Air Travel

Traveling by an airplane was such a big thing when we were young. It used to be sort of Dream to travel by air. It was like traveling to Indra loka with lot of beautiful apsaras in the garb of airhostess.
We have come tooooo far from that myth. After the open sky policy or what ever it is called, air travel has also become a pain like any other mode of transport.
To travel with your leg kept in the minimum space possible for a stretch of 14 hours is something which has to be experienced. That is economy class for you while you travel towards United States of America.
I have traveled by quite a few of the airlines. Malaysian airlines which used to be the best, does give a good service specially in US sector. It has a small TV in each seat with some good entertainment program and also some vedio games to play. Food is not that good.
For South Indian vegetarians, Air India is the best, but where ever you go and when ever you go, you can be sure to see in the board the estimated time of arrival or departure 'unknown'.

I happened to travel in United Airlines. That was the time when it had declared insolvency or what ever. ( I never understand what it is and how they still manage to operate after all the 'hungama'). The crew and the others were so friendly and the captain himself came to ask if each one of us was comfortable. May be they wanted to re assure the passengers who were worried about the 'insolvency' that all is well and we will not be stranded in the mid air.

I did travel by NorthWest next time. My husband was excited and said it is part of some royal KLM or what ever and I would get the best of service. Ha! It turned out to be the worst. I could see the White Supremacy at its best (or was it worst), the airhostess least interested in serving us the basic meals and drinks. I had to go and request for some juice, and was asked to wait there while they were preparing the juice. Good for me as my legs got some exercise and relief from the cramped space between the seats.
Now that the sky has become more open we get airlines which don't serve any thing free and so it is just sit and fly and don't expect any thing. This was with a much publicized Air Asia and it was to Sabha from KL 2 hours flight. The airhostess understood that not to serve anything free means not to smile also. They kept such a morose face that inspite of our running to take a good seat we could notice their moroseness. Yes we did run to get a good seat as this is a no frill airline it was first come first serve basis that there was no seat number and all you had to do is run and take a seat. We noticed another tactic of this airline while booking tickets on line. The tickets are to be booked one way and the onward journey is quite cheap. But return journey is almost double that cost. They know that we have to come back to the mainland what ever the price.
This time I travelled to India by Jet airways. I really liked it as the people around were very genuinely friendly and smiling, not the customory smile of other airlines people ( inwardly cursing us for travelling by their airline and thereby adding to their work load). Again jet airways being an indian based airline the vegetarian food was very enjoyable.
While in India I had to travel to Mumbai. I was told not to travel by Deccan Airways as I was told it is highly unreliable. I traveled by air sahara and it was almost like jet airways and good. True to what I heard I was told the day I traveled, the Deccan Airways was some 7 hours or so delayed.
I was really shocked to see the crowd in the mumbai domestic airport. It was like any busy bus station. Any way good that more and more people are able to travel to their destination faster.
In USA many times air travel is cheaper than train travel and they just serve some juice or bottled drink even in a five hour domestic journey. They look the other way when we struggle to keep our hand luggage in the upper compartment.
Add to this list Singapore Airlines and Indian Airlines which are both ok and so so.(This is how I feel)