Air India
Reviews and Complaints

Dear Air India

I took a flight from copenhagen Delhi with a connection flight to Mumbai on the 19th of July with my daughter.
The flight from CPH to DEL nr is AI158.

The same day on my way to the airport I received an email of cancellation of my flight ( connection flight) although I wasn't sure if it was the whole flight that was cancelled.

Our flight from Delhi to Mumbai was cancelled and we were putted on a strange connection which we were not able to make since the plain didn't arrive yet.

We had to wait in the airport for several ours before we were putted on the next flight to Mumbai. It was not a nice experience both for me and my daughter as we were very tired.

Staying in the airport more than the expected time meant that we had to consume somethings from the airport. My hosts in Mumbai had to go back home as I was delayed by more than 4 hours.

The air Indian stuff in Delhi was so slow and very inefficient in helping us figure things out.

I hope you consider my email and the inconvenient as soon as possible.

Kind regards
Selamawit

We were surprised to see that people were allowed to sit on any seat whatever they wish despite the fact we had been alloted Seat No's. My Seat no was 5E and 5F. But I was given seat 29E and 29F. My mother aged 71yrs faced enormous problems there. And Crew members didn't cooperate and were unable to give me my seat instead told me to sit at any seat otherwise flight will get cancelled. Plz take action...

Regards
Kaiser Ahmad
+[protected]

Hi Air India,

Please find attached my flight itinerary so you can follow the situation attached.

Ticket No: [protected]

CRM No:0415012

Passenger: Ms. Michelle Whelan

Flights: UX5038, AI136, AI308.

On the 25th of July my flight AI136 From Madrid to New Delhi Was changed from 22:50pm to 23:50pm. I also had a connecting flight at 12:15am on the 26th from New dehli to Melbourne due to the change in flights I would have missed my connecting flight. Air India had not rescheduled my connecting flight from New Delhi onwards, I'm confused as to why my itinerary was not completely amended?

I originally booked my flights with Travel2be. I booked these specific flights as they were only 25hrs travel time, left at a good time of the day and got me back to Melbourne to begin work on the Monday.

In your Air India reschedule emails they provided contact numbers, So I rang your London help desk one of your representatives called Sonali Told me it was Travel2be that needed to handle the situation but this was incorrect information because when I contacted Travel2be they told me that it's Air India's issue as you changed the flight. I was moved on from customer care help desk to help desk each representative not helping just wanting to get rid of me. The even more frustrating part was no-one would supply me with contact numbers for any of the other help desks in different countries such as New Delhi and Madrid that I was advised to call or the ones that did didn't even give me the area code for the countries I was calling.

It's safe to say you customer care team is not properly trained, it's a shambles to be honest.

Eventually my father demanded to speak to a supervisor of the london headquarters he advised me to contact New Dehli as I could not get through to Madrid. There was no Air India help desk in Malaga Airport either so phoning was my only option. This was mayhem as I had already booked my bags on to fly and received my boarding pass but was unsure wether to go through security or not.

I tried calling your Madrid helpline desk multiple of times with no answer. Myself and my father have been onto your London help desk as Madrid would not answer they advised me to call air India New Delhi help desk. Eventually I got through to New Delhi a man named Onu told me NOT to board my flight from Malaga to Madrid as I would still be flown to New Delhi from Madrid and once I reached New Delhi to get my flight rescheduled I would be sent back to Spain as I did not have a transit visa for New Delhi. He advised that air India only fly to Melbourne once every two days and I can not stay in New Delhi airport longer than 24hrs without a transit visa.

Due to all of this I have not boarded my original flight UX5038 from Malaga to Madrid. I have had to retrieve my luggage from Air Europa which took over a 2hr wait.

On Sunday morning I called your Indian customer service and they said the next flight they could get me on was Tuesday night but unfortunately that was not good enough as I needed to get back to Melbourne ASAP.
So they said I could get a refund from my travel agent Travel2be. This was a plus but due to hole situation I am out of pocket.

