Air India
Reviews and Complaints

Wednesday (6 april 2011), I am coming from mumbai to delhi my one luggage has been misplaced, I have complained regarding that, they told me you found your luggage's next day (2 day), but till now I am not getting my luggage's. I also try given number by them but they did not respond. Please let me know how I get my luggage's. I had lanch the report also the no. Delai35497,

Details are given below.

Name: rajesh bagde
Flight no. Ai101
Date 6 april 2011
Bording time 22:00
Seat 46a
Tn 0985151509117c1
Bw 01/34
Address 9/13. Guruprasad est, behind shivaji st, tagore nagar no.1, harayali vlliage vikhroli (E), mumbai-400083,
Mob. No [protected]/[protected],

My name is :ayalur subramanian annapoorni
My passport number: h8671791
My ticket number: document 098 -[protected]

My return flight from austin-new york on 12th december 2010

My original itinerary:

1) austin to new york by aa684 on 12th december 2010 at 9.40am_ reaching new york at 14.30_
2) new york jfk to mumbai by ai-140 on the 12th of december 2010 at 21:30 reaching mumbai at _22.15_

Unfortunately my return journey turned out to be a nightmare.

To make things simpler, let me use a numbered format to describe the sequence of events.

1) the day before my travel, we called air india to reconfirm my flight. we were told that my flight was rescheduled and it was now at 16:00 hours instead of the original 21:30 hours. no one had emailed me or texted me to inform me of the change. I panicked because this would only give me an hour and a half at new york jfk to change over. we asked the agent if they could reschedule us on an earlier flight but he said an hour and a half was ok according to air india’s policy. we were very skeptical about that, but your customer care (cc) personnel assured that it would be enough.
2) the next day, on 12th december, as planned I reported at austin bergstorm airport at 7 am, on 12th. as american airlines would land at jfk at 14.35 hours the agent refused to let me take the flight to jfk since they said the baggage would not make it to the next flight. according to their policy they needed at least 1 and a half hours between the connecting flights. the american agent called air india to see if they could resolve the problem and to our surprise, the air india agent said their policy was a minimum of 2 hours! this meant that the information they gave me over the phone the previous day was completely inaccurate. also, the agent said they could do nothing about my situation.
3) I begged and pleaded with both agents over the phone and I reiterated to air india that their original flight was 21:30 and they had combined two flights (jfk to delhi and jfk to mumbai) to change the flight time to 16:00 hours (this was the time the jfk to delhi flight was supposed to depart). I was not responsible for missing my flight if the event occurred due to their schedule change.
4) american airlines told me they would take me to new york but they could not accept my luggage. my daughter and son-in-law were traveling to india by american airlines that same day. my daughter asked american airlines if they could take my baggage with them. american accepted this but said we would have to pay an extra 100 us dollars (50 dollars per bag). left with no other choice, we made the payment and the baggage traveled with my daughter on her flight to india via london.
5) when we entered the terminal after security, we found out that the american airlines flight to new york was delayed due to bad weather. I immediately contacted air india about the situation. they again washed their hands off the affair. remember that all this was occurring due to their schedule change. if my flight from new york were at 21:30 as scheduled before, I could have easily made it.
6) when I reached new york airport, I ran to the air india counter at my terminal. I was astonished to see the counters vacant. not a single person from air india was around. I phoned the ai customer service toll free number. I was asked to go to the american airline agent and was asked to talk to the ai customer care executive, from there. so again I ran to the terminal number 8. the agent directly talked to ai and your cc service executive told they could not do anything. I was requesting them to put me in any other flight. they asked me to meet the duty manager there. again I went to terminal 4, but in vain. no one was there either. when I enquired with airport authorities, they said only three hours prior to the flight, anybody would appear.
7) I had no choice but to wait at the airport from 17:30 hours on the 12th of january to 16:00 hours on the 13th of january. air india did not even bother to offer me any food or accommodation. since I am a pure vegetarian, I could not eat anything at the airport. I do not understand american accent well so I could not ask for descriptions of what was in each food item. all I had for the next 24 hours was a cup of coffee. at around 10 am on the 13th, after more than 15 hours of waiting at the airport, I almost fainted of hunger and fatigue. I am 55 years old. I had spondylitis and mild arthritis too. because of my mental and physical trauma my problems were aggravated. on the 13th at 11.30 am or so ai agents came and opened the counters. I stood in the queue and got my tickets reserved, on ai -140, on 13th and reached mumbai on 14th at 22:00 hours.
My grievances:
1. ai should have informed me earlier, so that I could have cancelled my tickets on american airlines (austin to new york) and taken some other flight according to my departure time from jfk or other airport
2. ai should have considered what its passengers would go through before rescheduling a flight to depart 5 hours before its original scheduled time!
3. I anticipated the problem and asked your agents repeatedly if 1 and a half hour was enough time for transit at jfk airport. they said it was. and this turned out to be false even going by your own policy which is 2 hours.
4. I had to shell out 100 us dollars so my luggage could reach india, all because of your rescheduling.
5. ai should have had the minimum courtesy to take care of me for 20 hours; they should have provided me a hotel accommodation, so that I could have been safe. or put me in a different flight so that I could have reached india at the earliest and joined my husband who is 65 years old and sick and alone.

