the Eventyr Lounge, which is conveniently located after passport control and is just overall a nice lounge I think with view over the runway and C gates parking stands. As the flight was quite late I had a bit to eat for dinner there leaving a bit of space for eating on the plane as well as I wanted to try the food.
I went to the departure gate a bit after go-to-gate had appeared on the screen. Air India use lounge boarding, the lounge were packed with people before they started boarding the actual aircraft, a Boeing 787-8. They kept a strict boarding sequence, first boarding special needs passengers, then business class followed by those with small children. Usually, I think that those with small children get to board before business class but not with Air India. They check the boarding pass once before being allowed to pass through to the jet bridge and then once again when entering the aircraft. I was pointed to my seat by a cabin crew who welcomed me onboard, found me seat 3A on the last row of 3 in business class. It is an old-school configuration 2-2-2, but I don't mind that too much and sometimes allows a bit of conversation with the passenger next to you. They seats are very dated for sure feel like a decade older at least than the 787-8 they are in. Overall it is clean enough I think at least on the surfaces but the seat belts look worn and trimmings and so are becoming loose on the seats. Everything worked though when it comes to adjusting the seat as well as the in-flight entertainment. I do generally not use in-lfight entertainment so I will not comment further on that, but apart from the build-in system Air India offer a system that runs via wifi so it is possible to stream to any device, that was new to me I seems like a good idea. No actual internet wifi exist on the plane. The seat itself was comfortable to me both when seating, eating as well as when sleeping. There is very little space in and around the seat for personal items but after removing the water bottle in the seat there was at least a place I could put my phone
Before take-off an offer of juice or water was served, menu cards was distributed as well as pyjamas. The food options looked all OK, of course as expected mainly indian cuisine. The pyjamas was nice and I changed to the pyjamas pants but kept my t-shirt on as I prefer short sleeves. There was also slippers as well as an amenity kit from Tumi, this might have been bought cheap on Temu (pun intended), the content is very basic and for instance no toothbrush is to be found. The crew came by once more to get meal preference and drinks order for after takeoff.
Shortly after take-off, drinks and nuts were served. I had a glass of Champagne which was a nice choice - the guy next to me had a glass of red wine which was chilled - when he asked about that the crew told him that is because passengers typically want their red wine chilled(!), so he swichted to Champagne. Dinner was served a bit later with everything on one plate. The food is plated as you can see but was put in front of my like on the photo with the starter in the back. It all tasted okay though, nothing very special at all and the main course was not really hot, more semi-warm. The bread was okay and not dry. Not the worst meal I had on a plane, but indeed also not the best. And the serving of starter and mains at the same time seemed a bit off, though of course it makes it possible for you to complete the meal faster if wanting to sleep on the rather short flight to Delhi. Crew did not actively offer anything more to drink, not even for the meal - but of course brought whatever you asked for. The cabin was not full, I think we were 14 of 18 seats occupied but even with that service was slow and seemed a bit slugghish/uninterested.
After eating I wanted to get a bit of sleep. The seat is fine to sleep on I think, though probably a bit short but as I am only 177 there was on problem in lying flat. There is a thin maddress and a blanket and I managed to sleep okay for a couple of hours. They do turn on the light in the cabin already at least 2 hours before arrival to serve breakfast, here it could have been nice to just keep the lights off and serve those who wanted to eat again. I just got a coffee.
We arrived in Delhi 40 minutes late which made it slightly exicitng transferring to my domestic flight in time. As I had no luggage checked in, and as any check-in luggage has to be picked up and re-checked in India (similar to the US) that should save me some time. On Air India even when travelling in business class only one cabin baggage plus a computer bag or similar is allowed. They got quite strict weight limits of 10 kg + 3 kg - but no-one checked this though.
On the tarmac on the way to the gate I received a message in WhatsApp that the guy to help me with transfer was in place and waiting at the end of the jet bridge. First flight on Air India, it was fine overall - the service and food nothing special, but also on-par with what I have experienced on other airlines so I would say good product for the price, knowing that Lufthansa would have been almost twice the price.
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