Do you have a compensation team that I contact to get a rebate for all the extra charges?

My original flight cost with Travel2be was $1033.89 the new flight I had to book was $1419.50. That is $385.61 in the difference. I also had to buy two new bus tickets and get two taxis due to this this was and additional €32.

My Australian phone bill also needs to be covered, as you can see from the previous email I had to ring a number of different countries due to the situation.

I also missed 2 full days of work because of what happened. So I'm concerned who is going to cover all these additional costs that I had not accomodate for?

Michelle Whelan.

+[protected]

[protected]@hotmail.com

My Mum was traveling from Calcutta to Bangalore and in the ticket her allowance was 50kg but in the Calcutta airport they denied the weight allowance and charged her for one kilo, her total weight was 26kg. This is really unexpected! I would like get the money back otherwise I will take further action. I have the prove that they mention two separate bag 25kg each in the ticket.

I had most horrible and horrifying experience on my flight AI 101 from DEL to JFK on 25th August 2018. My ticket Number is [protected] . This was a 15 hour long flight and one does expect it to be at least comfortable. Right from the beginning, it was very challenging. My TV never worked on the entire flight and my seat was broken with a metal rod sticking out of it. I complained to the crew but they could do nothing about it as they said "the flight was full". I was forced to have this horrendous inconvenience for 15 long hours. It was a torture. My back is still hurting and I'm petrified. My back is injured by not able to sit straight and I will have to visit a doctor tomorrow.

I was suppose to board UA 4217 from Columbus till Newark on 17th
Aug at 5:35 PM local time.
I had a connecting flight from Newark till India on 17th Aug at 9:50 PM
local time.
The UA 4217 got delayed and no one at the airport had clear
information. Later at 10:00 PM they canceled the flight and there was
no way i can catch my flight to India.

I found a flight from Columbus to Chicago for next morning and from
there an Air India flight to India.
Since i was on business trip with less cash we me at that time, i asked
for a favor to allow me to travel on Air India flight from Chicago to India next day.

With the help of UA customer care, we contacted the Air India customer care who as usual were having longer than usual hold time.

After around 1:15 hours, we were able to contact the Air India support.

The UA member explained to them about my situation and medical emergency back home.

The Air India team said they do have alliance with UA but need atleast 24 hours prior notice.

I said that you already have free seats since i checked the same flight using goibibo and would have costed me more money had i booked it altogether new booking.

I requested them to consider this as a rare case and help me reaching back home as early as possible.

TO WHICH THE AIR INDIA BLUNTLY REFUSED.

I had to wait for 18 hrs at airport + 28 hours in flight to get home.

I want to know why can't the Air India allow me to board the flight that was much
easier to board.

I can only say that For Indians also, the Teams like AIR INDIA are SHAME & DISGRACE and can't expect needy actions from them.

If someone has had been through the situation i was in, being stuck up in foreign land with my ailing mother waiting alone here in India, only then you could understand the hardships i have been through.

REALLY PATHETIC PEOPLE, PATHETIC AIRLINES and MOST OF THEM _ PATHETIC STAFF...

--Varun Narula

respected air india
we 3 passengers booked tickets from vizag to tirupathi and one num is Y7FRR flight num is AI 9527and the passengers names are dadireddy suhasini dadireddy shailendhar reddy, dadireddy sharona we came to the counter by 12:45 and after showing the ticket she told the flight is delayed and the counter will be open at 14:00 and the departure time is 16:30 actual flight time is 13:55 so i asked that i did not get any mess from u then she replied we only did not get any mess madam so then i tried online boarding pass in airport itself then i came to know that air india does not have that facility so we thought to go out and have lunch so we went out and returned to the airport by 14:00 and after we reached the counter they told that the flight has already left and we lost return flight hotel booking temple tickets total we lost 30000 rupees and who is responsible uhqve to return the refund and compensatition if not we will take sever action and we will go to consumer court if u want pls check the cc cameras and video clippings if u want i'll put the return flight ticket also

