Air India
Reviews and Complaints

AirIndia's station manager at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport is such an ill-mannered, and rude person. His name is Arpan Saniyal.
He behaves totally unethical and offensive. He portrays very negative image of the country to all Australians.
He must be replaced and sent back where he belongs, definitely not Australia.
He literally harasses the passengers waiting for the boarding pass.
Airlines is really good but surprisingly he insults passengers at airport like it is his very own private jet !
It is requested to replace him or take a strict action against him.
Thanks.

I recently traveled to Kolkata via Delhi on AirIndia flight AI-102. At reaching the destination I found out that 4 bottles of expensive perfumes were stolen from the locked bag. I used TSA type number lock and locks were intact.

I tried calling the air lines number numerous times while being in India and was put on hold every time. Not able to file a complain on the company's website.

ON the 26th a evening I booked a ticket from Kolkata Airport to Dhaka Bangladesh, by mistake there was a mistype in my spelling of the last name. Now since it is an International flight the spelling of my last name is now different in my Ticket & my passport. I than called both MakeMyTrip, where I had booked the tickets both The Airline Company & Makemytrip the only way to amend the last name is to cancel the ticket & book it again. But since the ticket was non refundable so I will be not given any refunds.
I spoke to both asked them I could mail them or go to their respective offices with my original documents & show them the proof. But they are insisting on the same, that would not be able to do so.
Now I'm asking them correct the spelling of the last name. Even Air Asia does I have enquiried. Now I request you to kindly help me in this regards.

This mail is to bring your kind attention regarding the irresponsible treatment given to me while traveling through Air India. I would like to brief my experience here in the mail. Here I am jotting down the few subjugations that faced during the last flight.

Because of the AI fault, I missed my two days of University attendance and faced many stressful situations, Tiresome travel.

My Frequent Flyer number: [protected]

1. I called customer care on 11th of December regarding my baggage where they mentioned that I could carry 40 Kg of check in luggage (Since I am a student). When I tried to checked in from Chennai Airport for the Flight AI 539 on 13th of December, I was made to run from Check in counter to Duty Manager Office more than 3 times for carrying the luggage mentioned.
It took around more than 45 minutes to resolve and while checking in I submitted two bags out of which in ticket he (might) put is as single luggage. But I do possess the tags for two check-in baggage.

2. Flight AI 539 got delayed, and I missed my connection flight from Delhi to Seoul (ICN). Around morning 3 A.M I was given ASIANA AIRLINES ticket (booked by Air India Executives, in Delhi International Terminal ) scheduled on 14th December to travel. I was given a nice hotel to stay for, and I had a sigh of relief. Later, in that particular ticket, I noticed that they mentioned as only one baggage where I faced the problem.

On the time of Check in, I requested duty manager to check the ticket for carrying my two pieces of luggage. He refused to do so and redirected me to inquire in the ticket counter. And while I asked the ticket counter, they redirected me to Duty Manager. This process was repeated, and an executive from Air India was also tried to sort the problem out but in vain.My scheduled Asiana Flight was at 20:20 where I was made rambled from counter to Gate G. No one heard my plea.

After I had raised my voice in the counter, I was given a new ticket on the next day to travel (booked by the executives from the same ticket counter in AI 310 flight, Departure on 15th December 2016).
All the times above mentioned, there was no mistake incurred by me. But, when I demanded the accommodation at the time of booking they said that they would provide later they refused to do so. They asked me to stay in the airport for the whole day without showing any responsibilities. They never allowed me to talk to any of the higher authorities.
Few conversations between the executives(including Duty manager) and I are below.

Me: Sir, this is not my fault. I don't have money to stay
AI Executives: It's not our problem

Me: Sir, Please do the needful. I am suffering a lot because of this. Should I suffer because of the Air India mistake?
Duty Manager: (Thrown my Ticket) DO whatever You want to. We told you the things.

As proof, I request you to kindly check the CCTV cameras from the time of arrival to the airport and the incidents happened till I left the Airport.
Secondly, one of the duty managers asked whether I want milk (might be humanitarian approach). Had they not committed the mistake why they are demanding such things?
Personally, they requested CISF people, who guarded the visitor's room for me to have a stay.

I had stressful travel throughout. No compensation from Air India or an apology was sought.

It took me three days to write the things after thinking whether to write or not.

I just want you to inquire into this and do take actions or mail the steps you have taken against the irresponsible executives.

