Air India — Extreme difficulty faced while travelled from Vancouver to Chennai

To the kind attention of the Officers In-charge

Subject: Extreme difficulty caused to business class senior citizen passengers on Vancouver, Canada – Chennai flight, due to inconsiderate behavior of Air India employees and contractors

Respected Officers,

My name is Mrs. Rani Kannan. I am a 62 year old retd. Central Government Employee (retired from Central Warehousing Corporation) after 37 years of service. My husband, Mr. Mahesh Babu Salavakkam is a 68 year old retired Deputy Registrar from the High Court of Madras.


We recently travelled from Vancouver, British Columbia to Chennai, India via Delhi on the 5th

March 2021 on Air India. Our flight number was AI 186 and departed Vancouver at 10 AM on March 5 2021. Given our age and our health condition (I suffer from chronic knee pain and cannot walk for long, and my husband has had a stunt operation, ) we had pre-booked for wheel chair assistance, while booking our tickets.


However, despite our age, our health condition, our pre-request for wheel chair assistance, and our business class fares and tickets, we were treated very badly and with apathy, by the staff, and were made to suffer throughout our journey. In the Vancouver International airport, when we asked for assistance, as requested earlier while booking the ticket, we were refused, and later asked to wait, when we protested. No one helped us with our luggage. My husband had to handle the luggage himself while weighing and scanning, which caused severe chest pain for him. We were also not given wheelchair assistance, even after waiting for 30 minutes, and repeated requests. Later, worried that we would miss our flight, we walked ourselves, and found someone who could help us, mid-way. We would have missed our flight to India otherwise.

Subsequently, after landing in Delhi (our transit), we were told that we will get our wheel chair assistance at the plane exit. There were several helpers standing outside with wheel chair, waiting for passengers. But they all said that they were waiting for San Francisco and Chicago flights, and refused to help us! We felt like they didn’t want to help passengers who were landing from mere Canada, when they would be getting passengers from the mighty US, who may tip more. We felt slighted and hurt.

Since we had just 1.5 hours until our flight to Chennai, we literally dragged ourselves to the next flight. I got severe knee pain after awhile and could not walk any longer. We were quite sure we would not be able to catch our flight. Then, another helper with a wheel chair saw us, and offered to help, for Rs 5, 000, against which we paid Rs.1, 000.He took my husband in wheel chair and was walked along with them. We made it to our flight, AI 1126, from Delhi to Chennai in the last minute, with his help. It is pertinent to mention here that the boarding pass was issued only upto Delhi at Vancouver and we were asked to collect the boarding pass at Delhi airport for for onward journey to Chennai. This arrangement increased our tension further.

It would be an understatement to say that we suffered in this journey. We have travelled several times between North America-India, and have had wheel chair assistance every time, due to our age and health condition. But we have never faced such humiliation, and suffering. We had an extremely unpleasant and horrible experience, at the time of COVID.

This is the plight of 2 senior citizens, ex-Government employees, who were flying business class. I wanted to bring this to your kind attention, and record my complaint formally.

Regards,
Rani Kannan