I had heard countless stories about Air India, some praising it and some not so flattering. I thought the reality might be somewhere in between. Let me share my own journey.

I was returning to Tokyo after two weeks of a cherishable holiday in India. My flight was from IGI Airport, New Delhi. The experience began right at the check-in queue. There were so many passengers, yet one counter was left unattended. The remaining two counters were serving both Japan and Dubai flights. I was just three passengers behind, but it still took more than 30 minutes to reach the counter. A small inconvenience, but manageable.

Then came the flight itself, Air India AI 306, proudly called the national carrier of India. My troubles started with the LCD screen, which wasn’t working. I complained repeatedly, but the crew only tried once and then said they would fix it after serving food. I accepted it, trying to be patient.

Service, however, was another story. I overheard a passenger asking for two drinks and later an empty glass. The crew member replied, “You are occupying too many glasses, sir.” That felt unnecessarily harsh. When my turn came, I asked for a second glass of orange juice since I was starving. The reply was, “The service is done, sir.”

Later at night, I was extremely thirsty and asked for water. The crew managed to find a few partially empty bottles and poured me a half glass. I was grateful, but the next morning when I asked for water again instead of breakfast, the sarcastic reply was, “You are drinking too much water, sir.” That left me stunned.

To add to this, my friend was served stale peanuts from “Ghasitaram,” and another friend kept ringing the service bell without anyone responding.

This was my “amazing” experience with Air India. As a patriot, I sincerely hope that Indian government-run companies raise their service standards to match benchmarks like Japan, where excellence is the norm.