indomitable

So my grandmother passed away on 13th and i had to travel to India urgently with my parents to see her for the one last time. My parents were booked for JFK-DEL on Y on 23rd. I called up the new york reservations office. they promptly rescheduled the flight for 15th and rerouted it to JFK-DEL-CCU and told me that i have to pay $264 at the airport. We went to the airport, paid the money at the cash counter and went to the check in counter. I got a fresh round trip ticket for myself for JFK-DEL-CCU-DEL-JFK. The lady at the check in counter was unable to check in my parents. she got the help of the supervisor and checked in my parents and issued boarding passes for all the segments till CCU. We landed at delhi 20 mins ahead of schedule and went to the domestic transfer desk. We were told that AI 701 from DEL-CCU has been cancelled and we would be merged with another flight at 20:15 hrs. We said its okay as long as we get to Kolkata by that night as the funeral was on next morning. When we went to the check-in desk, the gentleman said that my parents can't be re-booked as the boarding passes for the DEL-CCU segment didn;t have ticket no. on it. I said, i don;t understand this, i just want my parents to be re-booked. they said, they can't help and that i should contact the reservations. I went to reservations and they said, due to some error, the DEL-CCU segment was cancelled for my parents and the New York staff made some mistake and they can't help. I said my grand mother was in the mortuary for the last 2 days and will be cremated tomorrow and we just want to reach Kolkata. They said that we never had any Del-CCU booking. I showed them my payment receipt and the boarding passes for DEL-CCU. I also showed them the baggage tags till CCU. They said, they can't help and all the flight were booked till next day afternoon. After struggling for 4 hours, we finally got to see the station booking supervisor. This man re-iterated the same thing and on top of that said that - app logon ne hi print kiya hoga yeh boarding pass. I was shocked again. I showed him the baggage tags with bar codes on it and asked if we had printed that as well. To this, he said he can't help and we should file a complaint, but, we can't go to kolkata. My mother was already in tears knowing that she won't be able to see her mother again. Seeing this, this man says, ek kaam karo, delhi station jao and ek ticket leke nikal jao. I filed a complaint in their complaint book (to which i haven't got any response till date) and then came out of the airport (we had a 14 hr long flight in which we barely slept and were standing for the last 5.5 hrs). At around 8, we came out of the airport, went to my cousin's place and booked a go air flight for the next morning for double the usual price. And the end of this, i don't know the mistake that i made. I asked them this question- meri kya galti hai. They had no answer. Am i supposed to know that boarding passes should have ticket numbers on them? or Am i supposed to check every time that the check in agent knows her job? I thought that if i have the boarding card, i must have booked the ticket correctly.

Can anyone suggest and possible actions - legal or othwerwise that i can take in this matter?

Keyser

ai definitely lacks in customer service....i have faced similar problems in the past....ai cancelled a connecting flight of mine & put me on another flight later on....when i got to the airport to catch the later flight i was told that there had been a mistake & they could not put me on the flight now....my only option was to buy another new ticket (at a much higher cost) & deal with it later....

after my journey i wrote a number of emails but got no reply till another fter gave me the contact details on a person senior enough with ai to make a decision....unfortunately he has moved on from ai now otherwise i could have passed on those details to you....he got me a refund for the new ticket & offered me a free domestic flight for my troubles....

if you will be stopping in del on your way back then go to the city office & file a complaint....they tend to take those a little more seriously than complaints in their complaint book....

ashishp

The staff at DEL T3 are absolutely the pits - most of them are AI-SATS staff supervised by older AI staff. Their motto seems to be to minimise their own work even if it inconveniences paying passengers.

In one notable instance, they refused to take payment for a ticket that had been booked through the call center. They insisted while they can issue a new ticket they cannot take payments for a ticket issued online! They insisted I would have to trek down to the city office in Safdarjung Enclave for paying!

Even putting them through to the call center didnt help!

indomitable

Thanks so much for your posts Keyser and Ashish. I didn't have time on my way back to go to the city office, but, i am travelling to India again in december (by AI..ticket that i booked long back and its a complex itinerary). I hope to get some time to go to the safdarjung office and file a complaint. I have seen keyser mentioning in his other posts that the AI on board service is much better than the ground services and i would tend to agree with that. Can't believe that both the staff work for the same airline.

Keyser - If i file a case in the Bhopal Consumer court (my hometown), will they honor it? The changes were done by Air India New York staff, but, i believe its the same airline and there isn't an Air India US.

indomitable

I had once booked a BHO-DEL reward ticket and was supposed to pay for the tax at the airport cash counter (thats what the call center agent said) and you won't believe the treatment that i got..Deserves a separate post sometime!!

HMPS

your travel originated in NT, you paid in NY for all three.

To use a Hindi proverb. " Laton ke boot Ba'ath se nahi mante ". (means no words work, only a two by four will suffice ".

Sue them in small claims court. You will win.
Unfortunately almost no one understands CUSTOMER SERVICE. Haven' t flown them in decades.

Keyser

who will follow up in bhopal????do either you or your parents live there????

HMPS

Sue them in NY.

abhilife2001

+1
even if you have someone in Bhopal to follow up, I am sure the time taken there would be much more than in NY.. and you would be there in NY to follow up , explain etc ..I would do it in NY.

HMPS

Bhopal ? Did those blinded people and families of dead get their money ?

indomitable

Thanks everyone for your replies. Looks like its a better idea to sue them in NY. I was under the impression that since the ticket was originally booked in india and only the rerouting and date change was done in NY, i would have to sue them in Bhopal.

My parents live in Bhopal.

I have another trip coming up in december with Air India YUL-LGA-JFK-DEL-JFK (booked long back). There is a connection time of 4hrs between the flights at LGA and JFK. Hopefully, they won't mess it up this time

HMPS

prayers will help. ,

tirajat

I am sorry to hear about OP's experience, but it makes me wonder why do people even book AI flights. Usually, I haven't noticed a a huge price differential. On-board service may be better (which is questionable as well), you would get it only if you board the flight.

No matter how good or bad jet is, they mostly try and accommodate you. I remember I had once (2 years back) missed a flight a day before Diwali and I was given a seat in next flight! The airlines could have easily charged me and I would have paid..

abhilife2001

I am sure the experience with Jet in the following 2 years would have been different..
I feel AI is quite quite decent in the air and in many instances, I have seen quite competitive fares.. and to add the mileage credit to *A partners, this seems quite a decent option.

HMPS

You are correct
EXCEPT

During IRROPS they fall apart. COMPLETELY.
SO NO GO.