Airlines: Air
India
Sector: London – Bombay Month of Travel - Jan 2008
Overall Experience:Traumatic
Onward journey:
While travelling from London to Bombay, the flight was cancelled and there was no information regarding the same even at the airport(forget about telephone or online checking). Complete chaos reigned at the Air India airport counter in London. Thankfully, by chance, we were accommodated in Jet Airways, after which the travel was smooth.
Return journey:
Boarding Experience:
The flight had to take off at 8.10am from Bombay, which was rescheduled without any prior notice to 10.40am. At the time of boarding, the Gate was suddenly changed from 17 to 11, about which there was no official or any announcement to inform about the change. When people started inquiring about the boarding, the change was revealed. Formal announcement was delayed leading to chaos.
Non stop International flight turns into passenger collection cab:
During boarding the flight, we were informed that the flight would land in Delhi as well. 30 minutes into the journey, to our surprise the flight started its preparation for descent. After making enquiry into it, we were told by the air hostess that the flight would be picking up passengers from Ahemdabad as well. This came as a complete shock to us because the flight itinary said it was a direct flight from Bombay to London. The captain of the flight did not think it was necessary to share this information with the passengers. Apology for inconvenience was a far thought concept.
Ahemdabad headcount chaos:
The flight that was never supposed to stop at Ahemadabad was further delayed in Ahmedabad as the crew(ground+air+?) messed up on headcount. If they can not count number of passenger heads(each have just one). how capable are they?
Condition of the flight:
Seats:
When we entered the flight in Bombay, the flight was in pathetic condition, with sticky food trays and dirty seats. Pillows were greased and blankets smelly.
Toilets:
The toilets were in very poor condition and were not serviced properly at all. Even though the travel was taking more than 16hrs, there was no servicing done at the various airports where the flight landed. By the mid of the travel, toilets were almost impossible to go into with puke all over the wash basins and disposed toilet papers all littering the ground.
Entertainment system:
Entertainment system did not work. Numerous complaints to the air hostess, led to no results with all of them throwing up their hands saying that they could not do anything about it, instead they asked if we were from technical background and could help the situation.
Announcements:
Right from the beginning of the flight there was no communication from the captain regarding anything even about change of plans(landing at Ahemdabad and Delhi). There was no information as to the travel time and the time of landing at London. When we questioned the air-hostess about landing in Ahemdabad, to our surprise she said that even she was informed about the same when she boarded the flight. Information to passengers was almost non-existent. Until the last 20 minutes of journey we did not know when we are going to land in London.
Food:
Food in flight is served when the flight is flying, but in our case we had our breakfast and lunch on the ground as if we were seated in a theme restaurant! Lunch was served in Ahemdabad in the flight when passengers were boarding the flight. Food quality was fair.
Fitness of the air hostesses: *
*Most of the air hostesses were old and obese. God forbid, if some emergency occurred, passengers would need to rescue the air crew instead.
Attitude of air crew:
The attitude of the air crew was at par with the government official as depicted in the famous serial "Office Office". Finer details are left to your imagination. I hope they knew that it was not government tax that we had paid, but flight fare.
Feedback forms:
Feedback forms were provided only after a follow up of 3-4 hours and we were informed that the forms were insufficient.
Airhostess explanation to the plight of situation: *
Airhostess was kind enough to explain the reason of all the chaos that was happening in the flight. As per her, the private airlines like Jet Airways were bribing the top officials of air Indiaso that the services in air India are kept as low as possible. I would have loved to record that statement if I had a handy cam. Sorry guys you really missed that shot!
Air India’s Non Stop Services to New York*
*Air India crew members who forgot to announce so many information those are useful to passengers, were enthusiastically announcing its new non stop flight from Bombay to New York multiple times. Guys before you fly this, can you first learn how to fly non stop from Bombay to London. Or is it that the definition of non stop is not clear! Non stop does not mean not de-boarding the plane. It means that the plane does not land multiple times, it lands once and just at the destination.
*Summary:
*A typical non stop journey from Bombay to London direct flight should be of 8.5 - 9 hrs. This journey took us 18 hrs. A flight that was supposed to take off from India at 8.10 am left India at 5 pm. What a Shame! Double the time of journey and pathetic in-flight conditions, the misery multiplies to 16 times(theory of relativity).
Brand India image tarnished: *
*The overall experience for not only the Indian nationals but also foreign nationals was so bad that Air India is a complete disgrace to the nation. Air India is a national carrier. The only suggestion to Air India is that please don’t try to improve anything. Your services are pathetic from top to bottom and there is no willingness to improve anything as you have been sufficiently bribed(as told by your employees). Only good you can do to your customers is to shut down at least the international flights so that the passengers are not cheated.
*And the story Continues:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Oxygen_masks_down_AI_plane_flies_/articleshow/2765464.cms
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Stranded_Air_India_passengers_leave_for_New_York_/articleshow/2821005.cms*