flight / air india feedback

Khushi,

I don't know if your mother already travelled via Air India but just wanted to share my experience here so that it helps anyone else looking for feedback.

I travelled to India from NJ along with my DH in Jan 2010. My mom and sis also joined us (they flew in from another US city and got on the same flight). Going there was not as bad but I do say that coming back was hell.

The food was okay on the flight to India but on the way back, there were plastic pieces in my food and taste was awful. The bathrooms were smelly and filthy. Anyone sitting near the bathrooms was to be pitied. The air hostess was rude. When she would hand out snacks or food to my mom she kept on telling her what to do with the wrapper, spoon, napkins, etc. It almost seemed like she was telling a naughty child what to do and I felt it was insulting as my mom had not done anything that would trigger such a response.

We were told that our flight was nonstop (and said so on our itinary) and that we would not have to de-plane in Europe but the plane will make a stop in Frankfurt to get refueled, restock food, and let off people who were only travelling to Frankfurt or catching another Air India connection from there. To the contrary, they asked all of the passengers to de-plane with all of their carry-on even if they were going to the final destination of the plane. We had to get off the plane on the end of the runway near the terminal in -3 degrees using one of those ladders they have. Most people didn't have heavy jackets and some had none with them as they were headed to a hot weather in India. After a few minutes, a bus came to take us to the terminal (for such a big international airport they didn't pull up to the gate like they do here in the US.) the bus literally stood there for 55 min with both doors open in that cold weather for unknown reasons. I feel that this was a major miss-management on the part of the Airport and AI since they should have done something to avoid such an encounter. Once we got there, we again had to stand in a long line, giving no time for even using the restroom, which we were looking for as we didn't want to use the bathroom for a while on the plane again. Then again when they started boarding, they had no system where they called out sit numbers to start boarding. People just pushed as a crowd to board the plane like they did in India when you try to catch a bus. It was utter chaos that took so much time to get hundreds of people on board and getting us delayed. Then we sat on the runway for 3.5 hours (due to the delay and weather). Air India couldn't turn the TV programs on, I guess, because of some regulations. People were frustrated with lack of sleep, last few hours of commotion at the Frankfurt airport and now the wait. Without going into further details we landed in India and the airport is another story. It took us another 4 hours to get out.

The real story starts when we had to come back. In our case, to travel internationally, we have to either fly to Bombay from our domestic airport or drive to another major city in our state that is 2.5 hours away. Since we thought we were getting a non-stop flight we took the option of flying to/from this city and then driving to/from our home town instead of getting connecting flights via Bombay.

The day before we are to fly back, we go to Air India's office and re-confirm our tickets. On the day of the flight, we check the status of the flight online every few hours as they weren't picking up our call to AI office for flight status. Also, because we knew that NJ/NY was supposed to get some bad weather on the day we were to land in the US. We left for the airport since everything was shown to be on time. We get there with two rental cars and meet some relatives (living in that city) there who had come to see us off. We were a little early so we waited outside as they had not started to take people in for our flight. 45 mins later someone came and asked us if we were on the flight to NJ. He was also on the same plane and just found out it is cancelled. We look for anyone from the airport or AI to find out what is going on as we can't get in. After so much confusion between passengers, we manage to find some AI employees. Instead of giving us info on the flight, they started yelling at us for coming to the airport. One of them told me personally that what were you thinking? Were you not watching the news for the past 18 hrs that the weather was supposed to be bad in US? I told him that we knew about the weather but we cannot make the call as they have to cancel the flight and inform us. Even their website said that the flight was on time and no one was picking up the phone. Then he backed down and said that oh, we found out only half an hour ago so how can we tell you (I wanted to say wasn’t he watching the news were supposed to!!) I told them that most of the passengers are travelling from different towns to get to the airport and before leaving, most of the people checked if the flight was on time. Unless we hear otherwise, we won't just assume the flight is cancelled. If we don't come and the flight leaves then you will blame us that we didn't show up. Anyway, I had 4 different flights cuz of the way they talked to us and insulted the passengers. They blamed us and acted like we had done something wrong instead of dealing with the flight cancellation by providing info on what is happening and how to go forward to get on a different flight. They gave conflicting info when really pressed for details. One guy told me to come next day with the same ticket and we will get priority boarding the flight of that day (there is one flight everyday). I asked him about the passengers already on that next flight. How will they accommodate twice the number of people. He gave me so much rubbish it didn't even make any sense. Good thing I didn't take his word for it and asked several people before leaving. It turned out the flight we were to be on did take off and went as far as Frankfurt and people who were not headed for NJ/NY were let on the plane to catch other AI connections to US. So I asked them to let my mom and sis board the plane and see if they can take them through Chicago to get to their destination as they don't need to go to NJ. They refused to change the ticket and after so much pestering they told me they will take them to Chicago but from there they won't give any connections. We will have to buy another ticket on our own. This would have worked out so much different had it been a US based airline. They will do whatever to get you home. We had to drive back to our home and went to AI office before it opened the next morning. We were second in line and when it opened, it took us 3 hours to get our tickets rebooked. First, they told us we were late for our flight and that we missed it so it was our fault. Good thing there were tones of people like us so it wasn't so hard to convince. They made 3 calls to their main office and since the flight did take off, it took them a while to figure out why we were not taken with them. The rude service we got and amount of hair pulling we had to go through, was too much (I am fuming even now thinking about how badly I was treated in front of so many other people). We wowed right there and then that we will NEVER fly AI again. Oh and the best part was, they couldn't find a connecting flight for my mom and sis from NJ to their city (or not willing to find one since it was cost them more for AI to pay another airline) for 6 days. So with limited options we flew back from India 2 days later than planned and my sis and mom had to stay at our house in NJ for 4 more days before they could go home. My hubby missed a few days more from work and my sis almost 10 days. If we were not living in NJ, I don't know how they would have managed as AI wasn't giving any accommodation either.

There is a lot more but this post has gotten way bigger than I intended so stopping here now. Needless to say, we will not be using AI this Dec when we need to go back for my sis's wedding.