Emirates or Air India

[simondix]

A friend of mine is flying to Delhi soon.

She had been warned off Air India by a travel agent, who states Air India has a bad reputation.

Should she avoid Air India even though it would be cheaper. If the answer is yes, which of the following two would be better.

Birmingham to Delhi stopping at Dubai. Airline Emirates.

Heathrow direct to Delhi. Airline Virgin. This would avoid a three hour stopover.

She lives in Warwickshire not far off the M40

[Sl4yer]

AI allegedly have a poor safety culture. However, they seem to operate here regularly without falling out of the skies! Not sure I'd be put off if the flight was considerably cheaper.

Otherwise, I'd go direct with Virgin from Heathrow. A recent trip to Sri Lanka (stopping at Doha with Qatar Airways) highlighted the desirability of a direct flight!

James

[HawkerHart]

Flew with Air India to the US a while back. None of the entertainment screen whatsits worked, but we got there and back in one piece

[WhisperJet]

If I had the choice I'd probably take the direct flight.
However Emirates is well known for their great onboard service.
I'd prefer both Emirates and Virgin over Air India.

Cheers,

Nick

[SkippyBing]

I've only had the one flight on Emirates, so perhaps not a wide ranging survey, but I was less impressed with them than Virgin.
Plus stop overs are always a pain, especially if the first flight is late, on one occasion my luggage followed on behind me as there was only 15 minutes to make the connection!

[simondix]

Thanks for the replies. She thanks you all and is going Virgin!

[NigelC]

Virgin?? You're gonna fly with an airline that's never been all the way before?

[Garry Russell]

They do a special deal Nigel where you get off before it arrives

[jonesey2k]

Hmmm. 400 people who have just had a curry in a metal tube....