Air India — notice-cum-complaint- harassment and mental agony-payment of loss amount

Address:

36/75-A, Giani Shankar Singh Marg, Garden Colony, 144003

Subject: Harrassment and stiff attitude of Manager boarding resulting into mental agony and irreparable health and pecuniary loss

The chief Executive Officer
AirIndia, New Dehli.

Respected Sir,

I am a senior citizen aged 67 years and have retired as Additional Director-cum Addl Commissioner Department of Local Govt Punjab and residing at Jalandhar.
sir I purchased four air ticket for journey on 24.02.19 from Amritsar to Allahabad through tour planner and it was my instruction that priority be given to Airindia. .My co passengers were my wife and my co brother who too has retired as Senior Supdtt of Police punjab and his wife. We boarded Air India plane at 9.15 from Amritsar and reached Dehli by 10.45 AM. There was layof of 4 hours as flight to Allahabad was scheduled for 2.55 PM. However I was intimated by your company that flight shall depart at 3.45PM. Again around 3 AM message was received that flight is delayed and shall now depart at 4.30PM. We all passenggers i.e family members were sitting in departure longe near the electronic board showing the status of flights. This Board was displaying that flight is delayed. By 4.10 when the board was displaying delayed I went to Air India counter to know the exact time of flight as i had arranged transport at Allahabad.The boy sitting at counter told me that you may get security clearance and when boarding shall commence the information shall be updated on Boards installed in longe and other places and presently there is no confirmation of departure time perhaps Prime Minister is also going Pryagraj. . We accordingly got security clearance from gate E as was displayed on electronic board and were inside waiting area at 4.13PM. After 10 minutes around 4.22-4.23 PM. I received a call from unknown number and the caller a lady asked to reach gate 42-C to board plane for flight to Allahabad . I and my co brother are heart patients but we ran towards gate no 42 from gate 27.It took heardly 2- 3 minutes and on reaching 42-C my pulse and heart beat were out of control. A lady officer present at gate was handed over the gate passes which she accepted and ask us to form line.At this stage she said why you are late and I told her that fault is of system as on board there has not been any information of start of "Boarding" or "Open" or " check in" etc. as was in case of other flights scheduled for departure up to 17.30 PM and against flight to prayagraj the board was still showing DELAYED. The officer didnot like explanation and asked me it is 4.23 and your explanation is wrong as no other person has stated so. The police officer at gate too requested to officer to allow boarding as these persons are from Govt side and senior citizens. I even felt sorry (though for no reason ) to officer and we all requested her that we are going for a cause and delay in journey shall result into unbearable loss. But stiff necked officer namely Ms Barkha didnt allow us boarding and directed staff to take luggage from plane. I felt disturbed and I asked for complaint book but she, Ms Barkha boldly told us that she is the officer concerned for complaint but here there is no complaint book and you may go to Airindia counter..Our all request for accomodation in any other flight were rejected outrightly and we were told to leave counter and were asked to collect luggage at counter no.28 and accordingly on reaching gate no 28, the staff who has received instruction from gate no 42 accompanied us from security check up site and left us near Air India Counter . The staff was shoked to here all but was helpless and advised us that we may seek fresh booking on payment but for 25.2.19 no seat is available for Allahabad and Varanasi & can go only on 26.2.19.we were also told that no refund is permissible of the impugned tickets

Sir this is not end of our agony as we were made to stand outside Air India counter for more than 2 hours as luggage was given around 7.15 PM . In fact at 5.15PM we were told that our luggage shall reach here in 15 minutes .When we came out from lounge and found that lock of our one bag was broken and goods kept therein searched.Fortunately cuurrency was in another bag and God saved us from theft.

Sir i cannot explain the conduct of Manager boarding gate no 42 as she acted like dictator and openly told that I am incharge and when I say no it means no. You may go to anyone and finally my writ large here.

sir if a word written in my letter(complaint) is found incorrect you can take any action against me. The only crime I did was that I told the officer that on electronic display board it was written "delayed" and hence delay in reaching gate no 42 is on account of fault of system. Above all when at 4.24PM she accepted boarding passes and asked us to form a line and wait there was no reason to deny us entry. Above all on receipt of phone call of officer we reached gate no 42 in less than 2 minutes as such there was no delay at all. Sir we have been punished not only to suffer pecuniary loss but humiliation at hands of young officer for no reason and the visible reason was the ego of officer.

sir, it is not end of our sufferings as after 4.50PM when we were sent outside the complex for collection of luggage and assurance was given to deliver luggage in 15-20 minutes, we asked some friend to arrange for journey to Allahabad by rail or bus as our reaching pryagraj on 24.2.19 was very necessary. He accordingly arranged tickets for bus which was to leave 8 PM from near Mori gate Delhi but this booking also went waste as right from 5 PM onwards the official at Airindia counter kept on saying that the luggage is reaching "in 10 minutes" .In between from 5.00 to 7.15 pm, the lady official told us that out of 4 bags one is missing and search shall take some time. .Finallty the luggage and that too in bad shape was given at 7.15 PM . For more than 2 hours all o[censored]s had to stand outside AirIndia counter as no chair was there.

Sir I have not seen such kind of arrogance and inhuman approach from any Govt or Govt undertaking agency in my long 40 years carrier as class-1 officer and thereafter during last 10 years of my working as Govt Advocate in High Court.

I hope a full fledged inquiry shall be ordered to fix the responsibility of erring and sadistic officer/official so as to avoid reoccurrance and also to ensure that pecuniary loss suffered by us is made good as it is clear case of deficient service and unfair trade practice and as such litigation avoided. I assure you all cooperation.

with deepest regards.

Ashok Kumar Bazaz Advocate
kothi no 36/75-A, Garden Colony
JALANDHAR CITY-144003
MOBILE [protected].