Hi guys,

I was traveling on Air India’s AI-137 while returning from vacation last weekend and I had a really bad experience. I will try to narrate my experience as briefly as possible.


My Flight started over 2 hours delayed from Delhi on Saturday morning (Friday evening PST), though that was not Air India’s fault. Original flight plan was DELHI—FRANKFURT—LAX and then LAX-SAN. I was supposed to be in San Diego by Saturday night. At Frankfurt our plane broke down and we were told that we would be given Hotel accommodation till it is repaired .All American, European passport holders and guys with EU Visa were straight way taken to Hotel, while for guys on Indian passport Air India’s staff took everyone’s passport for transit visa. After 2 hours we were told that German border police has declined transit visa for all except old, people with small kids and people with medical condition. Unfortunately just a day before we reached Frankfurt all flights out of Frankfurt had been cancelled because of severe weather, so all flights out of Frankfurt were already full (or so we were told). We were then given food coupons, calling card and blankets for night and told to sleep wherever we could. Next day we were told that we would be put on alternative flights, so we had to queue up for tickets. After standing for around 5-6 hours, around 150 people were accommodated in other flights before all flights to US were full. 7 of us who had already spent 1 day at airport were told that the only option was to spend another night at airport and take next available flight next morning at 8am. Also I was given a connecting flight from Chicago to San Diego, but it gave me transit time of just 1:30 hrs. I protested to this flight plan as I was pretty sure that immigration, customs and security would make it a very tight schedule, but they would not listen to me. Also all along our stay at Frankfurt airport we were not given our checked in luggage .So after spending 40hrs at Frankfurt airport I got on United flight to Chicago on Monday morning. At Chicago I missed connecting flight to San Diego, thankfully United put me on next flight. At Chicago I also discovered that my baggage had not arrived. So I finally reached San Diego delayed by 2 days on Monday night. I got my baggage after another 2 days.

My Question is whether I am eligible for any compensation; do airlines have any straight forward mechanism for this? At Frankfurt Air India did want to talk about this. Did anyone have a similar experience? Could you direct me to correct resources?

Thanks for your time and patience
-Mukul