Regards,
Purushothaman Nandagopalan,

I had paid additional charge for both my wife and my mother for the seats 11J and 11H but my mother was not allotted seat 11J hence my wife had to accompany her to the back seat. Due to this both my wife and my mother suffered during the journey. Kindly refund the 3000 Rs back to me.

POOR QUALITY SERVICE. I BOOKED THE FRONT SEATS BY PAYING EXTRA MONEY BUT AT CHECK IN WE WERE NOT ASSIGNED THOSE SEATS. I AM NOW RUNNING FROM PILLAR TO POST IN AIR INDIA SINCE DAYS BUT NO ONE IS LISTENING. I LOGGED A FEEDBACK FEW TIMES BUT THERE IS NO REPLY. WHAT IS THE USE OF THE FEEDBACK PAGE? I CALLED AIR INDIA NUMBER AND THEY ASKED ME TO EMAIL DETAILS BUT NO ONE REPLIES

Dear sir / madam,

Please refer to the subject file reference bomai24994 dated 15th dec. We travelled from visakhapatnam to mumbai by flight nos ai951 and ai051. The luggage is supposed to come to mumbai from vizag. But it did not come. It got withheld in hyderabad. Upon complaining at mumbai airport we were told that that the luggage will be dispatched to bahrain by the next available flight from hyderabad. The next available flight from hyderabad the gulf air already left hyderabad and the luggage was not put in this. So kindly arrange to send the luggage on sos basis by the next available flight. We are facing lot of hardship in bahrain without the luggage. We donot have any dress to wear. We are trying to contact baggage department on 022-[protected]/[protected] / 66858110but nobody answer.

Please consider this as most urgent and do the needful.

Thanks and regards,

Kalmanje sriranga
00973-[protected]

On my flight from amd to ewr, one of my bags was delayed. After three days bag was delivered to my house. I found out the tsa lock was broken, the zipper was broken and valuable contents missing from the bag. No one answers the calls to air india ewr baggage service at +1 [protected]. The voice mail is full. Emails to [protected]@airindiausa.com bounced back.

I do not know who else in air india can be contacted to help in this case.

Never Buy Air India Ticket.
They are a SCAM.

As expected from as country of thieves.

Experience:
I bought Melbourne to India ticket online. Initial price was 645 $.
Few minutes later when I actually bought it I paid 2400 $ (for two tickets 1200$ each as the prices has gone up).

After I paid I checked again and now the prices were 645$ each again.
I called them and after usual bla bla non-sense, they offered to cancel the tickets for 400$.

I understand all airlines put cookies in their websites and the prices go up. With most Airlines it be a difference of 50-100 $ and I was duped of 1000 $ by Air India.

Being a Indian, I understand that a country of thieves with no other skills have to rely on stealing and begging.

I also realize that it is my duty to warn other good people of this world to stay away from this airline.

This is to bring to everyone's notice about the pathetic service that my family- (Spouse with 1 child and 1 infant) got from Air India during her travel from Delhi to SFO. My flight from Delhi to SFO was from 04:00AM (dated 07 Dec'2016).
One Month before i reserve Bassinet seat and child meal for them and i confirm again 1 week before travel, But in flight these seats have not the bassinet and crew members told that if you can't pay we are not allowing bassinet and child meal as well. so, when my spouse try to reach pilot or supervisor, crew staff said that it's security breach and will deport you.
Instead of getting any help from crew member she got that stupid response from Aie india crew members that why you travel alone with 2 kids.

This was not our first international travel and I never faced this kind of service in my entire life. Being a customer this was not the service expected from such high repute organization. I would never even travel with Air India In future and also post this on social media so that peapole can avoid Air India flight.

Anand P Prakash : Membership # [protected]

Dear Sir / Madam,

In the last three months, I have tried about 10 times to do this KYC. Everytime, after doing all the needful, when 'verify' button is clicked, it does not go anywhere. this button just does not respond. For all the 10 times, this matter has been brought to the notice of the tele-call # [protected] and also [protected] and I have been repeatedly assured that both my documents (Passport & Driving License) have been duly received at their end and the registration would be done in due course. But, contrary to the assurance, it is still pending.
You need to take the corrective measures and ensure the needful is done in time and i do not loose my miles for no fault of mine.
Regards,
Anand P Prakash
Phone # [protected].

