Hello All,

I've just had a very bad experience with Indigo - them losing my checked-in bag, and taking a very long time to trace its location and having it flown to my destination. While my baggage finally reached me alright, I wish to send in a complaint about their poor baggage handling operations and the ordeal I went through. Unfortunately, I'm unable to find a customer service email on their web site (all it has is an online form, which I don't care about). Also, I wish to mark a copy to Mr. Sanjeev Ramdas (VP Customer Service and Ops), but Indigo seems to be very good in hiding all its email contacts. Any help on finding the right mail IDs / suggestions on how to escalate to the senior management?

Thanks for any help.
Zenith2010

Agree with you in totality

Below are the mail ids

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Thanks ngblr - email sent!

how much time did they take to locate & get to you????

Hi Keyser,

Glad to be responded by one of the FT-IbA biggies

I was flying BOM to BBI, but my bag made its way all the way to Srinagar! It got to BBI airport around the 24 hr mark, but that's where the fun begins given my travel plan (it was a work trip - I was headed to audit a corporate biggie's operations deep inside the Chattisgarh - Orissa border). Three hours after I landed, I had a train to catch for a 7 hr journey away, and the next day (i.e. when the bag arrived - and they offered to have it delivered to me), I was moving even further beyond. The point is I was on a constant move for the next 2.5 days, and coz it seemed logistically difficult to get ahold of my bag, I made the choice of reuniting it on day 3 (at the airport) on my flight back from BBI to BOM. So the +2 days of delay was my choice, although I had explained my travel/logistical predicament to the ground crew at BBI beforehand.

Sadly all my business clothing and personal essentials were in that bag, and (since this was a work trip) I ended up doing emergency shopping in BBI. I wouldn't have spent the money had it not been Indigo's fault.

Do you think it is reasonable to claim some compensation? In my email, I've requested - an apology, an assurance that their baggage handlers will be further trained on avoid a repeat instance, and compensation of atleast 75% of my expense (sent them scanned receipts). They say they're investigating, but a week from now I'll send a registered post to Mr. Ramdas's office. Am I unreasonably blowing this up? I did face unexpected financial burden, not to mention a momentary panic attack!

Asking for 75% of your expense is not the greatest idea. You should ask them to compensate you for 100% of the expense, and then be happy when they counter-offer 75%. You've set yourself up to get less than you wanted.

Yeah, not the smartest move, guess I was just being a tad lenient!

By the way, how common are these kind of snafus in India in the current day and age? I've never had one before. I forgot to mention I my airport check-in sequence on the flight was #4, so definitely not a late checkin.

Baggage mishandling is probably less common in India than other places, since all carriers follow the point-to-point model rather than hub-and-spoke.

baggage tags are checked manually in india by the loaders compared to computers sorting them out in other airports. its pretty common with air india that bags tagged for ixr go to ixe whose departure time is around the same time at bombay. plus have you seen the baggage make up area? its not a place you would want to be at. its a miracle so many bags actually end up where they are supposed to. also sometimes the bags are loaded on the carts and while being transported to the aircraft, one bag falls off on some road at the airport. and the bag is gone!!!

Here's the update - after a rather strong email followup, I got calls from some mid-management types in Indigo customer service (Gurgaon), and they are proposing to offer a pitiful Rs. 1K in travel voucher. I was told that's the max she could do, and that there is no provision to compensate directly with money. They are quite apologetic, but despite my best efforts that individual just wouldn't use the word 'compensation', instead sticking to the more legally neutral word 'good will token'. Their offer is such a joke, think I should just decline it.

Indigo being a LCC and this being a delayed baggage claim, am not sure what other redressal options are there..

Thanks for the addresses below, ngblr. I contracted food poisoning from 6E catering on a New Year's Day flight and just shot an email out to all three in hopes of tightening up their food handling. I asked for nothing and expect nothing, but hope that perhaps other passengers can be saved the "discomfort" I'm still in the midst of enduring. Lots of antibiotics in the meanwhile