It’s been a while but but since I had a bunch of AI miles expiring next month (that’s how long it’s been since I last booked an award flight with AI), I booked a few tickets with them. And boy was it painful.

To start with since I know my way around the most ridiculous FF site ever I’m not going to complain about that here... but I got to the point where I could book my ticket - selected my flights and my payment method as Diners. Now paying through Diners is supposed to be a little different where you don’t enter the card details in the same page as the ticket details like you would if you selected Visa/MC but it’s supposed to redirect you to a BillDesk page where you’re supposed to get the Diner’s option. It took quite a while but finally I was able to get redirected.

On the BillDesk page there were a whole host of wallet payment options but no option for Diners. So I thought I had probably selected something wrong in the previous page. However there was no way to go back from the payment page... so the payment of course failed.

However I did get a PNR... so I called AI and asked them to help me make the payment either with a link or via phone. After being passed from one call center agent to another three times I finally got to someone who understood my problem and told me “sorry your ticket has been cancelled by the system”. I noticed the miles hadn’t been credit back as yet even though my PNR was cancelled and I was told to write to FR and that the process would take at least 2 days to get my miles back after which I could book again! Absolutely absurd!!!

Thankfully the miles were back in my account a few minutes later so I tried booking the award tickets again online... same Diners selection (I thought I made a mistake selecting the correct payment option the first time)... same BillDesk page that doesn’t support Diners. So I was stuck again. However this time I noticed there was a Payzapp option... phew.... so I clicked on that that took me to a brand new Payzapp page where every image and object on the page showed the “broken image” pic and the only thing that properly displayed on the page was the countdown timer for completing the transaction! Amazing!

Called AI again with the new PNR to make the payment... was passed around between 4 agents this time. Then was finally told “sorry we can’t help you make payments for web transactions... wait for the ticket to expire in 2-3 hours and then call us to book the ticket”! Whaa.... I’ve done this with several several Indian and foreign airlines... never had a challenge doing this.

Anways waited for the 2nd PNR to get cancelled. Then called them again to book the ticket on the phone. Gave my FF#. There was no verification of anything. The agent rattled of my name, how many miles I had in the account. Probably would have given me my mother maiden name, my DOB and password if I asked. I’m just amazed that my miles haven’t been stolen yet.

Anyways the phone agent booked my ticket and sent me the payment link. Finally I would be able to use my DC which had been a major reason for this mess to begin with. But in the link they sent me - I could only pay by Visa, MC or Amex. So that was that. Paid by Visa and quickly closed everything.

Wasted about 4 hours trying to book a ticket on AI using a Diners card. That I was unable to to this simple thing and had to go round round in circles with AI, not to mention that there’s absolutely zero security for FF miles and account even today leaves me speechless. Well not completely speechless... this was quite a long rant!

Now I’m pretty sure I’m entitled to compensation for this ordeal... I’m not sure if I should go to AI, HDFC Diners, BillDesk or just my medical insurance folks.