On 23 Nov, I flew with Air India AI-381, from Singapore to Delhi. The flight was delayed by 1 hour and 20 minutes. My final destination was Kabul, Afghanistan, but in Singapore I was told that my luggage cannot be transferred from Air India to Kam Air and I would have to pick it myself in Delhi and go through the check-in again. Due to the delay, I did not have time to go through the check-in procedures again, and I had to leave with Kam Air RQ-116 to Kabul, without the luggage. I have written a lot of e-mails and made a lot of phone calls, but nobody seems to know where is my luggage now and how can I get it back. Please, let me know if you can help me with this issue. Thank you!

My parents could not board the flight even after the webcheckin and reaching airport on time, the on service air India officer simply refused to help and when I mailed the details to air India website they refuses to refund any amount.which rule book in airline states that if passenger could not board the flight no refund would be given...air india just being a govt organisation think that they can harass the passengers anytime and anyhow..however they should very clearly know that there is lot of awesomeness and they cannot simply take away hard earned money of the customer..they are neither responding nor verifying the evidence that I haveshared...

Did online ticket booking from airindia website on 6/10/2016 from Kolkata to Delhi journey dated 13/12/16.

Payment was deducted from sbi credit card ending with xxxx xxxx xxxx 5598.visa

Ticket was not generated but customer care executive from Airindia
said YZ4YE IS THE PNR NO. and it might take few days for refund.

But 15 Days have passed and Airindia ecommerce division says no
payment confirmation.

Sbi credit card Head office confirmed along with transaction number
that merchant (Airindia) has acknowledged Rs 15148.

Even Sbi statement confirms the same.

All statements were sent to Airindia ecommerce section.but no proper
reply or resolution for same.

This is bring in your notice that i have been cheated by Air India, and i have already lost my hardened money Rs 23, 842. I have booked a flight from New Delhi to Jamnagar (PNR:YSL2Q) which got delayed due to Air India technical fault, Air india refused to provide any other flights for the same day which has impacted my whole journry along with penalties to be paid to IRCTC and hotel booking related to this journey. Air India refunded amount for flight New delhi to Jamnagar (PNR:YSL2Q) on which a Convienince fee of Rs 1470 has been charged to me. And now Air India is asking for the cancellation charges which is approx Rs 16, 000 for my return flight to New Delhi (PNR:YTB2S). Due to the fault of Air India the flight got delayed and they didn't support their customer on providing any other flight for the same journey and simply asked to go for cancellation and they committed before cancellation that they will refund the complete 100% amount for the bookings made, so now why Air India is asking for cancellation charges for the return fligh and how come Air India expect that if a person is not going to destination will use the return flight back to home.
I request you to put some light on this cheating being done to me and help me in getting all the penalty amount along with 100% money back for my return journey (PNR:YTB2S)

Regards
Deepankar Bagga
+91-[protected]

Hi Team,

This is Vritika Ramnani(JCTFB), I was travelling from bangalore to London via Delhi on 9th aug 2016 along with my husband Naresh Prakash Adwani(J82Q0)

I want to complaint for the below issues:

1. My flight from Bangalore to Delhi was rescheduled from 10:00 am to 5:45 am.
Which caused lot of inconvenience to us.We had to be up all night as we had to leave our house at 2 am in order to reach the airport on time.Also this increased the journey duration from 13:30 to 17:15 hours.
We chose the air India flight, though it was expensive than other international airline because of the shorter duration.Also because of the convenience of its departure and arrival times.
We could have got an international airline at cheaper rate with longer hours.
We explained our situation to the air India staff and requested them to provide us some compensation/lounge access/upgrade but they redirected us from travel desk to counter again and again till we met Ms Kaveri the duty manager at Bangalore.She said that they cannot provide anything here but she would pass on a message to duty manager at Delhi airport to give us lounge access.

When we reached Delhi Airport we contacted the transfers desk and explained them the situation who asked us to connect with transfers desk after immigration.
They directed us to counters at gate.When we approached the counter they said we are not responsible and directed us to a staff member walking at the airport,
We approached her and she said we need to speak to her senior who again directed us to another counter at gate.
Finally we met Mamta who understood our situation and called her senior Harsh.
We spoke to harsh he consulted his seniors and said he cant do anything except giving us some refreshments and we will have to speak to his Senior.
So We finally met him and all he could say was that he understood our situation and was sorry for the same but he cannot do anything further.

