Air India To Air Concerns

---

Air India to Air Concerns

- Piprey

Feb 2024

The pleasure is in the journey but those travellers were probably not born in the current age and experienced Air India.

Here is to the pleasure of Incredible Indias' premier airlines, Air India which fulfills the promise of transporting passengers across the globe but with quite some interesting derogations.

Flight from London Heathrow to Kolkata for Durga pooja

Like a swarm of bees, the world descends to Kolkata for Durga pooja, the biggest cultural festival for the Bengali community.

Among the thousands, I had carefully booked an Air India flight from London Heathrow to Kolkata via Delhi. Despite being a key metro, Air India does not have any direct flights from London to Kolkata.

Outbound flight delay

I arrived at London Heathrow airport, well in time only to realise that the flight was delayed for over 4 hours because a passenger faced health issues in the incoming aeroplane from Mumbai. I was sitting at the airport from 9 am and taken an unpaid leave. My apartment was vacated for the long trip and no chance of a respite at home. We had to stand in long queues at the Air India counter to get even this basic information around reasons for flight delay.

Lunch coupon compensation

Probably a tasty lunch but what could we buy it at the airport for 7 GBP? A group of Air India passengers made a hue and cry with a threat to report to social media. Eventually, the Air India management relented and offered us a 14 GBP lunch coupon.

A co-passenger was flying because of personal emergency. At least we shared a meal of hot Katsu and a dessert together. For these coupons, we stood in long queues agiain for over 2 hours as Air India did not have any to hand out though they were aware of flight delays hours back.

The air india officials were manually writing down names and ticket details. I wonder why they did not take a print out of the passenger list.

Asked to rebook connecting flights and luggage deboarded

Strangely, the airlines said we need to book our connecting flights ourselves. We called Air India customer care several times and managed to get a re-booking done. Even more weird was that when we were boarding, we were informed that our luggages had been deboarded because we rebooked ourselves on phone! Anyway, I had no place to stay in UK and so I flew.

Indeed, there was no checked in luggage for 6 of us when we landed in Kolkata. We spent considerable time filing missing luggage report and were paid a compensation of 4K INR for each luggage item.

Meanwhile, my cousin’s husband has landed in Delhi from Nairobi.

The pleasure of having masala tea with a samosa after this ordeal for 350 INR was expensive but worth it.

No taxi facility outside Kolkata airport.

I landed in Kolkata international airport with only my hand luggage. Outside, there was no taxi facility. I took an airport bus.

Then walked a 1.5 miles to my house as the uber charges seem to be too steep during festival times.

Damaged suitcase delay and compensation

My co-passenger and I had exchanged mails and tracked our luggages amid festivities. It seems our luggage had been diverted from London to Frankfurt. It arrived finally in 4-5 days. Two wheels of one of my suitcases was broken. The same thing happened to my co-passenger's suitcase and one wheel was damaged.

I initiated an ordeal process to report damaged goods. Initially they offered zero compensation as they claimed my suitcase was over 3 years old. I persisted and then they offered less than 50%!o(MISSING)f the value. After tons of email exchanges finally in 3 month’s time, I also gave up and accepted.

I sent them the bank details, but the page was too big and Air India could not accept the same details in writing in the body of the email.

I went around to scan a cheque and sent it following which compensation was paid after 3 months of Tom and Jerry chase.

Change flight dates

For my inbound flight, I thought of changing flights as I had some work in India.

When I called Air India, they said, I need to call travel agent, Southall Travels. When I called travel agent, they said I need to call Air India as “’I had already made one change and the system was locked”.

I wrote a strong mail to my travel agent, reminding them of my booking conditions of one free change. Within 24 hours, I got a call asking for preferred dates.

Sure, they were charging 290-350 GBP for a change. I decided to stick with the original dates.

Return flight rescheduled due to bad weather and rebooking

It was a morning flight.

I was enjoying the beautifully, misty, wintry morning in Kolkata.

When I arrived in Kolkata airport, I was asked to go to counter 10. There was a red board and I went. The customer care could not find my booking. Later I realised that I was standing at the Emirates stand and not Air India. Both have the same red!

Poor Kolkata weather meant I was certain to miss the connecting from Mumbai.

I had the option to take refund or change the dates or fly a torturous route Mumbai- Delhi ( long over night layover at the airport) and London Heathrow. Air India offered refund only for outbound fare and could not tell me the exact amount as it was booked in foreign currency (GBP).

I decided to reschedule to the following day, same flights and route. Returned to my father’s house for a hearty breakfast and another day in lovely Kolkata.

Free upgrade to business class

Since I did not bother to web check in, I was offered middle seats. The Air India customer care did try to book me to a window or aisle seat but the system would not allow.

Nevertheless, I welcomed the idea as a new experience. Headed to the lounge but looking at the long queues, squirreled back to the gate. I was one of the last ones to board but surprise, surprise, I had a free upgrade to business class! Enjoyed the comfortable seats and fine dining. Most importantly, I took it easy in this 3 hours flight because I had a 10 hour shortly afterwards.

At Mumbai airport, there was a bit of walk to the international airport. The layout was open and pleasing. I browsed some books and read the newspapers.

Middle of middle seat experience

The flight was full. I liked the middle seats in the middle row because the ceiling was very high and it felt more airy. Pleasant co-passengers as they shared chocolates, we waited for flight services.

Suddenly 30 mins enroute, I found announcement for safety demonstrations a bit amusing. I watched 3-4 movies and ate lovely Indian dinner of chicken curry rice followed by an extra helping for paneer curry and rice.

Tried to sleep but not too comfortable. The flight was delayed by over 20 mins and the stretch was making all passengers uncomfortable. Air India referred to passengers as guests.

Conclusion


• Air India is struggling with processes and procedures which are probably far better organised in India than in London.
• In Feb 2024, an 80 year old passenger died because there was no wheel chair available in Mumbai airport and he decided to walk than wait.
• Airports have also become a bit transactional, offering little by way of service and depending on the systems to guide humans than other way around. For example, seat allocation frozen yet the seat allocation can upgrade passengers to business class.
• Rules for damaged suitcasesare being followed half-heartedly at considerable expense to passenger’s time and follow ups. The process of compensation is full of loops and Air India is getting away with it.
• Long queues at loungesare making services limited and inaccessible to people who want to enjoy it
• Allied airport services like taxis are struggling to meet passenger capacityat certain airports.
• Flights lunch coupons are so lowthat you can probably just afford a coffee and a small fun.
• With so little buffer between flightsthat a delay of 1 hour because of bad weather means you can miss a connecting flight
• Long flight times means that the probability of on time arrival is high. A non -stop flight from London Heathrow to Bengaluru used to be 8.5 hours, a few years back. Today, I wonder how a flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow is 10 hours and Delhi to London Heathrow is 8 hours. Probably the Earth has expanded.

Let’s air our concerns about Air India. Hope to see improvements soon.

---