Air India — air india - debacle, negligence, unprofessional - torture & stress

Hello,

I am anand safi, 28 years old indian who probably made the biggest mistake of his traveler life - flying air india for international travel.

I want to invite you on a journey o[censored]ntrained staff, a test of patience and a misery caused over and over by none other than our national carrier air india - the one whose pledge of excellence and treating passengers to a maharajah experience is supposedly marketed.

Today, we will just go over the details of my dreaded journey and failure of air india in every single aspect.

Journey:

Me and my wife, tithi vaghela, booked a roundtrip flight from newark (Ewr) to ahmedabad (Ahm) via bombay (Bom). The two flights i want to talk about are ai 144 from ewr - bom on dec 29, 2018 and ai 191 from bom - ewr on jan 29, 2019. My flight pnr for reference is httn7.

Ai 144: ewr - bom dec 29, 2018

The flight was a really old one and my entertainment system did not work. I informed the steward and he said he will be right back to help. Not only did he fail to come back, he did not respond a single attendant call i made over the 13 hr journey. Later, when other passenger complained of entertainment system not working, he laughed off and joked how miserable and old the planes were so there is nothing that can be done.

Ai 191: bom - ewr on jan 29, 2019

I have never been on a more miserable flying experience ever in my life over the past 15 years with 100+ flights and international travel. Just to capture the mental torture and trauma:

1) our scheduled departure from bom was at 1:30 am on jan 29 2019

2) they informed us that wind was causing a take-off delay due to our plane being heavy so they waited till 3am

3) at am, they informed they offloaded some weight off the plane [[lots and lots of passenger luggage randomly offloaded - we will come back to this later]] so finally flight took off

4) the air hostess and stuff was the most unprofessional, less skilled and untrained i have ever seen. On this 16 hour journey, the only time they appeared was to serve food 2 times. I saw at least 8-10 attendant calls including mine left unattended. Not even a courtesy check on what passengers were calling them for. It was bizarre as if there was not staff for 90% of the flight time.

5) my wife got a headache in the final couple of hours of the flight and was feeling nauseatic. She asked the air hostess who just happened to be serving lunch then for medication. The air hostess replied "we might have something for headache. I will check and bring back". As we know by now, she never came back. My wife being in unbearable headache and pain got up, walked back 30 rows and asked her for medication.

6) they only served 2 meals on the flight. The break between breakfast and lunch was over 7 hours leaving me and many fellow passengers in shock. This is the worst meal service from staff and time schedule discipline i have ever seen or heard of.

At ewr - when ai 191 landed

To add to the misery, once our flight ai 191 landed at ewr, they informed us that lots and lots of bags have been left behind at bombay. There was chaos all over the baggage claim area as people were trying to get a sense of what arrived and what was left behind. Me and my wife only got 3 of our 6 bags at ewr

Baggage claim counter - airline services at ewr

After much confusion, i went ahead a filed a claim for my 3 missing bags which were left behind for a random reason at bom. To our shock, they informed us that our bags will arrive in 4-5 days. This statement still aches me seeing the pathetic customer service. My work clothes, a god mini-statue and wedding clothes with snacks are in my bag. It is 16 hour journey from bom to ewr, yet they are so casual that they will take 4-5 days for delivering luggage causing serious problems with my routine back here in newark.

Baggage service help desk - god help me

Once i came back home, i found via bag tracking claim number that "the staff has entered my address incorrect on the claim". I gave them the correct address, i have proof of the receipt yet my address is totally wrong on the claim site.

I have been trying to contact the air india ewr baggage claim as well as management staff since 50+ hours. After 60+ phone calls unanswered and 25 emails, i am yet to receive a single acknowledgement, response or correct address change confirmation.

My bags got delivered after 6 days finally, still with incorrect address howing on file!

Action requested

I have not heard back from a single person in air india management, aviation ministry, pmo office and beyond even acknowledging me plea and sending dozen emails.
Hope this email to you can become the voice!

I frame this email heartbroken, dumb founded and at a shock of professionalism from air india and especially ewr air india staff. I am myself ashamed of just reading this note on what a pathetic job this was on air india part and we call this our national airlines.

I sincerely look forward to a resolution and hope at a minimum for:

1) compensation for the horrible journey, trip delay, negligence, stress, unprofessionalism, ignorance, mental torture and baggage delay with no response at all

2) given your authority and power, i request you to look into these serious conditions and continued failure on the part of our beloved airlines.

Your fellow indian & friendly traveler,

Anand safi
Was this information helpful?
No (0)
Yes (0)
Air India customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Complaint comments 

Post your Comment

    I want to submit Complaint Positive Review Neutral Comment
    code
    By clicking Submit you agree to our Terms of Use
    Submit
    Air India
    customer care contact
    Customer satisfaction rating Customer satisfaction rating is a complex algorithm that helps our users determine how good a company is at responding and resolving complaints by granting from 1 to 5 stars for each complaint and then ultimately combining them all for an overall score.
    Read more
    9%
    Complaints
    3150
    Pending
    0
    Resolved
    294
    Air India Phone
    +91 11 2462 4075 [Helpdesk]
    +44 207 760 3290 [UK]
    +49 69 1200 9821 [Germany]
    Air India Address
    Marine Drive, Nariman Point, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - 400021
    View all Air India contact information