Mr. Bean
Jul 14, 09, 3:01 pm
...and thieves to boot.
On my recent vacation trip back from India with my family, I was flying HYD-BOM-LHR (on AI 141/131) and LHR-ORD-CLE (separate ticket on AA). At check-in, I asked the TA if he would be able to check our bags all the way to CLE. He replied no (with no reason). I pointed out that AI and AA had an interline agreement, and that it should be possible to check our bags all the way to CLE because we were able to book our bags all the way to HYD on our outbound CLE-JFK-LHR-BOM-HYD (on the same AA and AI separate tix). He laughed when I mentioned interlining, then mentioned that he could not do so "because I do not see it in our system. I see your flights up to London only." Then when I pull out our old tags for our bags checked through CLE-HYD, he brings another two TAs who say that "it depends on the point of origin" and "we have interline agreement with AA in the US but not in London." :confused: Obvious rubbish and I call them out on that. Then they bring a supervisor who tells me that they are not allowed to check bags through LHR due to security reasons: Bags coming from the US are OK, but not going to the US. At this point, I have the feeling this is not going to work out and I have no evidence to say the supervisor is wrong, though I had a good hunch he was lying. And indeed, he was. After we landed in LHR, I had a brief discussion with the immigration officer and she told us that there was no such restriction on checked baggage. :mad:
Look, if you don't want to check baggage through for liability reasons, then OK tell me that. Don't blatantly lie to me and waste my time and the time of all the pax standing behind me. I suspect the real reason why the TAs don't do this though is because it involves extra work (oh the horror! :eek:). The AAgent in CLE spent like 10 mins to check everything through to HYD on our outbound. ^
But that's not the only reason why the AI HYD TAs are full of fail. At the end, when we had finally given up and accepted their lies, the TA said that we had to pay 4035 INR in UDF (user development fees) because they were not included in our tickets. At this point, I knew this was another lie, but I had my hands tied (I had been standing there for about 40 mins, with other pax behind me). I figured I would just pay it on my CC and fight it afterwards. As I was paying the fee (at an AI desk, not even an airport authority desk), I asked if the fee would have been included if I had booked though airindia.com. The agent said yes, it would have.
So today I called Expedia (where I booked the AI tix) and asked them if UDF was included in the taxes, and they didn't know. They told me to call AI. Oh no, I hate calling AI. Oh well, so I call AI and am eventually connected to an agent in Bombay (the phone line is really terrible quality even though I am calling from a land line - never like that when I call family in India, even to a mobile # there). I give her my ticket No. and ask for a breakdown of the taxes included. As it turns out, UDF was indeed included in our tix. No idea how we would get that money back though.
Wow. So the AI TAs in HYD were complete scum. As it turns out, I was originally going to ask the TA for upgrades to J, but after his blatant lying and outright theft, I decided no way was I going to give even one more PAISE to AI. Needless to say, we're never going to fly AI again, though we've been more than loyal customers in the past. If this were a real airline, I probably ask if there is any way to get compensation, but sadly it's not. *A must be out of their minds. :rolleyes:
On my recent vacation trip back from India with my family, I was flying HYD-BOM-LHR (on AI 141/131) and LHR-ORD-CLE (separate ticket on AA). At check-in, I asked the TA if he would be able to check our bags all the way to CLE. He replied no (with no reason). I pointed out that AI and AA had an interline agreement, and that it should be possible to check our bags all the way to CLE because we were able to book our bags all the way to HYD on our outbound CLE-JFK-LHR-BOM-HYD (on the same AA and AI separate tix). He laughed when I mentioned interlining, then mentioned that he could not do so "because I do not see it in our system. I see your flights up to London only." Then when I pull out our old tags for our bags checked through CLE-HYD, he brings another two TAs who say that "it depends on the point of origin" and "we have interline agreement with AA in the US but not in London." :confused: Obvious rubbish and I call them out on that. Then they bring a supervisor who tells me that they are not allowed to check bags through LHR due to security reasons: Bags coming from the US are OK, but not going to the US. At this point, I have the feeling this is not going to work out and I have no evidence to say the supervisor is wrong, though I had a good hunch he was lying. And indeed, he was. After we landed in LHR, I had a brief discussion with the immigration officer and she told us that there was no such restriction on checked baggage. :mad:
Look, if you don't want to check baggage through for liability reasons, then OK tell me that. Don't blatantly lie to me and waste my time and the time of all the pax standing behind me. I suspect the real reason why the TAs don't do this though is because it involves extra work (oh the horror! :eek:). The AAgent in CLE spent like 10 mins to check everything through to HYD on our outbound. ^
But that's not the only reason why the AI HYD TAs are full of fail. At the end, when we had finally given up and accepted their lies, the TA said that we had to pay 4035 INR in UDF (user development fees) because they were not included in our tickets. At this point, I knew this was another lie, but I had my hands tied (I had been standing there for about 40 mins, with other pax behind me). I figured I would just pay it on my CC and fight it afterwards. As I was paying the fee (at an AI desk, not even an airport authority desk), I asked if the fee would have been included if I had booked though airindia.com. The agent said yes, it would have.
So today I called Expedia (where I booked the AI tix) and asked them if UDF was included in the taxes, and they didn't know. They told me to call AI. Oh no, I hate calling AI. Oh well, so I call AI and am eventually connected to an agent in Bombay (the phone line is really terrible quality even though I am calling from a land line - never like that when I call family in India, even to a mobile # there). I give her my ticket No. and ask for a breakdown of the taxes included. As it turns out, UDF was indeed included in our tix. No idea how we would get that money back though.
Wow. So the AI TAs in HYD were complete scum. As it turns out, I was originally going to ask the TA for upgrades to J, but after his blatant lying and outright theft, I decided no way was I going to give even one more PAISE to AI. Needless to say, we're never going to fly AI again, though we've been more than loyal customers in the past. If this were a real airline, I probably ask if there is any way to get compensation, but sadly it's not. *A must be out of their minds. :rolleyes: