Air India Express — Hospitalisation due to incompetent AI staff

Address:

North Goa, Goa

Dear Sir, I was booked to travel from Mumbai to Goa on AI 659 on 29th August at 2010 hrs. As this was a routine flight, I expected to reach Goa by 2120hrs and have my dinner and medication in Goa. However I ended up being hospitalised on the 30th of August due to the incompetence of AI and the details are as below. The flight was to leave at 2010hrs and we boarded at 0740hrs, after boarding the pilot announced that he was waiting for another delayed AI flight carrying 6-8 passengers and we finally left at around 2100hrs. On reaching Goa, the pilot aborted the landing citing bad visibility although we could all clearly see the runway and returned to Mumbai by 2330hrs. During this entire duration we were offered two biscuits, one frooti and one bottle of water and one reaching Mumbai we were told that we could not disembark and food would be arranged on the aircraft itself. At around 0030hrs the flight took off again with the same crew and once again the pilot aborted landing citing bad weather. It is pertinent to note here that two flights including one international inbound of AI landed at Goa at the same time with no reported issues. On the second journey to and fro, we were told that catering arrangements were not made and hence there was nothing that could be done. The AI flight staff were happily eating their own packed meals while telling us this. By this time I was without food and medication for nearly 6 hours and was feeling very uncomfortable. Finally at 0300hrs we were allowed to deplane at Mumbai, what followed was even more disgusting. At the airport there was one solitary ground staff who did not know what to do and asked us for time. One hour passed with no resolution and no arrangement of any sort of refreshment. Our requests for having a senior operations staff to deal with the situation were met by the answer that no one wanted to come to talk to us. After arguing with this individual I managed to get a seat on the Jet flight to Goa at 0605hrs. Even this experience was extremely demeaning as I had to exit the AI arrivals and walk on the road with my baggage to Jet departures and wait for 30 mins at the security gate for someone from AI to escort us inside. After reaching Goa, my sugar levels had short to alarming levels resulting in dizziness and I had to be hospitalised till the 31st of August. I intend to take legal action against the incompetence of AI and the high handed and rude airline and ground staff who treat paying passengers like dirt. What is even more disgusting that I as an Indian taxpayer subsidise these sort of incompetent people and allow them to squander my hard earned money. This is just not acceptable and I am unable to understand how AI ever intends to make any money with such disgusting customer service. The purpose of this complaint to provide adequate warning to AI as no one has even bothered to find out or even apologise for the way in which we were treated by AI staff. Needless to say, this is my last journey with AI and I will use all means at my disposal including social media platforms to highlight the disgusting joke that is known as Air India Ashton Lemos Godinho, Goa [protected] [protected]@gmail.com