I request air india to attend to my appeal and compensate me for all the trouble and inconvenience caused and the money (100 us dollars) we paid extra for the baggage at bergstorm american airline counter.

I traveled on Air India (flight 101) on December 30, 2010 from Mumbai to New Delhi and then New Delhi to Chicago (flight 127 on same day. My luggage did not make it on flight (AI 127) and is still missing.

I filed a report at Chicago airport on the same day of my arrival and was told that I would have my bags delivered to my residence on January 1, 2011.

As of now, I have not received my bags and even after repeated calls to [protected] (only voice-mail available) and emails, there has been NO RESPONSE from Air India.

Thank you.

Quaid

Name - mrs jasbir walia
Print this page
Address -
5249 prince albert street
Vancouver
Canada

Dear sir

Further to your award request, please find attached the authority letter for your kind perusal
With warm regards

Amita agashe
Associate customer services manager.
Tel : 022 [protected]
Fax : 022 [protected]/63.
Email : amita.[protected]@imrbint.com

----- original message -----

from: saccha
to: amita.[protected]@imrbint.com
sent: wednesday, september 01, 2010 9:38 pm
subject: re: award request : membership # n204965
i got e mail attached below to collect ticketss at ticketing office at amritsar, when i went to amritsar the office informed me i was joking.

---

membership number : n204965
member name : mrs jasbir walia

tel no. : --[protected]
email : [protected]@yahoo.com

ticketing station :amritsar

award ticket(s) requested :

traveller name origin destination class airline flt no. pnr no. date of travel
mr brinder walia (52) del ixd y ai ic7801
2010-10-25
mr brinder walia (52) knu del y ai ic7802
2010-10-28

I purchased a RT ticket on Air India from London-Delhi-Dhaka (flying onward to Bhutan with another airline). My nightmare started with my return flight when I was notified via email the friday night before my monday departure that my flight had been canceled. After many phone calls it seems my flight had been canceled months ago, but I was not informed until the very last minute. This was the first in a long series of problems with my return flight.

When I tried to rebook my flight, I told the Air India agent that I was in Bhutan. If you are not familiar with Bhutan, it is a remote country and international phone calls are expensive and difficult. I eventually had to rely on my fiance to call Air India on my behalf. Air India re-booked my flight but would not reissue the ticket. I was told by the Air India representative in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I'll refer to this person as Moni, that I would be booked on a flight out of Dhaka on the day I had planned to travel. I told Moni that I am a US passport holder and am unable to stay in Bangladesh or India without a visa, so the flight he had booked, with short layovers, seemed suitable. However, when I arrived in Dhaka, I was not allowed to board the flight. Over 10 different Dhaka airport staff members told me I needed an Indian Visa for this flight. I do not know if that is true or a misunderstanding, however, I was not allowed to board the flight and met another non-Indian passenger who encountered the same situation. I faced a huge problem because there was no one at the Dhaka airport who could assist me with getting on a proper flight. I also did not have a Bangladesh cell phone, so I had no way to make contact with Air India. After several hours of trying to get on another flight, I realized I had no other option but to buy a visa on arrival at the Dhaka airport and try to get to the Air India office in town. The Air India agent in Dhaka, Moni, eventually changed my ticket to a flight the next day (20 hours later), but he refused to book me into a hotel. He said he 'had helped me enough.' This man had booked me onto a flight I was unable to board without an Indian Visa, knowing full well I am an American passport holder WITHOUT an Indian visa. He then refused to assist me after his error caused me to be stranded in Dhaka during a violent strike. I was forced to buy a visa in Dhaka for $51 and had to spend another $60 on cab rides and a hotel room for the night, because of Moni's error. My life was also put in danger as I was stranded in a city during a violent strike.