Passengers: 1. Vasanti V. Puranik
2. Vilas P. Puranik
confirmation no. YPL8G

We had a very bad experience travelling Air India return trip which probably preclude (in absence of proper resolution) us from using AI in future:
Itinerary:
June 15 JFK to DEL AI 102 : flight was fine
DEL to PNQ AI 853 : Flight was fine

July 10: BOM to EWR AI 191 : BAD EXPERIENCE*

* 1. Toilets were filthy. No body cared to clean in spite of complaint.
Other toilet was unusable because short on toilet tissue rolls.
*2. Flight duration about 16 hours. Both TVs did not work (In spite of complaint nothing done to reset or rework.

I am a passenger. I travelled from Bangalore to Chicago on 8th of May 2017. Like other passengers, I had tough time inside the flight for several hours. The flight was landed in Milwakauee instead of Chicago.

I had three big important meetings which I couldn't join. As a result, all my business meetings had to be postponed. These are not getting rescheduled due once again. I am not sure, what I can do about this.

The cabin crew also did not allow us to walk. We where asked to glue ourselves to the seat for several hours before we actually got like 20 minute window to set out of the plane. This is ridiculous. In such unbearable condition, the cabin crew employees were simply unapologetic and not understanding passenger mental stress and trauma.

This primarily happened because of the flight delay. The mental tension I had to go through sitting in that plane without proper food is something that I cannot even express.

I am not sure how I am going to recoup myself from this stress and loss off business opportunities. I need to know how this can be compensated by the airline.

Kindly let me know what is the procedure to fight this out. A sooner response via email will be appreciated.

Hi,

This is with regard to PNR Z0VG6 on AI 9512 from Coimbatore to Bangalore on 19 Aug 2018. The departure timing as per my ticket is 21:15PM. The ticket has been booked for Mrs. Sheila Thamattore, a Senior citizen who resides in Thrissur and plans to take this flight from Coimbatore since the Kochi airopirt is closed. She is on her own now and hence we want her to be with us as soon as possible due to the current situation in Kerala.

I had called [protected] which is mentioned in the ticket as well as Alliance Air website and was extremely disappointed to know that it is an INVALID number!

After multiple futile attempts of calling on [protected], i was put on to a Cutomer support executive to check on the flight timing/terminal/etc; He first tole me that the system is slow and he is unable to get the flight information. Post putting me on hold for more than 30 Mins, he came back on call and informed that the Updated timing for the flight is 18:30PM! ...and this information came to me because i made this call!? I have no updates on my mobile/mail. I then requested him to put me on to the escalation point for which he said all lines are busy and again put me on hold for another 20 mins post which I hung up! This is not only disappointing but also frustrating!

Post multiple search efforts on the net, got the contact numbers of Nodal Officer and Appellate authority. Called on all available numbers but no response at all.

Having mentioned above that my mother resides in Thrissur, from where it takes about 3 hours to reach Coimbatore, we atleast need a confirmation on the timing!
This is more than test of patience and mere disregard for the money we paid! Such an unreliable service and pathetic customer experience!

This is to inform you that I will henceforth NEVER EVER take your service!

Regards,
Priya
[protected]

All passengers have been boarded in flight well before the scheduled time of 7:05 PM on 18th Aug 2018 in flight AI489. But flight is not departed at the scheduled time. On enquiring crew members informed that captain/pilot of light has not come till now.
It is highly objectionable. If any passenger is late even by 5 minute, he/she is not given boarding pass. But when captain or pilot is late, no liability of airline...
This incident shows a careless approach of air India and that's why this airline is showing poor performance in aviation sector.

I would like to complain about the service provided by AirIndia Flight and the inconvenience I had.

