On August 4th I had booked a e-ticket for my parents on Sahara Airlines for flight S2145 (HYD to Cochin)for the 6th of August. The ticket was generated with a confirmed PNR for the journey and a confirmation sent over email.
As is standard with all domestic airlines, Sahara Airlines instructs passengers to be at the aiport one hour prior to departure. We reached at 12:25 at the airport (5 minutes late on our part). At the airport we were directed by the cashier at the reservation counter to the general counter. The time was 12:30. There were two passengers ahead of me at the counter. I was repeatedly mentioning that the flight was at 1:20, but the counter person (Sumeet) was too busy to acknowledge the confirmed e-ticket.
The person at the counter was entertaining other requests which were being made by people who had access to the counter from the inside as well. When we were finally attended to, the person took our e-ticket and proceeded inside leaving us without a ticket. He did not have the courtesy to either tell us why he was leaving or why we were being made to wait. Despite us asking the counter people several times to call for Sumeet, he did not appear till 1:00 p.m until we made some noise there.
He issued a ticket to us (against the already confirmed e-ticket) at 1:02 p.m. When my parents approached the check-in counter, they were denied entry stating they were late for the flight. We missed the flight causing us loss of time and much inconvenience.
When we asked Sumeet why he had made us wait for long and made us miss the flight, he gave us a story of how the ticket was booked on a different class and how he had to make a call to Delhi etc. The e-ticket shows a confirmed PNR and an economy class status. Later he accused us of being present just 20 minutes before departure of flight.
When we asked to speak to the duty manager, nobody turned up and Sumeet disappeared from the counter. Later, we called up Sahara’s office at Sahara Manzil, Hyderabad and spoke to the manager, who assured us that someone would meet us soon. However, we had to wait 40 minutes and make two follow up calls for that someone to turn up and allow us to file a complaint.
My questions are the following:
When a confirmed e-ticket is there, shouldn’t it be given due priority as a fully paid for ticket at the counter?
Doesn’t Sahara Airlies have a system where the confirmed PNR shows up rather than every reservation personnel ’’call up Delhi to confirm’’?
Is the e-ticketing so bad, that they charge economy fare and it shows up as executive class on the reservation personnel’s system that he ’’has to check with Delhi and convert to economy’’?
Is there a standard processing time for a customer at the counter. Does one have to wait 30 minutes if he/she is the third person in the queue to be attended? Even those with confirmed e-ticket? This can happen only if you are attending to out-of-way clients/friends as well.
How can the reservation personnel issue a ticket 18 minutes prior to departure, when the check-in counter closes 30 minutes prior to departure?
My parents were told at the check-in counter that the flight was over booked. Isnt that strange?
Though we have been given a booking for the next day, it does not make up for the angst it caused us nor for the precious time lost. I had heard so much about Sahara being an exemplary airline, but my experience has shown me that even a low-cost airline such as Air deccan has better customer service and inter-department integration. Even the good old Indian airlines is a giant leap ahead when it comes to customer responsiveness and satisfaction.
Hope this gets heard so that no other passenger need to go through the same misery.