We have had similar incident with Swiss Air where they have given us an excellent customer service as well as compensation for the same.

The point here is delays/rerouting/preponement can happen but what is important is how you deal with the situation and what customer experience you give your clients if you want to have a good brand and customer loyalty.

Hence we would like to claim compensation for the same in cash and kind as a free upgrade on our return journey on 11th sept from London to Bangalore

2. I had selected my seat preference on the air India website and at the counter they said they could see it for me but not for my husband.Then I requested if we could get any other window seat together.As we were well in time at the airport for the check in.He gave us an emergency exit seat without asking or informing us.We were not comfortable with that seat at all.
All the check in staff should ask/inform if any one is comfortable or not with that seat.

3.This was not enough, when we arrived at heathrow one of our baggage was missing.My file reference no is LHRAI13687. Which arrived on 11th aug at 16:20 hours with 44 hours of delay.Please let us know where my baggage was stuck and why did it not arrive on time.
This added on to our inconvenience.Because of this we had to buy things of immediate needs in London which impacted us financially as well.
Hence we want to claim for the inconvenience caused and for the money we we spent because of this.
Also the bag was unlocked when it arrived.

I had mailed to [protected]@airindiauk.com, [protected]@airindiauk.com, call.[protected]@airindia.in and call.[protected]@airindia.in but they didn't respond, hence request your immediate attention.
Regards
Vritika Ramnani

i am FFP member num [protected] in the name of L N AGRAWAL . I have so many times upload my id and address proof in last one year, but inspite of that my verification status is still showing pending .In result of that i am unable to book the tickets against my earned miles and meanwhile my point are aslo expired . i have contacted so many times to call center but nobody was solved my problem.

