Review: Air India Business Class Airbus A320neo (DEL-KUL)

To continue my Iceland to The Residence via Cambodia trip, it was time to fly Air India’s Airbus A320neo business class on the 5hr25min flight from Delhi (DEL) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL). On the previous flight I experienced Air India’s new Airbus A350 business class, so I was looking forward to seeing what the refreshed narrow body and regional experience was like.

I’m torn on this Air India A320neo business class flight. The crew was lovely, the cabin was comfortable and clean, and the food and drinks were quite good.

The issue is that the India to Southeast Asia market is competitive, so flying planes with no seat back screens, no Wi-Fi, and no flat beds, is sort of less than ideal. These are the same planes that Air India flies on short domestic sectors, so to see this also flying on a much longer international sector is of course less impressive.

How I booked my Air India business class ticket

I booked my Air India business class ticket using Air Canada Aeroplan points, as part of a larger itinerary. Specifically, I booked the following for 80,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points plus $398.23 in taxes & fees:

10/31 AI112 London to Delhi departing 1:00PM arriving 4:00AM (+1 day)
11/01 AI2384 Delhi to Kuala Lumpur departing 12:55PM arriving 9:10PM

Unfortunately the cash component was so expensive because of the steep UK Air Passenger Duty, as the ticket was originating in the UK.

Air India business class lounge & boarding

I had an extended layover prior to my flight, and spent most of it at the Holiday Inn Express Delhi Airport, located airside within the international terminal.

Since Air India’s new flagship lounge in Delhi Airport is currently under construction, my ticket otherwise entitled me to use the Encalm Privé Lounge, which was actually very nice. I wish I could review the lounge, but my trip kind of went sideways during this layover.

You see, on the London to Delhi flight, my phone just stopped charging. I figured it was just an issue with the plane’s charging ports, but when I landed in Delhi, I realized it was a bigger issue. So I put my phone in airplane mode, and preserved the little battery life I had left, in order to be able to review my connecting flight (the solution ultimately ended up being to get a wireless charger, because my charging port was simply kaput).

Anyway, my flight was departing from gate 9A, with boarding scheduled for 11:55AM, a full hour before departure. Boarding ended up starting at 12:20PM, with business class passengers being invited to board first. I was excited to board VT-EXN, the seven-year-old A320neo that would be taking me over to Malaysia.

Air India A320neo business class cabin & seats

At the door of the aircraft, I was greeted by two very friendly flight attendants, and turned right into the cabin. Air India recently retrofitted its entire A320neo fleet, and the planes are now equipped with 170 seats, including eight business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 138 economy seats. My first impression was that the cabin felt modern, clean, fresh, colorful, and basic.

Before we even talk about business class, let me mention premium economy. It’s interesting, because it’s just standard economy in terms of being in a 3-3 layout, but there’s a proper curtain between that and economy. While premium economy has a civilized 32″ of pitch, economy has as little as 28″ of pitch… ouch!

Back to business class, the cabin consists of eight seats, spread across two rows, in a 2-2 configuration. These seats should look familiar, as they’re the Collins Aerospace MiQ product, the same seating platform you’ll find on many airlines, including American.

On the plus side, these are among the more spacious versions of these seats that I’ve seen, as they have 40″ of pitch, 20″ of width, and 7″ of recline, so at least you won’t feel like these seats are too tight.

I assigned myself seat 2F, the window seat on the right side in the second row.

A unique aspect to this product is that each seat has a leg rest, a foot bar, and also a six-way adjustable headrest, which helps a bit with getting comfortable.

As you can see, unfortunately there’s nothing in the way of seat back entertainment, aside from staring at the inflight magazine and safety card.

The tray tables extend from the far armrest, and can be folded over in half. When folded over, the tray table has a little personal device holder, for watching your own entertainment.

Along the center console, you’ll find buttons to recline seats and to extend the foot rest.

The center armrest can then be raised, to give access to an exposed storage area, as well as the power outlets. Charging options include AC power outlets as well as USB-C outlets.

As you’d expect, the overhead console had both reading lights and individual air nozzles.

Air India A320neo business class entertainment

Annoyingly, Air India’s A320neos don’t have seat back entertainment or Wi-Fi. I could deal with the lack of seat back entertainment, but then you’ve at least gotta have Wi-Fi, in my opinion!

Aside from what you bring onboard, the only other entertainment options are through the Vista Stream system, whereby you can screen a variety of entertainment options to your personal device.

There was a selection of dozens of movies, TV shows, and audio, to choose from.

I also liked how there was a map feature, so you could keep an eye on the progress of the flight, though actual flight details with this feature were limited (including time remaining).

Since I was preserving my phone battery life, I ended up watching some shows on my laptop. The selection wasn’t terribly inspiring, but I ended up settling on “Five Star Chef,” which was entertaining enough.

Air India business class amenities

Waiting at each business class seat upon boarding was a pillow and blanket combination. I loved the look of these, though the pillow wasn’t very big, and the blanket was sort of small and scratchy.

There weren’t amenity kits or any other exciting amenities to mention, though during boarding, the menu and drink list, as well as bottled water, were distributed.

Pre-departure drinks were also offered, with the choice of sugarcane or buttermilk juice. I went with the latter, and it was… distinctive.

Lastly, warm towels were also distributed during boarding.

Air India A320neo departure from Delhi

The boarding process was fairly orderly. As was the case on the previous sector, I loved listening to Air India’s boarding music, which is quite enthralling.

