An experience with AIR INDIA..!

A week back, my wife and both my daughters (9 years old and 5 years old) went to India.

Well. While this sentence conveys a simple message in a simple manner, in reality it wasn't that simple at all. Why? Because of the air lines they travelled. It was India's flag-ship airline carrier, AIR-INDIA. They made sure that the travel will be as hard as possible, in every possible way.

The journey was from NEWARK (New Jersey) to Chennai.

The original plan was:
From NEWARK they would fly in an AIR-INDIA aircraft to Paris for a brief stop-over (no aircraft change is needed here) and then to Mumbai. From there they will take another AIR-INDIA flight to Chennai. No airport change at Mumbai, no customs check at Mumbai. All they have to do at Mumbai was, just to find the right gate at the same airport and catch the flight for Chennai. As simple as that..!

While this was true (I had checked with couple of my friends), I didn't ask them what they would do in case, if there was a unexpected delay. It is at this point where AIR-INDIA Maharaj changes from his famous 'humble' posture to a mean bollywood villaneous posture.

Departure Day:
It was early morning, around 8AM. Eventhough the flight was scheduled to depart at 9PM, I found from their website that there will be a 6 hours delay.

How did I find out?

Apparently, the designers of Airindia.com website decided that, displaying a flash news about delayed flights won't be that fun to their customers. Instead they used a 'creative' way to convey that. How?

First, it is kept secret and so as I already said, there won't be any text message or flash news on their web site about any delays.

Second if you look at the SCHEDULE link, they all will be static. They will always display the IDEAL time table about when their flights are supposed to depart and arrive. They won't have the real time data of something like, "ok..this flight supposed to leave at 9PM. But today due to so and so reason, it will be only departing at 11PM..'

So, how did I find that our flight was delayed? Well, there is a link to check the BOOKING STATUS.

Using that you can check your booking status by typing your PNR number (a number that can be found in the ticket). After typing your PNR number and when you press ENTER, it will display your flight number, departure/arrival details.

So, till the previous day, whenever I checked the BOOKING STATUS, it showed me the right flight number, which is AI-144. But when I cheked now, it was displaying a different flight number, which is AI-1144, and different timing to reach Mumbai. The connecting flight had been changed from an AIR-INDIA flight to an INDIAN AIRLINES flight (with different departure time)

When you get to see this, especially on the day of travelling, you will know the real meaning of BEING SURPRISED. There wasn't any more info on it. Just all of a sudden, the flights were changed and the timings were also changed. That was it.

Later I realized that, at this point, AIR-INDIA Maharaj expects us play a little detective game and really identify that AI-1144 is the delayed version of AI-144. But he won't say that in his website explicitely. For that you had to call them and listen (Note: Not speak) to the automated voice message which conveys the message, without giving any option to speak to a real person.

Anyway, DELAY is fine with me as I understand the complexity of aircrafts and their need for security and maintenance.

Checking & Boarding:
As I already said that DELAY was fine with me, eventhough it is of little inconvinience. But Air-India decided to add more to that little difficulty. Well, they hit us very hard this time. They said since the connecting flight is INDIAN AIRLINES (instead of AIR-INDIAN), my wife(and kids) have to check-out all the luggages at Mumbai airport; do customes; then go to the domestic airport; then catch the Indian Airlines flight.

In an instance I was filled with outrage. My wife has to take care of both my kids, wait to pick up the luggages (6 checked-in), also need to take care of the hand luggages, then take them to customs, then...whooo..

Controlling my feelings, I quitely explained them the situation and told them that I want atleast the luggages to be transferred automatically to Chennai, so that she doesn't have to carry them while changing the airport. As expected the reply, "that is the way we do it. She has to check out all the luggages at Munbai. Nothing doing..! But Air-India employees at Mumbai will help if needed"

At this point, I put all the burden on my God Murugaa, and prayed that they reach home safely. I also told my wife, if she happens to miss the luggages, that will be fine with me, as long as she and the kids reach Chennai safely.

At Mumbai:
When she reached Mumbai, as we expected, not a single AIR-INDIA employee offered any help. My wife used the porters paying from Rs 200 Rs 500 each time when she needed. When I say 'each time', I really mean it. There were lot of such 'each times'.

First she had to go to the Customs. Second she has to come and catch the bus to the domestic airport. Fourth, after reaching the domesting airport, she had to take the luggages inside.

By this time, she missed he connecting flight.

This we would not have known it earlier, if I (from USA) had not called up Mumbai Airport. I knew that they reached Mumbai Airport. But I wasn't sure if she succesfully managed to transfer all the stuffs to the domestic airport and caught the connecting flight.

So, I called up the AIR-INDIA office at Mumbai.

Right from the beginning their customer support was a total joke. Following was one of the many pathetic conversations I had with them (this one, I had with their them, prior to my wife's Mumbai Arrival)..

me: hi, can I know if the flight AI-1144 arrived at Mumbai pls?
AI: Let me check sir..mmm.. it is supposed to arrive at 5:30AM local time sir.
me: but it is already 6AM there now. Did it arrive?
AI: That I don't know sir. But it is estimated to arrive at 5:30AM sir.
me: Then there must have been a delay right?
AI: I don't know sir. But it is estimated to arrive at 5:30AM sir?
me: Look I know it is estimated to arrive at 5:30AM. Right now, it is 6AM at Mumbai. We are 30 minutes past the estimated time. So don't tell me the estimated time again and again. I just want to kow if it reached Mumbai or not. If not, when is it expected to.
AI:That I don't know sir. We didn't update the computers. But it is estimated to arrive at 5:30
me: (hung-up)
(So much for the Indian supremacy at computer field).

I went through the simillar conversations with Mumbai Air-India too.

But fortunately after such conversations, at one point I got hold of one of their managers called Mr.Misthry (at Mumbai International Airport). This is where, fate decided to go little easy on us. Because he was very kind and responsive.

He tracked my wife and kids who were at the domestic terminal that time. He told me that she missed the connecting Indian Airlines and he will try his best to put her in the next available flight, Jet Airways which 7 hours from them. He also allowed her a International Call so that she can call and speak to me. And she did.

Finaly he confirmed the tickets for Jet Airways. But again, my wife had to go to a different airport for board that plan (again porters, money etc). After that she/kids were able to reach Chennai.

Question is: While I can understand the delay, why does AIR-INDIA make the passengers go through CUSTOMS in between a journey. Don't they really know that it is causing a hell a lot of trouble for their passengers?

This was our first time with AIR-INDIA. I too will be travelling in AIR-INDIA in couple of weeks to join my family at Chennai. But after this trip, we will never even think about AIR-INDIA again.

Sam...