My fiance phoned Air India and told them about these issues with my flight and the agent he spoke with kindly offered to upgrade the Delhi - London leg of my flight to business class. When I eventually arrived in Delhi, in transit to my London flight, I informed the guy at the check in counter that my flight should have been upgraded to business class. The agent refused to look into this and dismissed me. I asked to speak to supervisor. This man laughed at me and shook his head at me BEFORE I EVEN EXPLAINED THE SITUATION. Once I did explain, he told me that Air India would never upgrade a customer due to this type of situation. I told him that an agent had upgraded the flight and he then lied and told me ONLY the CAPTAIN of the flight could upgrade a passenger. Clearly, the Air India supervisor in the Delhi airport has no regard for customers. This man told me a flat out lie and refused to look in the computer and see if my flight had been upgraded. After I kept insisting that my flight really had been upgraded, he told me I needed to have something in writing in order to get the upgrade.

To add to this already awful experience, Air India 'mishandled' my checked in luggage in Delhi. When I arrived in London, I received a phone call saying the bag had been found and would be put on the next flight. It took me nearly a month of phoning Air India's baggage departments in London and Delhi in order to get the bag sent to me in London. I was hung up on and lied to, too many times to count. I was offered a mere $70 for 'emergency' clothing, which was a joke considering I am in England during the winter. It took multiple, daily, persistent phone calls before I finally got in touch with one man in the baggage department who agreed to personally make sure the bag was sent. Finally it arrived.

I would never again fly on this absolutely horrible airline and I would warn anyone traveling in or around India to avoid this airline at all costs. I have traveled to over 30 countries on a range of different airlines and this has undoubtedly been the most awful travel experience so far.

I am very sorry to say but Air India is the lastest flight one should think while plan to travel... I traveled from New Delhi to Mumbai on 22 Dec'2010 by IC 688 which was scheduled to depart at 6 AM but owing to mismanagement of Air India service, we hardly managed to get Boarding pass after wandering here and there. After getting in the plane, it took off at 7:25 AM. On arrival to Mumbai, i found after waiting so long that my baggage has been replaced with someone else..This unfortunate incident occurred because of wrong name tag on the baggage. The baggage i found had my name written on it but it belonged to somebody else. On reporting this to Air baggage counter, they managed to write a report only and nothing else without owing any responsibility and repeated all time "WHAT CAN WE DO". And above all, the telephone no. provided in the report for us to enquire about status is not being cared by them to pick. They have no regret for the loss as well as inconvenience they caused..really a big shame for Air India.

Orbitz put me on a flight that had Air India Flight 101 (Bombay to Delhi) connecting to American 293 (Delhi to Chicago). The Air India part has been such an experience that I will never never again advise anyone to take another Air India flight.

Before departing from USA, I had called both Air India and American and confirmed that I was allowed to checking 2 pieces of luggage since I had an AA ticket and am an AA platinum member. Both had said that since I am international passenger, international flight rules will apply even though AI flight segment was local.

At the checkin counter, the person insisted that I am a domestic customer and so I had to pay for the 2nd piece. It took 1 hour before they could verify by looking into Internet (and my showing it to them on my iPhone) that AA rules will allow me 2 pieces. They then refused to check in the bags directly to my final US destination and it was booked only up to Delhi where I was supposed to pick up on arrival and check it again with AA.

