I was to travel from Guwahati to Delhi on 23rd December 2021, on an official trip. Since I didn’t get a direct flight from Guwahati to Delhi so I booked through a connecting flight in which I was to fly from Guwahati to Kolkata in Flight No AI 9738 from 18.10 pm (23rd December 2021) and arrive at Kolkata at 19.40 hrs. Then from Kolkata I was to take Air India flight AI 770 at 20.30 hrs and arrive at Delhi 23.00 hrs. I booked both the tickets from official website of Air India (https://www.airindia.in). But on 23rd December 2021, my flight from Guwahati (AI 9738) got delayed by 1.30 hrs due to technical fault in the aircraft, and it started at roughly at 19.20 hrs. When I asked the concerned AI Ground Staff at Guwahati Airport that what will happen if I miss my flight from Kolkata Airport to Delhi, they(the Air India staff at Guwahati Airport) told me that they have informed the Air India Staff at Kolkata airport and they(Air India Staff at Kolkata airport) will be there at the arrival belt to receive me and make suitable arrangements for me.
The flight from Guwahati arrived at Kolkata airport at roughly 21.40hrs, by that time my connecting flight from Kolkata airport (AI 770) had left for Delhi. But there was no Air India Staff as claimed by Guwahati Airport Staff to tell me what I have to do. So now I was stranded at the Kolkata Airport. When I asked a security person about where I could find Air India counter to talk to someone, they(security person) told me that I will have to go out of Arrival(as I was at the Arrival Belt) and go to Air India counter at departure terminal. So I will have to move out of the arrival, but when I moved out of the arrival and tried to reach to the Air India counter at the departure terminal, the security person stopped me as the validity of my ticket to travel from Kolkata to Delhi had expired. After much of request security person allowed to let me in and talk to the Air India Counter at Departure Terminal. When I reached the departure terminal of Air India and told them the whole story, they said they were not aware of any passenger who might be travelling in that Guwahati Flight to Kolkata and having a connecting flight from Kolkata to Delhi. But they said they will book my ticket from Kolkata to Delhi in next Air India Flight which was to fly from Kolkata to Delhi on 24th December 2021 morning. They booked the tickets. But as a result I had one full night to spend before catching my next morning flight on 24th December. This Air India staffer at departure counter of Air India told me that I will have to arrange on my own for the stay. When I asked them to arrange for my stay as Air India was fully responsible for missing of my flight from Kolkata to Delhi on 23rd December, I got a very callous and weird answer. They told me that Air India is not responsible for my missing of flight from Kolkata to Delhi as it was an Air Alliance Flight which got delayed from Guwahati to Kolkata. I was not able to understand the relationship between Air India and Air Alliance. Then this Air India Staffer told me that Air Alliance is a subsidiary of Air India and Air India as such is not responsible for any lacuna on their (Air Alliance) part. I told them that I booked my ticket from official website of Air India and whatever happens is the responsibility of Air India even if any of their subsidiaries is at fault. But they did not agree with me and left me to arrange things on my own. It was 1.00am in the night and I had nowhere to go. It was a very cold December night and I was feeling very cold. Being 50 years of age and patient of hypertension, things were getting dangerous for my health. As a result of stubborn and irresponsible behavior of Air India staffer at Kolkata airport, I had to sit in the waiting lounge for 7 hours shivering in cold. I also called on Air India Customer Care for help, after waiting for 10 minutes on phone I was able to talk to their customer support executive. He told me that customer care can’t help me, and the words of Air India Staffer at the Departure counter were final. He however gave me number of Air India Administration at Kolkata Airport[protected] and[protected] I called at these numbers but nobody picked up. I enquired about space at dormitory at Kolkata Airport but it was already full. So I had to spend whole night sitting at one of the chairs at the airport.
After telling my whole ordeal, I have following questions and concerns which I would request you to kindly address:
1. What is the difference between Air India, Star Alliance and Alliance Air, how they are related and who is subsidiary of whom?
2. What system does Air India follow to take care of passenger travelling from Air India, who misses their connecting flights because of the fault of Air India or any of their subsidiaries as happened in my case. What arrangements they make for such passengers.
3. If a passenger books a ticket from official website of Air India, isn’t it the responsibility of Air India to address his/her concerns, no matter how many intermediaries are involved in between. E.g. If I give contract to someone to carry out a task then I know only that contractor and I will expect him/her to address all my concerns. If he/she has outsourced the task or component of the task to someone else even then it’s his/her duty to get the task done for me. I need not to run to all those sub contractors/subsidiaries.
4. I had to suffer from severe discomfort sitting at chair for 7-8 hours in the chilling cold of December as there were no arrangements made for my waiting time which I needed to spend for the next flight. All this because of the unclear and non responsive behavior of Air India. Therefore I demand a suitable compensation from Air India.
I do sincerely request to answer my queries and address my concerns. This would be helpful for Air India also to better serve their customers in future and improve upon their reputation.
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