Dear Customer Services

We were booked on to flight AI115 with Air India which was supposed to leave at 5.25am on the 20th August. There were three passengers booked together, Rumina Javed, Caitlin Morgan and Asiya Khanom. Our ticket numbers were [protected], [protected] and [protected].
Our booking was made in London via a travel agents and in India we were touring so did not always have access to wi-fi or phone signal.
As stated previously we were doing a tour of India and the night before the flight we were in Jaipur. We had left with plenty of time in case of traffic and we arrived at the airport at 12.00am. When we showed our tickets to the guard at the airport entrance, he said we were too early and refused to let us in. We explained that we had just driven down from Jaipur and also Caitlin was ill, he then let us in. Upon entering the airport, we checked for our flight information to see if any information was up yet on the screen stating flight AI115 leaves at 5.25am and to proceed to row G.
We thought that we would attempt to check in early as one of our travel companions – Caitlin Morgan was severely ill, was being sick all night and needed to be resting.
We joined the queue and Caitlin had to leave the queue to be sick. This was quite distressing for her and also for us as her friends. We desperately wanted to get inside and find a place for her to rest until our flight as we theoretically had 5 hours at this point until our flight.
We handed the check in staff our e-tickets and our passports. He started scanning and organising the boarding passes. We had a small discussion about the luggage at this stage. We wanted all the luggage to be grouped together under one name – Rumina Javed. The check in staff at this point wbeing distracted by his friend who came over to release him for his break. They had a light hearted discussion and the check in staff continued to print off our passes, he also discarded and ripped up some other boarding passes which we assumed were a mistake. Once the boarding passes were printed, he passed them over to us. There was no mention that our flight number and time had changed or what time our flight was. The e-ticket we handed in quoted flight number AI115.
We checked our names and slotted each of the passes into the matching passport. We did not spot that the flight numbers were not matching at this point. There was no reason to be feeling cautious at this stage as there hadn’t been any mention of cancellations or changes. Also the flight was still showing on the departures screen and didn’t say that there were any issues e.g. delays or cancelations.
Caitlin was still feeling very weak at this stage and the security queues were quite long. So we focussed on getting through the security process and finding a place for her to rest.
After an hour of going through security when it was approximately just over 3 hours before the AI115 (5.25am) flight, we started to look for gate information and checking the boarding pass. We realised at this point that the boarding pass did not match the flight we were supposed to be on. We automatically assumed we were given these boarding pass in error so we gathered all the boarding passes together and went to find staff who could help us. At the point, the flight information was still showing on the departures screen and it did not say ‘cancelled’ to alert us to the fact that the flight was not active. We assumed that the check in staff had made an error because we were so early to the airport.
Around 2.30am, we went to the information desk and they told us that the flight AI115 that we were supposed to be on was cancelled. They then said to go to Gate 11 to find Air India staff. We went over there but didn’t find anyone there, then someone guided us to Gate 18 where we found some staff. They told us that the flight that we were booked on had left. We were very confused. They told us that we were being negligent in missing the flight. We explained to them that we did not know we were supposed to be on the earlier flight. We showed them the tickets that said we were supposed to be on the 5.25 AI115 flight and they told us that the flight had been cancelled a few days ago. We showed them that it was still up on the screens and they said that this was the airport managements fault as Air India had notified the airport that the flight was no longer active.
We explained that we were not told that we were supposed to be on the earlier flight and the staff told us that it was the duty of the check in staff to fully explain that the flight had been cancelled and we were put on the earlier flight. We had not been told any of this information or told when the new flight even departs. The staff at Air India at this stage were very sympathetic to our case and could see that we were completely unaware of the fact that our flight times had been altered.
We were assigned a staff member to take us through security and immigration as we had to exit the secure area. They kept reassuring us that we could get the next flight as they could see that Caitlin was very unwell, which was a 9:00 am BA and that we would be able to wait in a lounge.
During the whole time we were trying to get through security and immigration, we kept pointing out to the staff that the cancelled A115was still showing on the screen and it still did not say cancelled. They accepted that this would cause confusion and again blamed the airport management for the error. They said that Air India had let the airport know a few days ago. Other airlines however, had flights that were cancelled or delayed that showed up on the screen accurately.
When we got back to the check in desk where the night manager was, the staff that were assigned to us explained what had happened. The night manager immediately blamed us for missing our flight and refused to listen to us. We tried to explain that we were not told that the flight had been changed / cancelled. At this point he accused us of lying. There was no sympathy for our plight. He was talking over us and being extremely rude. He was talking about us in Hindi without realising that we understood him.
The night manager insisted that we knew that the flight had been changed and we missed the flight on purpose or that we had been sleeping. We told them we had not been notified of the changes in the flight, once again the manager insisted that the company had contacted us and that we were lying. When we tried telling him that the check in staff did not tell us clearly what flight we were on, he said that was impossible. Once again implying that we were lying.
The manager walked off and we carried on talking to other staff. These staff then claimed that we weren’t told of the flight cancellation because we didn’t have a local number. Staff were generally being contradictory with what they were saying and one also said that we were booked on to the AI161 all along. We had to produce our original tickets as proof to show that we were supposed to be on the AI115 flight.