The flight was delayed and so the 2 hour connection time became only 1.25 hours connection time. Then I waited at the luggage belt and the luggage didn't arrive for 20 minutes. AI help desk refused to help me because I should have booked connection with more time. It was my fault.

I asked for help from AA baggage office, they advised me to run to the checkin counter since the AA flight was going to close. So I ran and ran at every step of check in including security and gate and was barely able to make the flight. Upon arrival in my final destination (Saint Louis), I filed a missing baggage report with AA. They are still trying to find the baggage.

All my attempts to call Air India have failed. Their customer support web page provides form which was returned as bounced email back to me saying that bagsvcs_bom AT airindia.com does not exist.

I called their US reservation number, they said, they cannot help but they provided me two help numbers in India [protected] and [protected]. Both numbers were found non existent.

I have given up on getting any help from Air India. I will keep calling AA until they find it. At least they are answering all my phone calls and trying to help.

I booked the air india ticket online for Domestic route ( hyd - mum)My account was debited after the online reservation transaction failed due to air india system error. System issued me with incorrect PNR which call center people did not recognize. I had to make 25 calls to get hold of correct team to discuss my ticket status. I was told to book the fresh ticket and we will process the full refund in 3 working days. Today is the 10th working day and there is no sign of refund. I have send emails but there is no response. I am trying to get hold of the online ticket reservation help line but there is no response there too. Bottom line: air india customer service is the worst possible service i have ever experienced. I would not advice my friends and family to ever try and book the ticket again from air india site or travel with air india carrier

Sheduled/actual Actual
Air india633 Dt:11/11/10, time:9.00pm Air india633 Dt:12/11/10, time:2.00am
Air india633 Dt:12/11/10, time:12.15am Air india633 Dt:13/11/10, time:12.15am(24Hrs.late take off)
connecting flifht already gone @1.40am from Delhi To Singapore .Dt:12/11/2010, Even though @2.00am Transfer from Ahmedabad to Delhi.From Ahmedabad AI Issued Boarding pass For Ahmedabad to Delhi & onward Delhi To Singapore.At Delhi We 45 Pessangers stay in Transit gallary at Delhi airport Without Tea Nasta from @3.30am [protected]@ 12 noon DT;12/11/2010.No care taker of Air india.We fly late 24 Hrs.We loose one day of Malasia, We have already paid to tour Organiser fees as decided.We expect compensation for Financial, Physical, Mental & loss of Entertainment.
Arvind Shah

It was 06-Nov-2010. Flight was scheduled 6:20 for departure from Dubai to Delhi. I dropped my wife and my 2 yrs. old daughter to Dubai Airport Terminal I. There was no body on the Air India counters for about 1 and half to 2 hrs. to issue boarding pass. All the flight passengers were waiting for some body to come and issue the Boarding passes. When 2-3 persons came they issued the boarding passes and informed that the flight will depart at 20:00 hrs. No problems, they waited but the flight ultimately departed at around 21:30 hrs. After landing at Delhi IGI Airport, the airport door was closed, so all the passengers waited outside for about 2 hrs. again, after the hue and cry of passengers, the gate opened. At the counter where they stamp Passport, the person asked by wife about the form which he said that she was supposed to fill up. This form was not given to about half of flight passengers. My wife arranged for that form somehow and filled and gave. After that the LUGGAGE did not come for about 4 hrs. my wife was standing with my little daughter for about 4 hrs. and waited for the luggage. Ultimately the luggage came and she came outside the Airport. So this was the most horrible travel ling experience for her and my little child. In the whole story, so that it does not become very long to explain; I did not mention the cries of my little daughter who suffered along with my wife.

I just want to share my terrible experience flying in Air India from New York to Amritsar.
The Flight from New Delhi to Amritsar was 4 hours delayed without any proper and professional notice and estimated time of departing. Same thing happened while taking flight back from Amritsar to Delhi- huge delay and very rude staff.
I would never travel Air India again due to the service received.I would recommend my friends and family members to take any other carrier even it cost few extra bucks.

