Dear Sir/Madam,
This is to bring your kind attention about a recent experience I had faced from the Air India / Etihad ground staff at Abu Dhabi International Airport terminal 1A dated 21 March 2023 night.
I had booked flight ticket for my son Rajat Krishna as per the PNR H4P73I, Air India Express flight IX-452 on 22 March 2023 time 00:20 am. We had reached the airport terminal on time and completed the check-in process at the counter. During check in process I had enquired the counter staff about the possibility to send the hand bag along with luggage for which she replied that since it is a light flight and hence they cannot send the hand bag with the luggage.
Once the check in process was completed, we were asked to wait in the queue for emigration gate to get opened. All the passengers had to wait (please note that we had to stand the whole time as the seating capacity in T1A is very limited) for almost one hour before opening the emigration gate. I've noticed that just before the emigration counter, one security staff was cross checking every single hand bags and asking the passengers to remove the excess weight.
The security staff asked my son to keep his bags in the weighing machine and since it was showing extra weight he told him to remove the excess weight. I had requested the security staff that it could be his ipad/tab that weighs more...so the security asked us to remove the gadgets and weigh again.
We had moved away from the queue like many other passengers and opened the bag to remove few items, weighed again, it was fine, locked the bags again and my son went in the queue for emigration.
As I was standing there, holding the removed items in my hand, watching my son moving towards the emigration counter...one male staff approached and enquired..."what happened madam, was it the laptop weighed more". (Please note that I haven’t gone to anyone for any complaint, I didn’t ask any help, I was just quietly standing there.) For his question I replied, "even if it is laptop or not... why is this inconvenience happening to poor passengers?? you had so much time before we reached the emigration gate to cross check the weights and advise us. Either in the check in counter or while we were standing in the queue for almost one hour...any one could come and advise to weigh the hand bag and remove the excess items."
When I said this the staff got irritated and said...why are you becoming angry at me...what did I do...I’d requested the airport staffs to open the emigration, the delay is happened from airport staffs/process...not because o[censored]s etc etc..
I replied... see I’m not saying about a particular airways or a particular person. I’m talking about the whole procedure which has caused inconvenience to majority of the passengers. After making them wait ...stand for almost one hour... again giving them trouble near the emigration counter is really frustrating.
The staff asked me... didn’t the bags were weighed in the check in counter...for which I replied, no...no one checked the weight from the check in counter. however, I had asked the check in staff if hand bag could go along with the luggage for which she replied that since it is a light flight that's not possible.
Anyways...that male staff left and in few minutes I waved my son bye and I was walking out of the airport. I had almost reached the sliding door...someone called me from behind. When I looked back it was the lady who was there at the check in counter.
She approached me and started interrogating me with a very bad attitude and arrogance...as if I had done some mistake. The language she used, the negative attitude she possessed is difficult to explain in writing. She started questioning me... “didn’t I tell you that only one bag with 7kg is permitted in the flight?” I replied...no, you didn’t say anything like that...in fact I enquired you about the hand bag. She was like... “even if I didn’t tell you, passenger must know, it is clearly written in the ticket.” I told her... “I’m not asking anyone to give excuse for the extra kilos I have... I’m pointing towards the inconvenience happened for majority of the passengers here. There could be pregnant ladies, old age people, small kids and infants. after waiting in the queue for such a long time...and again getting removed from the queue for excess weight... removing and throwing the things already packed...and going back in the queue all over again is a horrible experience.”
(When I said I’m not saying anything about any airways…she replied that she is not Air India staff, instead she’s Etihad staff. From her uniform I presume that she is a ground staff of Etihad while the male staff who approached me in the beginning is an Air India Express staff.)
This lady was not at all listening and she was shouting and treating a customer like me with no respect at all. I told her that we all work in customer focused business or firms... I know how much importance to be given for customer care and satisfaction. For which she said... “on the ground of customer satisfaction, we cannot send your excess weight free of cost”. I got shocked by her statement and replied to her “those are not my words...I haven’t begged or forced anyone to send my excess luggage free of cost. My only point is about checking and confirming all these well in advance.”
It's shame to let you know that this lady was misbehaving with me, she came all the way and stopped me from going out of the airport terminal only to repeat that I’m mistaken...or I’ve done some big offense and kept on shouting and showing her arrogance on me. At the end she said...”so I want to tell you that…don’t repeat it again” …. and just turned back and walked away.
I walked out of the airport still wondering why two staffs of a prestigious airport like Abu Dhabi International Airport approached and misbehaved, ill-treated me when I had done nothing but minding my own business.
Once the emigration and security clearance were completed, my son informed me the same and after that I left and reached my apartment. At 11.55 pm my son messaged me and said…. the lady who was there at the check in counter came and took his boarding pass from him and left. It gave me a real shock and I called him and said…do not worry…. she has no right to keep your boarding pass with her…. she might have taken it for some formality sake…she’ll come back and give you soon.
To our surprise this lady staff did not give back the boarding pass to my son. Our pressure and panic was increasing every moment…especially when the boy was travelling alone and I had seen the arrogance and attitude of this lady already. However, I continued giving him courage and reassure him that nothing would happen, be relaxed…. if anything is there your parents will handle.
If this complaint is being read by a parent…he/she must understand the pain and pressure, I had gone through that night.
This lady staff kept my son’s boarding pass with her even after the boarding had started. I told my son to be in the queue and when my son arrived at the counter around 12.18 am…. she said something again to him about the handbag and gave him the boarding pass. Please note that the flight time was 12.20 am.
I want to know who gave her permission to take the boarding pass and keep it with her until the passenger reach the counter?? Also as per the SoP, the check in staff should check the weight of hand bags and inform the passenger, this incompetent staff did not follow the SoP and moreover hiding her fault she came behind me to threw her arrogance as if it is her right to behave like that.
This is the first worst incident happened to us in our 17 yrs o[censored]AE life…. minimum 3, 4 times we travel through this airport in a year... never ever experienced such arrogance and bad attitude from any of the staffs.
I strongly demand a detailed enquiry about this incident happened to us and take appropriate disciplinary action against the staffs who started the issue, who approached me with negative intentions instead of helping mentality, who judged that I’m not worth enough to pay extra fees for the excess luggage I have, who dealt with us unprofessionally and took the boarding pass from my son and kept it with her making us panicked for a long time.
CCTV footages can be checked and confirm the authenticity of what I have written above. Also I can come for any meeting to explain my bad experience with the digital proof of the chats I had with my son when his boarding pass was taken from him.
Expecting a positive response soon and awaiting to receive the notification about the root cause analysis and action points taken on my complaint.
Thank you
Yours truly
Renju Krishna