A senior staff member came to speak to us, her name was Hansini. She listened to us briefly before cutting us off and said, ‘Because of you the flight was delayed, because you were sleeping’. We told her we were not sleeping but she kept saying we were all sleeping and they had made announcements and we hadn’t heard the announcements because of this and so she could do nothing for us because we had missed the flight from negligence and due care. She said to Caitlin, ‘Look at your eyes, you were definitely sleeping’. Caitlin as we have previously stated, was extremely unwell and that would have showed in her eyes. She was resting but she was not sleeping as she was still vomiting frequently at this point. Hansili was extremely accusatory. She had no manners at all and literally pointed her fingers at us. She walked away when Caitlin was speaking to her, Caitlin then had to run after her so she could finish what she was saying. She stated that because of us the flight had delayed by 10 minutes. We had heard earlier that it was 5 minutes. Later on we heard someone saying 20 minutes.
Some of the staff members claimed that there were multiple announcements made calling out our names at the airport. This was certainly not the case as we were walking around the shops and did not hear any announcements calling out our names. In addition to this, the airport itself is a silent airport, so it is unlikely that there would have been announcements.
Throughout this whole time of discussing what had happened, staff at Air India did not once offer us a solution. They just wanted to blame us for it and refuse to take part in anything more. We were passed from staff to staff in varying departments. We heard contradictory information, lies and consistently terrible customer service.
We were eventually sent to the customer service desk to get tickets. We assumed at this point that they would be complimentary tickets, however, the staff at customer services said they could not provide complimentary tickets as we had missed the flight as a result of our own negligence.
We caught out so many of the staff with lying to us and speaking in Hindi about us. While two of us had a basic grasp of Hindi, the third person within our group could not speak any of the language and it would be extremely unprofessional to be having a discussion whereby you end up excluding your customer. They were caught out saying contradictory things also to us. A clear example of this sort of practice was from Neeta Kohli who said she could prove that Air India had contacted Rumina Javed about the flight being changed. She confidently boasted that she would get a printout should we require it and it was right in front of her that we had been contacted. She did not produce the said printout and later on when her senior colleague was going through our records we could hear a discussion taking place about how we were not contacted at all. Neeta Kohli was then called over and questioned.
This sort of unprofessional behaviour was spotted time and time again from managers and service staff again and again. The majority of the staff members we came across showed no empathy or compassion. They approached us their mind clearly made up. They would not even want to listen to our side of the events that had led us to miss our flight.
We were made to wait around for an hour and half for the general manager. This was Mr Sharma. However, he appeared to have zero influence over proceedings. We thought perhaps he might offer us a solution that nobody at Air India could even attempt to do. He was having to call up other people to explain our plight and then he called over another manager whose name we did not take down saw us and the first thing he said was ‘Yes, yes. I have heard your story all morning. There is nothing to be done. Crying here is no good. Walking around here and there will be no good. We cannot help you’. We found this as an opening sentence from a manager to be outright appalling. The tone he adopted was very accusatory, as though we had missed our flights on purpose and were trying to manipulate Air India. It was very dismissive, yet again nobody was listening to our plight and made us feel very small.
Throughout our time we saw at least seven other people who were not notified that their flights were cancelled also. We saw they were given replacement flights for free. This was galling to see.
There was at no point any attempt at an apology from staff at Air India’s catalogue of errors. Instead their sole task was blaming us and pointing the fingers at us. We were amazed that the accusation seemed to be that we had purposefully missed our flight. It is completely illogical that we would choose to do this. With Caitlin being so ill, we would’ve been glad to her that we were on an earlier flight and that we were getting home sooner.
We need to make this one point very clear. At no point during check in were we told when our flight was and that our previous flight had been cancelled. For this reason we assumed that everything was taking place as we had originally booked and as our ticket showed. The AI115 5.25am flight information was showing on the departures screen as normal throughout the time we waited at the airport. When we spotted the different boarding time, we assumed that the boarding passes were given to us in error.
We were left to arrange our own flights back, nobody from Air India would help us with this. There were no discounts offered. No food or water offered for the 14 hours that we were at the airport. We had to borrow money from Asiya’s brother in London who stayed up all night to arrange a flight back for us as we could not do this with our phones and slow wi-fi network. Also when we got a quote for flights initially we were quoted between 35, 000 and 40, 000 per person then we were told it would be 85, 000 rupeees at the counter. Only these premium priced tickets were offered to us, nothing at the basic rate.
At the end when we were trying to leave the airport we had to speak to more Air India staff. At this point, we met two members of staff (Amrita Singh and Aneesh A.) who were very sympathetic and tried to resolve the issue for us. However, they were told that in our records we were listed as people who has missed their gate and so would not be offered any more help from Air India. They stated that they frequently received complaints about the morning staff and their refusal to help customers.
If this letter feels long, it is because we went through so much. We were at the airport for a total 14 hours. We met over 20 staff. We were walking back and forth multiple times.
We demand compensation from Air India. We need to be compensated also for the time that we have spent on this matter. The 14 hours that we have spent at the airport. We need to be compensated also for emotional distress that was caused by the staff at Air India. We will be sending this letter to the newspapers and the ombudsman services if we do not get our issue resolved. Also we will be writing to the CEO of the company. We will not stop speaking out until Air India resolves this case to our satisfaction.
We had to spend an additional £1800 on flights, hotel stay, cab transfers and food. Also this has cost us an additional two days in time.
Yours sincerely

