How to tell if an aircraft has been upgraded?

[Deep]

Hi
I'll be catching a flight from India to Thailand in the near future. There are only two options, Thai Airways or Air India.
Normally I would never ever consider flying AI, their aircraft are literally falling apart inside. However the AI flight times are much better than TA.
AI have recently been bought by Tata, and Singapore Airlines have taken a 25% stake. A refit of existing craft and brand new craft have been ordered.

Is there a way of finding out if the AI flight I'm considering is a craft that has been refitted and modernised? It's an Airbus A320 Neo.

Thanks.

[numtumfutunch]

Im not an expert however if you can get as far as selecting a seat without handing over your credit card its possible that you can cross reference the configuration with one of the 'best seat' websites. Check all areas of the cabin

Cheers

[Deep]

numtumfutunch said:

Im not an expert however if you can get as far as selecting a seat without handing over your credit card its possible that you can cross reference the configuration with one of the 'best seat' websites. Check all areas of the cabin

Cheers

Hi
Yes, I have sort of tried that but as far as I know the aircraft is an A320 Neo, and both the unmodernised and modernised variety have the same seat configurations.
So I can't tell from that info which of the two it is.

Thank you.

[SDarks]

A320 Neo is a new AC type so will be the same short haul configuration as others.

I would go Thai, there are some horror stories about Air India pilots buying their licences and learning “on the job”.

[SDarks]

A320 Neo is a new AC type so will be the same short haul configuration as others.

I would go Thai, there are some horror stories about Air India pilots buying their licences and learning “on the job”.

[peter tdci]

Deep said:

Hi
Yes, I have sort of tried that but as far as I know the aircraft is an A320 Neo, and both the unmodernised and modernised variety have the same seat configurations.
So I can't tell from that info which of the two it is.

Thank you.

If you find the A320 neo model on here - https://www.aerolopa.com/ai - you can see the different seating configs for Air India (and Vistara).

There's a site called ExpertFlyer that shows seat maps and occupancy on individual flights - if you are willing to post your flight number and date of travel, I'll do a search and will post the result.

[Mabbs9]

I'm interested in what refit changes there have been and how they'll make a difference?

[CraigyMc]

peter tdci said:

Deep said:

Hi
Yes, I have sort of tried that but as far as I know the aircraft is an A320 Neo, and both the unmodernised and modernised variety have the same seat configurations.
So I can't tell from that info which of the two it is.

Thank you.

If you find the A320 neo model on here - https://www.aerolopa.com/ai - you can see the different seating configs for Air India (and Vistara).

There's a site called ExpertFlyer that shows seat maps and occupancy on individual flights - if you are willing to post your flight number and date of travel, I'll do a search and will post the result.

https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Air_India/inform... shows seat layouts for the fleet.

ExpertFlyer does good data for figuring out which flights are most likely to have upgrades, I've used that myself in the past.

[Deep]

peter tdci said:

If you find the A320 neo model on here - https://www.aerolopa.com/ai - you can see the different seating configs for Air India (and Vistara).

There's a site called ExpertFlyer that shows seat maps and occupancy on individual flights - if you are willing to post your flight number and date of travel, I'll do a search and will post the result.

I will DM you if that's ok?

Thanks

[peter tdci]

Deep said:

I will DM you if that's ok?

Thanks

Yes, no problem.

[Griffith4ever]

I flew AI last week - big plane. Was fine. You are righ tthough, one of the LCD screens in the ceontre ceiling was stuck down, but, that was it, and I've seen that before on EU airlines before. Im flying India to BKK in late Dec, with Air India Express, or Indigo - one or the other!

[Deep]

SDarks said:

A320 Neo is a new AC type so will be the same short haul configuration as others.

I would go Thai, there are some horror stories about Air India pilots buying their licences and learning “on the job”.

Yes, I did read that as well
Read something similar about Sri Lankan and PIA.

[Deep]

Griffith4ever said:

I flew AI last week - big plane. Was fine. You are righ tthough, one of the LCD screens in the ceontre ceiling was stuck down, but, that was it, and I've seen that before on EU airlines before. Im flying India to BKK in late Dec, with Air India Express, or Indigo - one or the other!

The odd screen not working here or there is not a big deal, as you say that can happen on any airline.
But I've seen some YT vids of seats held together with duct tape!
AI has much better flight times compared to Thai especially on the return leg. TA flight is either super early or late ie gets you back into Delhi after 2300hrs.
I've never flown Indigo but have flown Vistara many times and they are excellent. Unfortunately they have now been gobbled up by AI

[airbusA346]

SDarks said:

A320 Neo is a new AC type so will be the same short haul configuration as others.

I would go Thai, there are some horror stories about Air India pilots buying their licences and learning “on the job”.

Air India operate 4 different seating configurations on their A320neo's.

- C8 W24 Y132
- C12 Y150
- Y186
- Y180

C = Business; W = Premium Economy; Y = Economy

[peter tdci]

airbusA346 said:

Air India operate 4 different seating configurations on their A320neo's.

- C8 W24 Y132
- C12 Y150
- Y186
- Y180

C = Business; W = Premium Economy; Y = Economy

Their new cabin is the first one in your list and they started rolling it out in September. The route the OP is interested in seems to be operated by the second one and it's this sub fleet of 27 aircraft that is being refurbished, I think.