Air India deteriorates every day- Aviation is supposed to be such a convenient and time saving service catering to the needs of millions of people but my experience with Air India has been very stressful and loss incurring entirely due to their negligence. We were returning from Kolkata on 22.04.2024 vide Air India flight no AI 773 which was scheduled to depart at around 17.55 pm and reach Mumbai at 20.50 pm. I have booked an international flight from Mumbai to USA at 2 am on the same night thinking I would have plenty of margin to avail it. However, after we have completed all the security check-in procedures and was just waiting for boarding at Kolkata Airport, we were notified (at around 17.05 pm) that our flight to Mumbai has been delayed till 21.50 pm, purely due to operational constraints as confirmed by the delay certificate. With no previous intimations in this regard, we were left with no room for booking an immediate flight to Mumbai in order to safely avail the international flight scheduled to depart at 2 am thereon. Needless to say, this irresponsible behaviour from the Air India authorities was covered up at Kolkata Airport by giving excuses like "this happens all the time, no need to worry, we will be compensating the international ticket in case you missed the same" which had been recorded as evidence on our part since they didn’t agree to give this in writing.
To our utter dismay, the flight finally departed from Kolkata at 10 pm and reached Mumbai after 1 am. While we were waiting for our luggages to arrive my flight to USA already departed from the International Airport. When I was finally able to get hold of Air India officials at Mumbai, they completely denied all the promises made at Kolkata Airport stating it’s a different PNR. Upon my insistence that this would not have happened if the flight was not delayed due to their "operational reasons" and information of the same not shared with us till 11th hour, they issued us a delay certificate. Hands down, it was the most mentally exhausting conversation to finally convince them to issue the same. I was left completely stranded at Mumbai with a huge financial loss and an empty assurance from the Air India authorities.
While leaving the Airport at 4 in the morning, I asked them for my future course of action. No one showed any interest in replying and I knew I was completely on my own here. Searching for an international flight "within budget" and keeping up with my US office hours at Mumbai while staying at a nearby hotel I followed up with the Air India authorities regularly but they remained silent on compensating the losses I have incurred. I finally realised that I can’t wait forever for them to reimburse the amount or issue me a new international ticket, so I booked a return flight from Mumbai on Friday i.e 26.04.2024 incurring further losses. Since then, I have been in constant touch with Air India for the "promised" compensation but they have utterly denied all responsibilities as per the latest mail I have received from them. This leads to questions like "What is an appropriate compensation for all the harrassments that I faced due to the long delay and even worse not intimating passengers till last minute forcing us to be helpless in the face of such blatant negligence? Why were we informed only after all the security procedures were completed at Kolkata Airport? On what grounds did the Air India authorities deny every responsibility of holding them accountable for missing my international flight and all the trauma I faced because of it? What kind of customer service is this??
If my office would have taken action against me for not joining on the agreed date what kind of grievance redressal would they have offered I wonder? The company doesn’t do business ethically and is only operational since they are good at scamming innocent citizens by making false promises and empty assurances.
By Judhajit Sarkar
PNR: TSQEPE