Rumina Javed

Dear air india,

As I have been kind enough to contact your chief vigilance officer and the company through private social media, I have been disappointed and yet unsurprised by your lack of response to my complaint. As a result, I have been forced to display my complaint publicly in the hope you will take the complaints sent by customers more importantly.

I travelled on air india 213 on 30th and 31st july 2016 from london heathrow, uk to kathmandu, nepal, with a connection made at delhi airport india.

Having arrived at kathmandu airport it appeared my single piece of luggage containing all my personal possessions was not on the same flight I was. Having consulted your staff in attendance at kathmandu airport I was informed my bag would be on the next flight and I should return in the late afternoon. Following your staff’s instructions, and attempting to contact them on an incorrect telephone number that they provided, I returned to the airport to find my baggage had still not arrived.

As you can imagine my frustrations were beginning to grow without any of my possessions nor any indication of my bag location. I spoke to the same member of staff working in the arrival zone and he took my details this time, providing me with an irregularity report (Ref: ktmai14215, bag tag: ai56327) and informed me that my luggage was still in london and there was an issue with my bag. I accepted this could have happened and he confirmed it would be on the next flight the following morning. Again on returning to the airport for the third occasion and expecting to find my luggage, the same staff member was absent and my luggage had still not arrived.

The only help I could find was from a lady that worked for singapore airlines. She read my irregularity report provided by your staff and confirmed there was incorrect information, showing negligence on your staff member’s part. This resulted in my bag not to be fully checked on the tracking system and this still remains outstanding. It soon became apparent from the helpful singapore staff checking the bag tag number on the sita system, that showed my bag was in delhi awaiting air india’s confirmation to be sent to kathmandu following damage to the tag on my luggage. It appears that your staff lied to me regarding the location of my bag, proved incompetence in providing the correct tracking information and forced me to liaise with another airline to check the location of my bag. I cannot comprehend a lack of professionalism on the part of air india.

Clearly frustrated I demanded to see a member of air india’s staff that could help and after speaking to several airlines I was able to meet the another representative of air india at kathmandu airport. He confirmed my bag was in delhi and appeared unsurprised that his staff had lied to me. He managed to confirm that my bag had been accepted and would be on the next flight to kathmandu. He also provided my single payment compensation for 24 hours without luggage after much hesitation following my quoted information from your policy present on your website.

As a result of this long process, I had false information given to be in the first instance, negligence on providing my luggage location on the second instance, resulting in both my partner and I losing 3 potential days of exploration, having not been able to leave our accommodation in proximity to the airport.

I find this completely unacceptable and pose this question to you. How is it acceptable for air india to lie about the location of my bag whilst another airline can inform me of its location and the instructions required to get it to its final destination, without lie or hesitation.

We will be flying back on the 20th to the uk and expect a higher quality of care over the possessions we place on your planes. If no response is given to this letter of complaint I will be advising the 20 people travelling with me to india and nepal in november 2016 that air india is not a viable option due to lack of care and co-ordination.

We look forward to your response.

Kind regards
Nicholas rose & isobel chapman

Hi,

I had registered my family with the FFP. My husband and myself were successfully able to activate our accounts. But for my sons aged 8 and 3, I am facing a tough time with Air India FF membership programme.

I'd started the registration work for my family a month ago, when I was still in UK. I submitted all the documents required for my sons but did not get a responsible reply until now.

So, I contacted Air India customer center to check the status. It was only then, they told me that my sons should have a different e-mail and phone numbers registered for their account.

I tried to edit the details online. but those details appear in grey which means I cannot change them.I explained these to your staff, she was not ready to do any help . I had to plead desperately to your staff to put me through to someone who can sort it out. Again, the other staff gave me a different e-mail ID's (flying-returns.[protected]@iclployalty.com, [protected]@airindia.in) to forward my case. I used the chat service several time sto enquire about it but to no use. Rang up Bombay contact centre, Delhi contact centre and toll free numbers. But none of them have any answer to my situation. My husband rang up your chennai contact office, and your staff Ms.Girija gave him this e-mail ID to forward my case.
Now I am begining to wonder if Air India really wants to value its customers? or is it just a namesake organisation?

I am deeply sorry to say 'YOU HAVE TRAINED YOUR STAFF TO SAY - 'SORRY MAM, FROM OUR END WE CANNOT DO IT'. But pathetically Air India has failed to train its staff for the purpose it should have done, '

I was desperate to avail the KYC offer before we leave to UK on 3 sep 2016, But now, it is too late, as we are close to our departure dates, hence I request you to sort this issue and activate my sons memberships.

I have given my sons details below. My children are too young to have a address proof of their own, so I ave attached my Licence for my younger son and my husbands driving licence for my elder son. Please reply and activate their memberships.

DETAILS:
--------------
1) Name: Suchit
FF no: 16228****

2)Name: Darshan
FF no: 16228****

If you cannot edit some simple details then what is the whole point of having such a complex membership?

I kindly request you to REPLY and help us avail your offer by activating their FF account.