I had a flight booked from 'Cochi to Mumbai' and then 'Mumbai to Newark' (Flight No. "191" (~19hr travel)) on August 8th, 2018. For your information, it was way before the flood or any of that happened. So, please don't confuse this complain with that hazzle.

The problem occured in the connect flight from 'Mumbai to Newark'(Aug 9, 1:30 am). I had the basinet for my 5 month old as confirmed and we booked the tickets months before. I am attaching a screen shot of the confirmation. The screen shot has details of both up and down flight I took. I have highlighted about the one I am talking about (AI 0191, BOM -> EWR). However, on the day I boarded the plane, to my surprise my seat no. was different and obviously no basinet was provided as well. According to me, this is height of negligency and a matter of risk for a 5 month old considering the fact that it is a long journey. So, I had to call the manager in the flight to ask why has this happened and showed him the online confirmation I had. His name was "Jeevan". And he was smart enough to say -"Go to the counter and ask, it is not my problem". I have boarded the plane which is about to take off in 2 min and he wants me to get off the plane and ask in the counter. I asked him the same, to which his response was when you reach, go and complain online. Your employee "Mr. Jeevan" have been wonderfully trained to not behave with customers. First of all, the mistake is at your end and he had no courtsey to resolve or serve the customer. Based on his attitude, he is not approachable at all.

I can understand, if all the seats at front were booked with people who have kids and needs basinet. But no, all were adults. There were 2 rows with no basinets used at all. There were 1 basinet used somewhere at back for a 9 or 10 month old. In short, my daughter was the youngest in that plane. So for what valid reasons were the seats changed? Why was it given to others? And also, since all the fronts were booked by adults with no kids - why would your staff not make any effort to work this out. I am surprised that employees try to solve the problem. Whereas, they encourage to just put complains online instead of being accountable for passengers safety.

This is a complete harassement to me and my 5 month old. Can you imagine the torcher besides the risk for ~15 hr flight? How do you handle 5 month old for so long in your arms? How will the baby sleep? How do I have my meal? How do I use the restroom if need be? What happens if the plane is not stable due to inclement weather?

Hereby, this is not a mere complain. I want a response back in 2 weeks with regards to what action was taken. Also, I want to know what action was taken against Jeevan? If not, then I would be approaching consumers court and escalating this issue until there is a solution/action taken . Because I do not want this to happen to any other customer and also want to make sure that this is not one more online complain that no one takes action on which you guys encourage so much to write. I will be keeping a copy of this letter. Please let me know if you need any more details.

My contact details:
Alexy Thomas
60N, Diamond Street
Clifton Heights
PA, 19018

AI 158 DELAYED BY 40 HRS CPH-DEL, 04 08 2019. PNR--USPGXE

REQUEST FOR COMPENSATION

JASPAL DHINGRA...Sr. citizen
RENU DHINGRA...Sr Citizen
PRAGYEE DHINGRA...Patient of blood sugar, short of Insulin had problems

Awaiting your reply, We had bad time as were not well, short of medicines, and flifgt was delayed twice.

JASPAL DHINGRA

[protected]
[protected]

I was travelling from dxb to vtz on 16/08/2018. After checkin I did shopping in dubai duty free shopping took some candies and other things which it wieghts around 2 kgs. At the time of ticket checking before boarding at the gate number d10 the ground staff display one poster that including dutyfree shopping 8 kgs are allowed if any extra need to pay money with out mentioning the charges per kg.in my case they said initially two kgs extra you have to pay 500dhms which my hand luggage they include my laptop also. I asked them for two kgs 500 dhms? I was shocked. After that I asked them to give a reciept, they deny to give a reciept. For collecting the money around 5 people are working, I didnt understad why the 5 people for collecting the money and that to with out bill. No body is disclose thier identity. But all are in air india dress code.
If any this type of messages, along with the price tag per kg they should have to inform or keep a poster at the check in counter.
I request you to please need action/enquiry against this incident. Their behaving nature is so agressive and humiliating, please check the cc tv footages in the air port at the gate number d10.
I am ready for any enquiry if need