Thanks.

Flying Toronto to London, Heathrow. Had to purchase an emergency ticket as my Mum had an heart attack. Rushed to the airport only to find out I had forgotten my epilepsy tablets (I have epilepsy). Asked the Air India girl at the check-in desk if a pharmacist was at the airport and explained I had forgotten my drugs. She informed me that I could not get on the flight. I begged to get on but to no avail. She told me I would have to rebook and she had made a note on my ticket that I had forgotten my medication. In fact, the note read "passenger refused to board'. This is untrue and totally unfair.
When trying to reschedule the flight for the next day I was told by Air India that I had refused to get on the flight so they were charging me a fee of $375. I had NOT refused. They had refused me. I wanted to board the plane knowing that my sister would be able to obtain my medication once I arrived in the UK.
I demand a refund of the $375 from Air India. They were absolutely in the wrong when saying that I refused to board the plane. How can I obtain my refund and a letter of apology?

We bought a AI ticket for our mom who is a senior citizen to travel Delhi-Frankfurt-Chicago on Aug 2nd 2010. It was a sharecode flight of AirIndia 121 and Air India 8637 with Luftansa LH 430.
She was issued boarding pass only till Frankfurt from Delhi. They were supposed to issue her 2nd boarding pass in Frankfurt. After reaching Frankfurt at 6-30 am, she showed her confirmed ticket (which was an e-ticket, clearly mentioning her flight was confirmed) in the Lufthansa counter only to her nightmare they said, they have no record of her ticket, n she would have to contact Air India for the same.

The ground AirIndia officials is the airport were not of much help. SO we had to call AirIndia, India, Lufthansa, Frankfurt, AirIndia, Frankfurt and Orbitz (the portal thru which ticketing was done). After fighting with them for 6 hrs on the phone only Air India finally acknowledged the mistake was from their end n called it a 'technical issue'. with no regrets or sorry. After much threatening AirIndia agreed to get her onto their next flight which was after 24 hrs( 8.50 am the next day) flight no AI 127, with no other compensation.

Now she was stranded in Frankfurt airport for the next AI flight aft 24hrs, with no compensation from the AirIndia office or support. More over she was without a transit visa, stuck in the terminal w/o a cell phone too.. at least she was smart enough to use the public telephone n call us n fight for a standby in the next Lufthansa flight.. but her bad luck she didn't get thru any other flight and had to wait in the airport for more than 24 hours.

Hi,

I recently had an opportunity to travel by the forbidden Airindia flight AI 127, flying from mumbai to chicago. The experience ihad made me couch on the seat, fasten by seat belt and promised to myself never to fly again by Airindia.

Speaking of which, let me start with boarding. Myself and my two year old son was travelling for the first time in the international flight and first timers to United States of America. I asked a crew member weather he can help me place my hand baggage in the overboard locker, and the response sweeped my feet. He turned on my face and yelled "if you cannot keep the baggages yourself! how do you think i will be able to do so?. Please somebody correct me if iam wrong, I was under the assumption that a steward will assist the passenger and make her journey very comfortable. Far from being comfartable, Its highly frustrating to find crew member with such a ruthless behaviour.

On board, my son was hungry and so I decided to get him some hot milk. Bless the steward, he added hot water to the cold milk. He was using his sixth sence to its fullest capablity to serve me the hot milk.

To all the steward and stewardess of Airindia please rest assured we pay for our tickets before we board the plane filled with your amusing behaviour. Sorry proffesionals we did not buy tickets for circus show. It would be the greatest blessing if i could get some proffesional experience on my return trip to my home.