Thankyou,

Air India- Delayed Flight AI 047-passenger sufferings
I Robins Kurian, went to Kochi Airport (Kochi International) on August 4, 2016 (Thursday) to board Delhi bound Air India Limited AI 047 flight. My co-passengers were my wife, Sonia Jose and my 4 year old son Antonio Robins. Our final destination was Edmonton, Canada. Our connection flights to reach the destination were Lufthansa LH 761 from Delhi to Frankfurt on 5 August 2016 at 2.45 am(local time), Air Canada AC 873 from Frankfurt to Toronto on 5 August 2016 at 09:20(local time) and Air Canada AC 127 from Toronto to Edmonton at 14:40(local time). We reached the airport at 6.45 pm.

We stood in the line up for check in. The LCD TV displayed in the Air India counter was shown Delhi. We were in the line up and it wasn’t moving. We overheard a conversation from another passenger in the line up that the flight is delayed for 2 hours. I bye passed the line up and reached the counter of Air India to know about it. The representative in the counter told me that the flight is delayed. I have enquired about any another flights to Delhi at the same time so that we can reach Delhi before the departure of Frankfurt flight. He said that there were no other flights at this time. Soon I have contacted the ticket booking agent, Sheela at Skylight travel in Toronto, Canada and told her about the situation. She told me that it is Air India's responsibility to reschedule the whole flights till Edmonton. I met the Manager on duty and requested him to do something about the situation. He send me to the Air India office in the Airport and another representative accompanied to bye pass the security.

While entering into the office it was a massive crowd in the office requesting the two staffs (the name of one of the staffs was Praveena). Nobody knows what was going on. There were no place to sit and there was no proper line up. Nobody was there to address the worries of passengers except these to staffs who were on the computer trying rescheduling of other passengers. Finally I have reached close to one of the staff (Praveena) about 2.00 am. She started rescheduling the flight. After many attempts she couldn’t succeed to reschedule the flight for Aug 5, 2016 at 9.30 pm (AI 047) and also the remaining connection flights. She was trying the route Kochi-Delhi-London-Toronto-Edmonton. She told me that she couldn’t reshedule it because I have booked it through Air Canada. By 4.00 am she told me that the staff will contact the Air India City office in Ernakulam. It opens at 9.30 am. By this time we were mentally and physically exhausted and were anxious about our departure. My kid and my wife stayed with me during the whole time. My parents and in laws were also there who accompanied us to the airport. The night staff said that they would hand over the booking duty to the morning staff. We decided to leave anticipating that the morning staff in the office will make necessary arrangement for departure on 5 Aug, 2016. As per the information from night staff the morning staff will contact the city office and will request to book the flight.

We left the Airport at 4.15 am. I have made frequent contacts with the Air India office to know the status since 10.00 am on Aug 5, 2016. At 10.00 am, when I phoned the Air India office in the Airport the staff told me that they will contact the city office. I phoned them again by 11.30. They told me to get ready to go today (5 Aug, 9.30 flight). I was on the way to airport to make them speed up the process by noon. When I reached Muvattupuzha, Anju from the Air India( Kochi Airport) phoned me and told me that the everything is done and the ticket is ready till Toronto. She told me that we will be leaving at 9.30 pm on Aug 5, 2016 from Kochi in the same flight AI 047. After one hour, she phoned me again and said that it is not ready and asked me to contact the agent in Canada who booked the ticket and they might help. I contacted Skylight travel, Toronto at 8.30 pm(in India). She said that the Air India has not updated the delayed flight status on Aug 4, 2016 as delayed. I phoned the Air India office once again and spoke to Ancy who was on shift. She said the she will update it. At 2.30 am( In India), I phoned the Toronto agent once again and she said that it is not updated yet and she can’t do anything on it.

I went to the Air India office on Darbar Hall Road, Kochi on 6 Aug 2016 at 12 noon. I spoke to Elizabeth in the office and she couldn’t do anything, but some words of sympathy. Due to the whole incident I lost 4 days of work and the mental and physical burn outs. I have also spent another 3, 90, 000 rupees to book another ticket for me and my family so that I may not lose my Job in Canada.
Total expense for rebooking the flight to Edmonton : 7647 CAD (390000 INR)
TAXI to and from Kochi Airport to Home: 196 CAD (10000 INR)
Three days of not working due to delayed flight-compensation: 480 CAD
Total : 8323 CAD

Robins Kurian