Air India — complaint for mental harassment and financial loss and claim to compensate the financial loss

Address:

CSE Department, NIT Campus, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, 713209

I attended the international conference 2019 ieee congress on evolutionary computation (Ieee cec 2019) held during 10-13 june in wellington, new zealand. For that purpose, i purchased the air ticket from air india (Ai) office, kolkata on 6th april 2019 for the two way journey between kolkata and wellington. The total amount of the fare i paid was rs. 87274/-. Then i applied for the visa for new zealand and got it. Though i have to change the flight in sydney never i thought that it needs the visa for australia.
In the forward journey, the scheduled air route was from kolkata to delhi in the flight ai 763, then delhi to sydney of australia in flight ai 302 and finally from sydney to wellington of new zealand in flight nz 846. I reached kolkata airport on 8th june 2019 in time. The departure time of my flight (Ai 763) was 6.55 am.in kolkata airport, the lady sitting in the counter of ai tried a lot to issue me the boarding pass but failed. Then she called a person (Calling “debashish-da”, as far as i can remember) for help. He came and again tried but failed. Then, he along with me went in another counter (In the opposite side) and again tried a lot and ultimately issued me two boarding passes for the flights from kolkata to delhi and from delhi to sydney. At sydney airport, i collected the boarding pass for the flight from sydney to wellington. I reached wellington airport, new zealand, in the scheduled time safely on 9th june without facing any problem anywhere.
The scheduled air route of my return journey was from wellington of new zealand to sydney of australia in the flight qf 162, then from sydney to delhi in the flight ai 301 and then from delhi to kolkata in the flight ai 301. Accordingly, on 15th june 2019, i reached wellington airport in time to avail the scheduled flight to depart at 6.45 am (New zealand local time). But when i asked for the boarding pass, they told me to show the visa for australia. At first, i thought there may be some mistake from their end. However, within a few minutes i realized the severity of the situation. I told them the fact that without the visa of australia i faced no problem in sydney during the forward journey. Rather, i had been issued with a boarding pass at sydney for the journey from sydney to wellington. Keeping this in mind, i requested for a long time till the boarding time. They told me to return back to the hotel and apply for the visa. I faced a terrible situation at that time which i am unable to express in words. Three airport employees might be, understood my helpless condition and tried for an alternative solution such that i don’t need to go back to the hotel in new zealand, and can reach my home in india safely. They started to search for a flight in a different route for which no visa is required as well as i can reach home as early as possible. By their earnest effort and hardship, i departed from new zealand at 7.15 am (New zealand time), and finally reached kolkata at 10.35 pm (India time) on the same day (15th june 2019) via auckland of new zealand and singapore. For that, i had to pay the airfare (Through my hdfc credit card) of nzd 1845.15 (= rs. 84, 777.96/-) and that was only possible as because just a few months back, fortunately, i had been issued with a credit card by hdfc with such a high limit.
There is no doubt that ai is responsible for the terrible situation i have faced in wellington during the return journey as explained above. It is the responsibility of ai to inform the passenger about the requirement of visa for the transfer in sydney. I am sure that the staff of ai, who has given me the boarding passes in kolkata airport on the day i started (8th june), has realized the mistake ai has already done. That’s why they took so much time, maybe, to fix the problem only for the forward journey even though they have realized what severe consequence i am going to face in my return journey. I also believe that at that very time, in kolkata airport, they could solve the problem by cancelling my scheduled return journey and find an alternate route. For that arrangement, if necessary, they could talk with other airlines. I may cost a few more.
I know that the severity of mental harassment cannot be compensated by any means, but to compensate at least my financial loss i am claiming the fare of rs. 84, 777.96/-, i have paid more though i had already paid for it to ai long days before my scheduled journey. Tandra pal