Totally minor avgeek note, which is of no consequence — I found it interesting how the pilots only boarded around halfway through the boarding process, and they didn’t so much as exchange any words with the flight attendants. I’m not sure if crew culture is just different in India, or if this was an outlier, but it’s quite a contrast to what you see in the US.

While economy and premium economy seemed to be full, business class was only half full, with four of the seats occupied. I had the entire second row to myself, which sure was nice!

At around 12:45PM, the captain made a welcome aboard announcement, informing us of our flight time of 5hr5min (it ended up being a bit longer).

At 12:55PM the main cabin doors closed, at which point a manual safety demonstration was performed. Then at 1PM we began our pushback… hi, ex-Vistara Boeing 787-9!

At 1PM we began our taxi out to runway 29R. It seemed like a pretty quiet early afternoon at the airport, and our taxi wasn’t very long.

By 1:20PM we were cleared for takeoff, and had a lengthy takeoff roll for an A320neo!

The seatbelt sign was turned off around 10 minutes after takeoff. The captain had another PA once we leveled off, giving us updated arrival information, and his expectation that we’d have some turbulence over the Bay of Bengal, though it’s “nothing to be too worried about.” Lol, I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be reassuring, or…?

Air India business class meal service

In business class on this Air India sector, lunch was the meal, and it was served shortly after takeoff. You can find the menu below.

Then you can find the drink list below.

The first round of drinks was served around 30 minutes after takeoff. I decided to order a glass of champagne, as I was happy to see that Laurent-Perrier is served on this sector, just as it is on long haul flights. That was served with mixed nuts, in a beautiful ramekin.

The crew was great with how they served the drinks — it’s nice how they brought out the glass, held out the bottle, and then poured it at the seat.

Around 45 minutes after takeoff, the meal was served. At first I was a little confused, and thought the crew forgot to serve the appetizer. Of the two options, I had selected the “Mediterranean tapas,” with marinated artichoke, marinated feta, grilled pepper, green olive, and zucchini. As it turns out, that little side salad-looking thing at the top is the “tapas.” That’s not usually how I’d described that, but okay.

It’s impressive that Air India has four main course choices, and I selected the awadhi paneer anjeer pasanda, described as fig layered cottage cheese with creamy tomato ginger fenugreek gravy, cumin, basmati pilaf, and vegetables. A bread selection was also offered, including garlic bread and poppadum.

For dessert, I opted for the shahi moong dal halwa, described as clarified butter cooked lentil pudding with slivered dry fruit, which was indulgent.

At the conclusion of the meal, the crew also offered me a nicely presented fruit plate.

A little while later, I asked for a cup of coffee, presented on a nice tray, with the mug having the maharaja logo.

Air India A320neo business class lavatory

Air India has one lavatory at the front of the A320neo cabin, which is reserved for business class passengers (and despite many people trying to come up and use it, the crew was very good about enforcing the policy).

The lavatory was kept spotlessly clean, though was otherwise very basic. With the cabin having recently been retrofitted, it felt like maybe the bathrooms didn’t get much love?

Air India business class service

Service on this flight was stellar. There were two flight attendants working the business class cabin, so that’s a spectacular flight attendant to passenger ratio, especially if the cabin isn’t full.

Not only was the ratio great, but both flight attendants, led by cabin executive Gypsy, were really friendly and professional. This included everything from how they served food and drinks, to the polite but firm tone with which they told passengers to follow rules, not use the business class lavatory, etc.

In particular, there was a really challenging family seated in premium economy, with little kids constantly coming up to business class to run around. It didn’t bother me — I understand how little kids are — but Gypsy handled it in a professional but firm way.

As I said in my review of the previous flight, it really feels like there’s an immense sense of pride at Air India at the moment, even if the transformation is quite slow, so it’s nice to see how excited many employees are to work for the national carrier.

Air India A320neo arrival in Kuala Lumpur

As we cruised toward Malaysia, I enjoyed the views out the window. While there wasn’t necessarily that much to see, the clouds were beautiful, especially with the sun setting. Around an hour out, we hit quite a bit of turbulence, causing service to be suspended.

We must’ve been avoiding some major weather system. While I assume that one line is inaccurate, we made quite some turns on approach.

Around 35 minutes before landing, the captain was on the PA to announce that we were around 350 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, and would soon be starting our descent. We ended up touching down in Kuala Lumpur at 9:15PM, and from there had what felt like the longest taxi ever, as it took well over 15 minutes.

It’s not unusual for it to take 15 minutes after landing to get to the gate, but what made this different is that we were constantly moving, so we must’ve covered miles of distance. We ended up arriving at our remote stand shortly after 9:30PM. While I’m not a fan of remote stands, it at least afforded a great view of the A320neo in Air India’s new livery!

Once in the terminal, I cleared immigration, and was excited to head to the spectacular Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur!

Bottom line

I’m happy that I had the chance to try Air India’s new regional business class product, which is primarily offered on domestic flights, but also on some international journeys.

On the plus side, I had an excellent crew, the cabin felt new and clean, and the food and drinks (and particularly champagne) were good. However, this just doesn’t feel like a very competitive product on a flight like this. There’s no seat back entertainment and no Wi-Fi, with the only real entertainment being streaming options.

So while I’d gladly fly Air India’s A320neo again, ideally I’d do so on a short domestic sector, rather than to or from Southeast Asia, where there are endless flat bed business class options.

What’s your take on Air India’s A320neo business class?