Kuwait Airlines and Air India on LHR-JFK

Has anyone ever flown Kuwait Airlines or Air India, if so what is there
level of service?
I was looking through schedules for London - New York and these services
cropped up.

Ta
Paul
xx

Hello
It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.
Between LHR and JFK only American Airlines, United Airlines, British
Airways and Virgin Atlantic have trafic rigts. So Air India and Kuwait
Airlines won't sell you a ticket on route LHR-JFK-LHR.

Air India is excellent airlnes, which provide good service in economy
class. I have no excperience flying with Kuwait Airlines

Niko

On 20 Sep 2003 01:55:22 -0700, (Niko) wrote:

It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.

Air India most certainly has 5th freedom rights to carry passengers on
that leg of the flight and I'm almost certain Kuwait do to

--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

Rubbish - both Air India and Kuwait Airways have full rights to take any
passenger from the UK to the USA.
Be aware that there is no booze on Kuwait.
I have to say that neither would be my choice but both have some excellent
fares.
Safetywise - no problem.


"Niko" wrote in message
om...
Hello
It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.
Between LHR and JFK only American Airlines, United Airlines, British
Airways and Virgin Atlantic have trafic rigts. So Air India and Kuwait
Airlines won't sell you a ticket on route LHR-JFK-LHR.

Air India is excellent airlnes, which provide good service in economy
class. I have no excperience flying with Kuwait Airlines

Niko

Greetings,

I flew Kuwait two years ago from LHR to JFK. I was stranded as an SA
(employee traveling on a pass) in LHR during peak summer travel
season, and Kuwait let me buy a pass on them at a reduced fare since
they had plenty of open seats.

I liked Kuwait. They were using 777 equipment on the route at the
time. The seat configuration was different..... 3-3-3 instead of
2-5-2 which I liked very much.

As another poster pointed out, there is no alcohol onboard at all.
The food was good -- a snack after take-off and then a full meal later
in the flight. Both meals were on par with major airlines. The duty
free had a lot of perfumes and colognes at decent prices.

One cool feature was an external camera that showed the take-off and
landing which I thought was pretty neat and something I had never
experienced before. Also, their airshow had an icon that showed where
Mecca was facing throughout the flight so that if you wanted to pray
you knew where to face which I also thought was interesting.

I spoke with the flight attendants between services. Most are either
from Eastern Europe or more open parts of the Middle East (Lebanon,
Egypt, etc.) They do have Kuwaiti flight attendants on some flights
(none were on mine however) who earn double the salary. One big
surprise to learn was that they are unionized and enjoy similar
benefits and work rule restrictions as the major U.S. carriers. The
flight attendants are required to speak English (and ironically, never
have to learn Arabic) and all of them spoke English well. The pilots
on my flight all trained in the U.S. and the head pilot actually came
out of the cockpit to interact with pax a bit at one point during the
flight and came to the back galley while I was chatting with the F/As.
I spoke with him briefly and he was really nice.

The enforcement of safety rules and regs is a bit more lax than U.S.
or European airlines I would say. Some examples were the flight
attendants not checking or monitoring seat belt compliance (people got
up and walked around despite the seat belt sign being on). No
announcement was made before they pressed "play" on the video, the
volume was turned down low and two pax got up and went to the restroom
during the video (and during taxi) in full view of the flight
attendant sitting in front of me on her jump seat, who simply ignored
them. This isn't necessarily a reason to not fly them since common
sense would tell most people to remain seated when the seat belt sign
is on etc... just an observation.

Overall, Kuwait was fine. The seats were comfortable and the staff
were very friendly. They saved me hundreds of dollars in extra hotel
costs and lost work days by letting me buy a pass and fly on them, and
I'll be forever grateful to them for getting me home!!!

Ryan

"Da Man" wrote in message ...
Has anyone ever flown Kuwait Airlines or Air India, if so what is there
level of service?
I was looking through schedules for London - New York and these services
cropped up.

Ta
Paul
xx

In article ,
(Niko) wrote:

Hello
It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.

Actually, they do.

Between LHR and JFK only American Airlines, United Airlines, British
Airways and Virgin Atlantic have trafic rigts. So Air India and Kuwait
Airlines won't sell you a ticket on route LHR-JFK-LHR.

Air India is excellent airlnes, which provide good service in economy
class. I have no excperience flying with Kuwait Airlines

Niko

"Da Man" wrote in message
...
Has anyone ever flown Kuwait Airlines or Air India, if so what is there
level of service?
I was looking through schedules for London - New York and these services
cropped up.

Ta
Paul
xx
I have flown on both to NY. I would say that Kuwait is slightly better.
Remember they are a dry airline. Air India charges for drinks. Neither have
personal videos. The AI flight was packed and stunk. I don't think Indian
people are as keen on using deodorant. It was awful for me. Their toilets
were filthy. Indians prefer to use water instead of toilet paper. IT was
disgusting.
This was my PERSONAL experience of the flights!

In article ,
Niko wrote:
It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.

Oh yes they are. You can easily book an Air India ticket between LHR
and JFK from any reputable travel agent.

phil

Philip George wrote:

In article ,
Niko wrote:

It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.


Oh yes they are. You can easily book an Air India ticket between LHR
and JFK from any reputable travel agent.


They could also online book it quite easily.
I got a quote of $1736 for first class at http://www.airindia.com/

mrtravel wrote:
Philip George wrote:

In article ,
Niko wrote:

It's true Kuwait Airlines and Air India have flights between LHR-JFK,
but they don't have passanger traffic rights between UK and US, so
they are not allowed to take new passanger on board from Heathrow.



Oh yes they are. You can easily book an Air India ticket between LHR
and JFK from any reputable travel agent.


They could also online book it quite easily.
I got a quote of $1736 for first class at http://www.airindia.com/


Interesting, Exec was a little over $1000 Return.
Here is a picture of Exec Class Seats
http://www.airindia.com/news/NewExecutiveClassSeats.htm