I would like to bring in front an extremely grave problem I faced in the Frankfurt airport while boarding my flight from Frankfurt to Hyderabad.
Everything was going fine as I had checked in my baggage and was set to go along with my friend.
Two Air-India officials(Mr. Wani and Mr.Dilip Bidi Chandani) suddenly peeped in into my friend’s check-in.
There are some points that I observed -
1) As my friend told that she has a student visa Mr. Wani jumped into the scene so that he can earn some money. Because he knew that a student would never have a credit card and will have to give in cash which would directly go to his pocket.
2) I have been travelling long enough to realise that no one ever weighs the hand baggage and laptop bag but he insisted in doing that. If this was done with us why not with other passengers.
3) For the first time I had already checked in my baggage and ready to go but he came again and started weighing my luggage again. He cancelled my boarding pass and insited to pay the 60 euros otherwise he wont let us go. What was this? Is this robbery going on in braod daylight. I had no option left other than to pay.
4) He gave me long lectures on what is right and what is wrong. I had a check in baggage of 19.5 kg. I told him to merge my rest stuff as students can take 23 kg but he refused. For my friend he was weighing all the stuff like 23(Check in)+ 8(hand baggage)+ 2.5(laptop) and for me he changed the rules by excluding the checked in baggage, so I could not merge the rest over kg of 23 kg.
This is how you treat your customers? Is this how Air India treats Indian students studying abroad.
5) He also told that you are studying outside so what is 60 euros for you?
If such is the case why doesn’t he go outside and beg. This person is a disgrace to the whole nation. I was stunned that how is he there in Frankfurt airport?
6)When I finally paid the amount he told the guy and his friend were discussing that who keeps the money? Then Mr. Wani told Mr. Dilip Bidi Chandani to keep it with him and he would take it from him later on. What should I understand by this?
7) Whenever I was going to remove stuff and rearrange he went inside everytime. I think he went to see us in the survillience camera because whenever I went back to the counter he came out from inside and started eating my head again. Why was this stalking around going on? Who the hell is he?
8) In the beginning when we were reluctant to pay he told us examples of students who came from Karlsruhe the day before and he made them pay extra for their luggage. So this is his regular practice. He sees who is a student and just mauls them as he exactly knows that they wont have a credit card and would pay him cash. This is a shame to our country India. If indiains are treated this way then think about foreigners. He would be looting them all the time. I had great regards for people in Deutschland that everything is clean but this guy has changed my perception now. How can anyone employ this kind of a person.
9) Both Mr. Wani and Mr. Dilip Bidi Chandani became the authority over there torturing us for 3 hours until we agreed to pay the amount. He told us to reduce 7 kgs or pay for 2 kgs. I didnt understand the relation between the two. If he was showing law and regulation then what was this? A special discount? What was he thinking? What I got from this was that he estimated that how much these students can pay and just demanded 60 euros. This is his regular stuff.
10) He constantly threatened us that he would not let us board the flight and would close the check in counter if we did not pay. I didnt understand why was he insisting on paying the money all the time? This zeroes down to only one reason that it was just going into his pocket.
11) After so much of torture I got irritated and asked him what I saw and am seeing from all my flight checkins that why were the laptop bags or back packs not weighed for everyone? He just picked up his target for the day and unfortunately I was the one.
12) When I was coming from india I was allowed some 30 plus kgs but now this is the condition. He told that this is why Air India is under huge losses. Do you think that allowing luggage is the reason for Air India losses. And is he making up the loss by looting people outside by exercising his powers in a wrong way?
Many of my friends had advised me not to opt for Air India but still then I persisted with my decision as I have been flying using AIr India for quite a while.
But I am sorry to say that after this incident I would never use Air India for any of my travel purposes. Moreover I would advise my fellow students to opt for some other flight. Never go with Air India.
I hope the pain I went through would not happen again and appropriate action will be taken against these culprits.