[EasternPedlar]

I can relate to what seasonedtraveller says. AI crew are not as particular on safety issues as they should be. My preferred Indian domestic carrier is Indigo, and you can see a world of difference between them and AI.

That said, one must give the devil his due. I’ve flown about 100k miles internationally with AI in the past year, all in Business on their Dreamliners between India and Europe and SE Asia, and I have no complaints worth mentioning. All but one flight arrived before time, the food has been good and I sleep extremely well on the seat they use. The service is warm and friendly, though not as refined as it could be. I like the open and airy cabin and the Dreamliner is a great plane. They also have well timed schedules, and offer direct flights to a lot of European cities from Delhi, which works well for me!

After a lifetime of using dodgy transport in dodgy places, I guess I’m not as paranoid as I might have been. Also, I feel that some of the issues raised affect just the passenger concerned. If some idiot wants to risk breaking his back by not putting his seat upright while landing, that’s his issue.

I’m also OW Gold and I can tell you that I’d rather fly AI than Club World on BA – but that’s a matter for another thread.

[capetonianm]

PeterCoultas

captonianm….assuming it doest get you into problems can you say why you have refused cubana, egyptair, emirates & el al flights….and, of course, if those reasons would still apply? Air India is obvious though (years back) india air was better

Since you asked, I am happy to answer and it won’t cause me any problems other than that someone will no doubt take offence at my opinions, but I have lived with that all my life and am past caring. It is only a matter of time before someone will (probably anonymously) report my response as ‘inappropriate’.

Cubana : Very poor safety record, and I did not wish to go to a communist country.

Egyptair : I did some contract work for them and given their total lack of respect for procedures and common sense, I felt (rightly as time proved) that it was only a matter of time before they had another fatal crash. They were also extremely unpleasant people to work with and I had no wish to fly with them nor to set foot in their country again, least of all Cairo, which I thought was foul. For the record, I have been to other countries in the Middle East and enjoyed them and the people, so I am not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim.

Emirates and Dubai, my twin pet hates.
Dubai is vulgar, ostentatious, kitsch and built on slavery and exploitation. That is a matter of opinion and I understand that millions of people go there on holiday every year to enjoy the excellent hotels. Good, it keeps them away from other places.
It is an Islamic state under whose laws alcohol and sex outside marriage are forbidden, and yet its tourist trade is largely built on sex tourism, with all the international hotels having bars crowded with prostitutes and their clients from all over the world, mostly brought in on Emirates. I have nothing against prostitution (providing that both parties are willing) nor against alcohol, it is the utter hypocrisy of the place that stinks to high heaven.
It is an evil regime with a corrupt and rotten to the core ‘justice’ system.
Emirates has achieved global dominance for years by undercutting most airlines on most of the routes it serves. Such dominance is not healthy. Added to which is the way it treats its employees and, when anything goes wrong, its customers.

ElAl : Because having had the misfortune to work at several airports, I have the seen the way most Israelis behave. They are arrogant, aggressive, sly and utterly cold and charmless. I have no wish to fly with such people nor to work in their country, and I object to the the way they treat their Arab residents and neighbours.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am referring to Israelis, not to Jewish people. Many people do not seem to understand that being anti-Israeli/anti-Zionist does not equate to being anti-Semitic, in particular since that term used correctly would encompass all Nilo-Hamitic people, who are also Semitic.

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