Taking refund of confirmed ai ticket of the flight cancelled by ai is a big projet
I booked my ticket [protected] on phone with air india for flight no.ic7607 on 16th. june for 17th june flight from delhi to surat, pnr no.ri8y3g. in the evening on 16th. i got a call from ai that the 17th. flight has been cancelled due to operations reason.i was also told that the money shall be refunded to the credit card from where ticket was booked in 7 working days. today is july 3. sixteen days have passed but no rfund is visible.
I have been trying to contact all the concerned agencies for refund but all in vain. this is the response with frequent flyer of ai.
What to do for such a poor system of refund & customer satisfaction. this airline is loosing ground due to such small things & lethargy of concerned officials in comparison to their competitors who are becoming better & better.
Now i am at the verge of complaing to consumer court.
Vinod kumar gupta

I will not write any complaints here. Just facts & proofs. Just call these numbers yourself & expereince yourself & see what kind of treatment you get as a customer from airindia. I will never fly or book a ticket tthrough air india again in my life.

Dubai p. O. Box 1701 shaikh rashid bldg b-62 al-maktoum street
[protected]@emirates.Net. Ae [protected]
(Reservations)
[protected]
(Ticketing office)
[protected] (Sales)

Kind sir/maam,

I mr. M. D. Khan would like to complaint and bring to your notice the inconvenience and unprofessionalism I faced because of air india staff. I am a regular traveller.
On the 17th of april, 2010, I was supposed to travel from mumbai to madras with your airline on flight ai 640, my booking was confirmed. Unfortunately, upon reaching the airport I was informed that my booking had been cancelled becasue of non-avaialability of seats. I was rebooked for another flight. On confirming with your gorund handling staff mr. Shivgankar, I was informed that even the next flight was full and I was not promised a seat on the next flight either. I was advised to take another flight since I had to reach my destination urgently. I was promised full refund on my ticket by your staff.
After 3 days when I came back to mumbai, I informed my travel agent regarding the same, he refused to refund the amount because upon his confirmation with the airline, he was informed that I had already utilised my ticket. When I confirmed with your customer care executives, airport authorities and mrs. Marini fonseca, who is your deputy manager for refunds I was informed that my ticket had something called as 'fim excahnge' mentioned on the telex copy. I clearly didnot understand the term 'fim exchange'. On confirming with mrs. Fonseca, I was told that my ticket has already been utilised. The new ticket no. Which I recieved form your call center is [protected] which according to them has been utilised. I have not utilised any ticket so far. I got to know later that I was entitlted to recieve another ticket which your groud staff never offerred me and I was later forced to purchase another ticket of another airline, I have proff of travel with kingfisher airline, I was not offerred any choice or alternative soultion.
I have never faced such inconvinince, and lack of support from your staff before. I would like you to look into the matter with serious concern and give necessary directives regarding my refunds. I would appreciate it if you would remove the fim exchange point mentioned on my ticket and also give directives for fast refunding. I have mentioned all my details below. Kindly look into the matter. Your airline has a good reputation and esteem, I hope I will hear a positive reply. I donot intend to take serious or stern actions until forced to.

My actual ticket no. [protected]
Airline ref. : no. Was j7lgq
Flight no. : ai 640 cancelled
Date: 17th april 2010
Rebooked flight no. Ic 972 which I have not travelled on.
New ticket no. Which I recieved form your customer care personnel:
Contact no. [protected]

Subject: complaint for quoting more fare by air india, washington for the shorter route.

Respected sir,

I am an assistant in high commission of india, kingston, jamaica, west indies. I am to go to bagdogra, hometown through kingston-new york-new delhi-bagdogra to avail of homeleave.

Our approved route is kingston-new york-new delhi-kolkata. Air india, washington who issues ticket to high commission of india in kingston quoting a more fare of almost rs. 80, 000 / - for the bagdogra sector than the kolkata sector distance for the kingston-bagdogra (9584 kms) sector is less than the kingston-kolkata (9701 kms) sector.In both the cases it is air india/indian airlines is the carrier.

If I am forced to go to kolkata, I am to make provision for staying at kolkata and return tickets from kolkata to bagdogra and other hassles for going bagdogra to kolkata and back. I am to fly with my two kids.

My pity is air india, washingston is quoting rs. 80, 000 / - more fare for comperatively shorter route and I am to make arrangement to go to bagdogra from kolkata (550 kms) and back.

Would be grateful, if you kindly look into the matter sincerely.

With best regards,

Anandamay baidya,

Assistant, high commission of india, kingston, jamaica, west indies

21.6.2010.