Hi..
just want to share my experience with airindia..
I had booked this round trip for 2 passengers with air india on 26th july (details below) for rs. 2, 03, 256. I even paid 3500 per seat for the prefered seat for the whole trip, but got no confirmation.. upon mailing the airlines i got a mail back saying plz call the call centre.. and then when i called the call centre, the staff said we have no confirmation plz send us a mail on ecommerce air india .. I HAVE ATTACHED THE PHOTOS BELOW. Calling air india airlines is a total harassment .. it has happened thrice with me now.. everytime we call for some reason they put us on hold.. the call goes on for 20.. 25 minutes .. also hardly they have answers to our queries.. very unprofessional staff..

Today we checked and we realised the same tickets that we booked for rs. 2, 03, 256 are now for rs. 1, 67, 000 ..
It feels we have been cheated as there was no point in booking the tickets in advance with air india..
the worst part is that nobody in the call centre has the ability to answer our questions properly so that we stay as a satisfied and a loyal customer of AIR INDIA.
We also have been checking for the upgrade of our tickets in this flight but have been stuck with the call centre people fr almost 20
Minutes.

I would really appreciate if my matter and the complaint is looked into.. and im. Being replied to for my queries..
Thank you in advance

Rajesh goyal
[protected]

Booking ID: Y57RS
FLIGHT: delhi to Sfo -18th september, 2018
SFO to DELHI - 30th spetember, 2018
Sent from my iPhone

On 31-Jul-2018, at 11:41 AM, Vinod Goyal wrote:
Talk to call centre.

From: RAJAT GOYAL [mailto:[protected]@jdsons.in]
Sent: 31 July 2018 11:26
To: 'Vinod Goyal'
Subject: FW: confirmation of sfo-delhi seat prefernce not recieved --booking ref-Y57RS-RAJESH GOYAL AND RENU GOYAL-PAYMENT ALREADY CHARGED FROM CREDIT CARD-

Reply from air india
Ab kya kia jaaye

From: [protected]@airindia.in
Sent: 31 July 2018 10:25
To: RAJAT GOYAL
Subject: Re: confirmation of sfo-delhi seat prefernce not recieved --booking ref-Y57RS-RAJESH GOYAL AND RENU GOYAL-PAYMENT ALREADY CHARGED FROM CREDIT CARD-

Dear Customer,
Greetings from AIR INDIA,
Thanks for writing to us.
Kindly get in touch with our call center regarding the same.

Call center [protected] Toll Free

Email ID: call.[protected]@airindia.in
Contact Number - 022-[protected]
044-[protected]

THANKS FOR CHOOSING AIR INDIA

Regards,
Ecommerce/ST
AIR INDIA

On [protected]:56, RAJAT GOYAL wrote:
DEAR SIR /MAM

THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT MY BOOKING NUMBER-Y57RS

FLIGTH DELHI TO SAN FRANCISCO -18 TH SEP-30 SEPT

PASSSENGER NAME -RAJESH GOYAL AND RENU GOYAL

I paid for preferred seat online from del ton san -30a and 30c these seats were confirmed online on your website but I also paid for return journey from sfo to delhi

For both the sectors my payment was charged from my credit card but confirmation received is only for one sector that is delh to sfo

Kindly also confirm the return sector

Prompt reply will be highly appreciable

Regards

Rajesh goyal
[protected]

Date of incidence is 9th August, I had flight from AMD-Mumbai-Newark.

The airlines charged me for extra baggage saying that 3 baggage was not allowed on particular flight and said we can not do anything about it.

I had asked the airlines about it prior to my flight and they said that on F1 visa it will be allowed but at the moment they backed out.

Dear Air India Team,

My husband and I are travelling from Germany to Goa for our honeymoon in October 2018.

