My daughter was returning from Europe on Air India. She was waiting at London Heathrow for her flight. This was on July 31st. She was supposed to arrive back to JFK that same day, where she had another flight to catch (Jet Blue to SLC).

My wife made a mistake for not checking her email on July 31st so we went to the airport at SLC to wait for her not knowing anything. She was not on the Jet Blue plane. In fact, she sent an email (she paid for it at LHR), that because of floods in Mumbay (Bombay) the flight was delayed and she would be arriving next day.

From here on the bad story begins. It was impossible for us to find out what was happening to the flight.

To give credit where credit is due, Air India put up our daughter in a hotel in
London (also later in New York) and gave her food vouchers. (We heard this in another email.) She tells us however that people with vacation plans in the USA (airline, train and hotel reservations) were stranded in LHR, since AI refused to put them on other airlines. She also told us that AI in London promised to help her with her missed flight in the USA

As a background (as reported by the Bloomberg news service) an AI flight skidded off the runway in Mumbay, and another one (?) was damaged by cargo handlers, which contributed to the delays.

When we first called Air India on an 800 number a recorded message on August 1st indicated that the delayed flight (#111 on 7/31) was due to arrive at 11:30 pm on 8/1. Later that day, calls were routed to Mumbay, where eventually I talked to an Indian lady (not very good English) who told me that flight 111 had an emergency landing in New Delhi. So I asked her, when the flight would get to London. She did not know. I asked her and a senior agent (better English) why not give vouchers to people to fly on other airlines. I was told, they have no authority and only the local English manager in Heathrow whose phone number he gave me can deal with that. I called the number 6 a.m. London time repeatedly. No answer. So, on August 1st we went to bed not knowing anything. On August 2nd their 800 number just returned a dial tone. We had absolutely no idea what was happening. Air India never contacted us. On arrival to JFK (unexpectedly for us) at 2 am on August 2nd the local Air India agents stated they had no authority to deal with connecting flights.

The confusion between Mumbay, London, JFK were unbelievable.

By the way the news services reported that 50 passengers in Mumbay heading for Dubai were just stranded in Mumbay for days.

Their web site is very slow in responding, their 800 number is extremely slow to put it mildly. Also, their phone response keeps repeating the same thing with a music in the background which makes the messages incomprehensible.

When I called Air India theyrefused any compensation whatsoever for the missed flight. (No consequential damages)