Air India — Delayed International and connecting Domestic flight, NO arrangements made during overnight transit at airport

The reschedule of the flight from SYD-DEL followed by DEL-MAA (booked as connecting flights) was intimated by the third party travel agency only, not Air India. After several calls to customer care, they responded stating that the airline isn't responsible to provide any arrangements in case of delays for an Economy passenger. On checking in at Sydney Airport, the personnel stated that they weren't sure about anything and that they did not work with Air India. Questions included, lounge access, accomodation arrangements, baggage handling- all arising as a result of the delayed flights with the passenger having to stay at Delhi airport to travel to Chennai the next morning. On the flight itself, the in-flight entertainment didn't work throughout the journey. Perhaps, a third of the passengers screens worked on the flight, I wasn't one of them. The air hostess tried rebooting it several times but to no success. I let that go too. On reaching Delhi airport, nobody was there to direct us, so I tagged along with another passenger to find our way to immigration and guessed that we had to pick up our luggage, then in search of an "Air India transit desk" which we were told about at Sydney airport. We made our way down and finally found a counter, the first person said we could check in our bags and go to the lounge on the second floor. There were a few frustrated passenger ahead in the line with similar and worse issues with their journey with Air India. After the ling wait, the girl checking us in mentioned that the lounge is only for business class passengers and wrote the name of an outlet in the food court where we could get refreshments. This was at 9:30 p.m. after travelling a 12-13 hr flight. She then mentioned that there would be breakfast available. Our boarding time was 04:55 a.m. It was quite puzzling to understand who eats breakfast before this hour. A co- passenger sarcastically asked if we were expected to sleep on the floor to which the Air India agent stated sure if it makes you comfortable and then said that she was just going as per policy. She then said that they could arrange for accomodation at a hotel 3-5 kms from the airport but it wouldn't be recommended as we'd need to leave the airport with our luggage and again check- in at the domestic terminal; also that the check in counter will close 3 hours before the flight(never heard of this either, that too for a domestic flight). Out of frustration, disbelief and shock, we just checked in our luggage and left to check the Air India lounge. There were only 2 elderly people sitting in there, but were refused to be seated there even after offering a payment for the same. We ended up going to the Premium lounge next to it and paying a huge sum to freshen up and relax in the lounge including a buffet. At no given point, did any Air India personnel apologise for the confusion. At all touch points, I was asked to provide the itinerary because they weren't aware of the impending delays and passengers stranded as a result of this. The fact that not a single soul from the company empathised or were even aware was so upsetting and emotionally draining. I was so confident and excited to travel by Air India, especially after Tata taking over, but after the way things were handled and the communication- blatantly stating that you've "just booked and economy ticket" doesn't mean anything. Air India is in no way marketing or selling themselves as a budget airline, so it is not an excuse to mistreat passengers who aren't flying business class. Considering it is an international makes it that much more concerning. Flights being delayed is a common and expected issue with any airline, this is a given; how it is handled and in this case what was so poor ruined the experience and was a disheartening arrival back home.