Hi,
I booked a ticket for my mother from makemytrip to travel India-London on Air India Flight AI 111.
The itn on Air India site says Blank for Baggage allowance, so I went to the airindia website
www.airindia.in to check the allowances. It is mentioned that on London-India-London sector the baggage allowance is 46 kgs for Economy class. So when she went for check in at the Delhi airport and took around 44 kgs of luggage with her. They refused to check-in saying that the baggage allowance is only 28 kgs.
When I talked to them on phone saying why they are not allowing 46 kgs since that is what's mentioned on the website I got 3 crazy reasons.
1. We are allowing less baggage since she is travelling for the first time. - When I questions that it does not depend on number of travels they gave me second excuse.
2. This is because madam is travelling on Indian passport. - When I questioned that again saying how it matters on passport. I got a 3rd excuse
3. This is because the ticket is issued in India. If the ticket was issued in London we would have allowed 46 kgs.
I said its all rubbish reasons and tried to contact the airport manager... as expected he was not available.
The lady doing the check insisted to pay for extra baggage and said that the counter is closing very soon. (Even though there was around 2.30 hrs for the flight to depart).
My mother had no choice at the airport but to pay for extra 16 kgs of baggage.
After she arrived in London I heard that they charged a hefty amount 1600 INR per kg which equals to 25,600 INR. (I do have a receipt for this).
When I complained to Air india customer care I got an email saying that this is because the ticket was issued in India.
I think this is cheating as the baggage allowance should be same as that mentioned on the website and should not matter where the ticket is issued from or if the passenger is travelling first time or not
I replied back to them and havent heard back.
Please suggest what can I do to escalate this and get a refund.