We bought the tickets on 08 March 2018. My legal name was "Nora Fodor" as we bought the tickets.
We got married on 19 May 2018. My legal name is "Nora Kippke" since then.

Booking code: JR2XT
Persons: Ulf Kippke and Nora Kippke

Flight Frankfurt-Goa: AI 120 on 23 October 2018
Flight Goa-Frankfurt: AI 882 on 13 November 2018

Please find attached:
- marriage certificate (in 3 languages, including English and French)
- new passport (shows old name and new name as well)

Please amend my last name in the booking so that I do not have any problems at the airport (security check / boarding).

Thank you for your help in advance.

Kind regards
Nora Kippke (former name: Nora Fodor)
[protected]@kippke.de
+[protected]

My wife Mrs Wallace aged 67 was hassled by your ground check in staff when she tried to check in at Chennai (MAA) for her journey AI143 and AI 111 that is from Chennai to Delhi and onward to London (LHR)

She was hassled that she did not have a residency card or proof of residence, when she showed them her Visa and for a footnote residency cards are for the newcomers we have been in London for 26 years, but who the heck they think they are

Earlier I was hassled by your staff even though i showed them a Visa and started strutting like the cock on the walk with my passport everywhere .Who the Heck they are giving service to "crooks"

My Son also had the same problem, because the Amsterdam Embassy spelled London "Landon" who the heck are they to verify another countries Visa

Than my aunt of 75 years was hassled because they did not understand her Visa
Is this their Mode of Operand at the Chennai Office

As a sincere citizen of my country I would like to inform you about my recent experience with air india airlines.
It is extremely painful to inform you this experience but still it needs to be reported to concern authorities, administrators and officials for a necessary future action so that no one else destroys the well built image of any indian airlines.
I was travelling to and fro between delhi and ahmedabad for a official trip and while coming back from delhi on airport I was informed via sms that the flight was delayed by an hr.
Although I was already at airport by that time but I decided to wait on the airport only. After security check when I reached to allotted gate for boarding for ai013 flight dated 27th july 2018 @ 19:45hrs, but flight was cancelled due to some technical fault and the airlines authority decided to adjust these passengers in the other flight boarding for ahmedabad which were having less capacity.
The airlines executives requested the passengers to give away their current seats and ask for volunteer and re-schedule their flight to another flight.

I decided to give away my seat only because I do not wanted that the image of indian airlines should not be hampered because of this. So, I accepted to re-board on another flight scheduled day after on sunday 29th july 2018 at 7:45 pm.
I was promised that everyone who gave away their seats will be given to and fro taxi charges and hotel stay along with 200% amount of booked ticket basic amount. Although I denied for hotel stay charges and asked for generating a certificate so that it can be presented to my office for administrative purpose but I was asked to change counters one after the other ignoring the fact that my flight has started boarding and neither given certificate nor a satisfactory answer for the same.
On contrary the administrative should have made these documents well in advance and handover to passengers at the time of reporting or before boarding their rescheduled flights.

I am enclosing the under mentioned documents for your perusal:
Screenshot of sms received for delayed flight on 27th july 2018
Copy of boarding pass for 27th july 2018
Copy of boarding pass for 29th july 2018
Names of the executives who did false commitment: harpreet singh + 3 team members, rajendra kumar @ delhi airport

I really hope to have a quick and satisfactory response from your side so that no one else pass though the mental stress I faced with this trip.
As a responsible citizen I have informed you so that india should not receive a bad word-of-mouth ever in future due to these administrative mistakes

I am unable to travel due to pregnancy..because Doctor will not allow to travel in 7 months of pregnancy because I have some complications.I have called in air India customer care many times but there was no help given by their executive.I wanted to talk to grievance Dept. regarding my problem but their customer care executive didn't transfer my call to them.They only says that their is no policy for medical problems..My tickets are on September 20 ...Pnr is YES0Q.. please give me a solution