Okay, so traveling here was an unholy mix of chaos and awesomeness. First, you have to know that due to the vagaries of airline schedules, I had to leave on Thursday evening to stay over in Chicago. You see, I am flying Air India this time. Some would call this brave. I call it smart.
But before you can declare something smart, you have to determine the criteria by which "smart" is asserted. So, in descending order of importance, here is what I care about when traveling to India:
You would think that Cost would cancel out practically everything below on this list. And if you were flying American Airlines, you would be right! But, it turns out that First Class on Air India is in fact cheaper than Business Class on American Airlines (when tickets are purchased only two weeks ahead of time).
So, I achieved Cost pretty effortlessly.
Flat Sleeping Surface was taken care of by the fine seat shown here.And then No Bad Smells and Silence were taken care of because there was NO ONE in first class (yes, this means no smelly neighbors who like to take their shoes off and stow them right next to you.). Next photo shows the whole first class cabin. All four seats of it.
As for time in the air, Air India had a more favorable schedule for the dreaded 11.5 hour time difference than did American Airlines, for the same amount of time in the air. And thus, it all fell into place like a clattering stack of dominoes. Until, that is, you get to the food.
Peruse the menu shown - it looks AWESOME, right? Well, no. Appetites among the first class in India, and among all classes in the West, must be enormous. I ordered the salmon. What was I thinking, you ask? Well, I wasn't. I tried to get the flight attendant to tell me the best thing on the menu, but she probably took one look at my pasty white face and determined (likely from years of experience) that only the salmon would do. So salmon it was.
TWO salmon steaks. Not one. And, to make it worse, TWO BAD salmon steaks. Salmon and air flight do not mix, unless you are talking about whole salmons sitting in ice for transit to your local horribly expensive fish market. This wasn't that.
Quick tip when flying Air India: stick to vegetarian. The salad was good and the Indian appetizers awesome.Breakfast? See below. Chicken nuggets for breakfast? And the eggs had more cream cheese than eggs. No wonder that obesity is beginning to take over the entire planet.
Regardless of the food, the flight was amazing. I arrived in New Delhi feeling as if I had been beaten by sticks, rather than bludgeoned by two-by-fours.
More soon. Gotta start getting ready for tomorrow.
Next blog: the amazing experience of driving through New Delhi with incongruent music blaring from the car stereo. It was surreal.
But before you can declare something smart, you have to determine the criteria by which "smart" is asserted. So, in descending order of importance, here is what I care about when traveling to India:
- Cost.
- Flat sleeping surface.
- No bad smells.
- Silence.
- Time in air.
- Food.
- Amenities.
You would think that Cost would cancel out practically everything below on this list. And if you were flying American Airlines, you would be right! But, it turns out that First Class on Air India is in fact cheaper than Business Class on American Airlines (when tickets are purchased only two weeks ahead of time).So, I achieved Cost pretty effortlessly.
Flat Sleeping Surface was taken care of by the fine seat shown here.And then No Bad Smells and Silence were taken care of because there was NO ONE in first class (yes, this means no smelly neighbors who like to take their shoes off and stow them right next to you.). Next photo shows the whole first class cabin. All four seats of it.As for time in the air, Air India had a more favorable schedule for the dreaded 11.5 hour time difference than did American Airlines, for the same amount of time in the air. And thus, it all fell into place like a clattering stack of dominoes. Until, that is, you get to the food.
Peruse the menu shown - it looks AWESOME, right? Well, no. Appetites among the first class in India, and among all classes in the West, must be enormous. I ordered the salmon. What was I thinking, you ask? Well, I wasn't. I tried to get the flight attendant to tell me the best thing on the menu, but she probably took one look at my pasty white face and determined (likely from years of experience) that only the salmon would do. So salmon it was.
TWO salmon steaks. Not one. And, to make it worse, TWO BAD salmon steaks. Salmon and air flight do not mix, unless you are talking about whole salmons sitting in ice for transit to your local horribly expensive fish market. This wasn't that.
Quick tip when flying Air India: stick to vegetarian. The salad was good and the Indian appetizers awesome.Breakfast? See below. Chicken nuggets for breakfast? And the eggs had more cream cheese than eggs. No wonder that obesity is beginning to take over the entire planet.
Regardless of the food, the flight was amazing. I arrived in New Delhi feeling as if I had been beaten by sticks, rather than bludgeoned by two-by-fours.
More soon. Gotta start getting ready for tomorrow.
Next blog: the amazing experience of driving through New Delhi with incongruent music blaring from the car stereo. It was surreal.
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