[Resolved] Airindia — theft of articles | |
Dear sir/madam As an air India traveler having travel-led from U.S.A. to Hyderabad(INDIA) along with my wife, I would like to bring to your notice the humiliation and mental torture we were put to and also the nasty way we were robbed of our belongings at Bombay international airport by your airport staff/workers. A number of memorable items which were given to us by our children, were lifted away by tampering with luggage bags and left us with bitterness. We booked our luggages by united airways from Kansas city on 9/3/08 by 2.37pm flight and the connecting air India flight from Chicago to Bombay took of at 9.30pm at the same day and reached Bombay airport at 1.30am on 11/3/08. We were asked to collect our luggage at Bombay itself and get customs clearance instead of at Hyderabad as scheduled. As the luggages (4no.s) were not seen on the conveyor belt i approached the counter near by meant for baggage complaints. After about half an hour they collected the luggage from somewhere behind and brought to me mounted on trolleys and handed over to me. Though the luggages were found shrunk, i thought it may be due to pressure on journey. I got customs clearance and carried the luggages to domestic terminal for on ward journey to Hyderabad. On reaching home i found several items stolen from the bags. It is evident beyond doubt that instead of allowing bags to go on the conveyor belt some of them are detained and tampered with. Here i may mention that one more passenger from the same flight was seen at the counter worrying about his luggages. As this is one side of the picture the other side is that we booked our tickets for journey from Kansas to Hyderabad six months earlier and also got it conformed three weeks earlier to the journey date. While the Air India flight reached Bombay at 1.30am on 11/3/2008 the connecting flight to Hyderabad was at 5.40am same day (as mentioned in the tickets). When i approached the air India counter at International airport to enquire of our boarding passes to Hyderabad, the only official present at the counter did not even see the tickets and bluntly told that the connecting plane already left and nothing could be done. With much difficulty i explained that my connecting flight was at 5.40am and it was only 2.30am at that time. At this he was telling that the 5.40am plane has been canceled. I had to request him to arrange for our journey by the next available flight that is at 8.00am. He enquired our names and took out a printout and gave it to me for handing over at domestic air India counters. At about 3.30am when i approached domestic air India counters i was told that only one seat was mentioned therein that is for my wife and my name was not mentioned and as such only one boarding pass can be issued for the 8.00am flight for my wife. When i asked about my seat i was asked to approach at 7.00am. As there was no way left for me i waited there with my luggages mounted on trolleys and no where to go till morning . At 7.30am after waiting for four hours we were given the boarding passes for the 8.00am flight and the luggages got booked. It all appeared we were allowed make the journey by someones grace. With no sufficient money in hand, no known person in the vicinity and un-certainity of getting seats in the next available flight the mental torture we were put to for four long hours was the air India's gift for us for the trip. Here it may be worth mentioning that during our journey from India to U.S.A. (Kansas) six months back, due to some delay at the customs clearance we missed our connected airlines flight at Chicago. It was night time and we were five in number when we approached the staff at the U.A. counter and explained the matter they were so kind that they have arranged for our journey for the next morning flight and also arranged accomidation in a hotel for the night stay. THE FOLLOWING ARE THE LIST OF ITEMS FOUND STOLEN FROM THE BAGGAGES, ITEM COSTING AROUND U.S.DOLLARS DVD player 50 dollars RODENT repellent devices set... 75 dollars shoes 4 pairs...260 dollars watches 6 numbers...285 dollars children dresses...225 dollars binoculars ...70 dollars glucose test strips(4 packets each 50 dollars)...200 dollars fancy pearls chains (4)...245 dollars soft toys (12)...90 dollars decorative flowers for door decoration sets (6 items)...90 dollars fancy hair clips(1 dozon)...230 dollars ear rings (10 sets)...120 dollars [protected]----- 1940 dollars [protected]------ Finally I request the AIR INDIA to feel the responsibility and componsate my loses as mentioned. Early action is solicited in the matter. MY LUGGAGE NUMBERS I booked at Kansas 0016UA-454800 454801 454802 454803 I booked at Bombay 0058 IC 606443 606444 606445 606442 My ticket no's[protected]/56 [protected]/54 Your’s sinciereley, G. Mallikarjunarao, Sambasiva nagar, Near RTC bus depot, Ponnur, (post) Guntur (dist) Was this information helpful? | |
Aug 14, 2020 Complaint marked as Resolved | |
 3 Comments | |
Comments
I had similar experience with items being stolen from baggage, I was on the AI126 flight from Chicago arriving at HYD on 30th June 2008. One stroller which was checked in never arrived and when we unpacked some of our luggage we found 2 new digital cameras missing these were expertly removed from the locked baggage leaving behind empty camera boxes. So far I have received no response from Air India. Of course this is the last time I have flown in the god dammed Air India.
Reply
I had similar expirience with items being stolen from my baggage twice and both time it was the AI 126/127 flight. I checked in Columbus connecting to Air India in Chicago through American Airlines going to Hyderabad. I was already warned multiple times by other Indians to not put any kind of valuables and electronics in checkin baggage so I was careful with that. First trip I had mostly clothes, 4-5 tubes of tooth paste (colgate, crest ect), 2 10 pack soap bars, several pens in a seperate paper bag in the baggage, some other various items can't remeber now but nothing two expensive. When I reached Bombay I had a similar expirience where they siad my fight was cancelled and put me on for the next flight. I think my flight to Hyderabad then was 2 am but said it was like 1:30 am at the time and they told it already left and put me on the flight at 6am which we did not know till 4:30 am. But in that time we talked to quite a few passengers that were suppose to get on same flight as us to Hyderabad. It turns out the entire plane was full of passengers from the same AI flight I got on from Chicago who were supposedly had the same connecting flight to Hyderabad. How can a flight leave when it is a transit passenger flight and most of the passengers have not even arrived yet!! No problems in Hyderabad (collecting luggage didn't take too much time) but when I finally came home and opened my luggage I noticed both my soap packs were opened with half the soap bars missing from each packet, half the pens are missing, only 2 tooth paste tubes remaining, and various other items missing as the suiet case lost about 15 pounds and was suppose to look plump but looked deflated when it arrived. Second trips basically same items but this time I also had big Sam's Club Energizer AA battery value pack (48xAA). Same flight and connection and delay and this time one soap pack was opened and half stolen, again pens stolen, entire battery pack stolen, and various other items as the luggage looks deflated but not as bad as the first trip. In between these 2 trips I went to Hyderaba India through Emirates which directly goes to Hyderabad from Dubai and guess what nothing got stolen. I have A feeling it is mainly due to Air India luggage handlers and some accomplices also Air India related in Bombay.
Mr Mallikarjunarao, I am deeply sorry for ur loss of baggage & the mental torture that u had to undergo as a result of travelling with AirIndia. At a time, when we have to be proud of the country's national airline we are forced to hang our heads in shame. I have observed that most of the employees working with AirIndia including higher management staff have no conscience towards their work or how it wud affect the passengers. They do this with attitudes like, "Who is bothered?", "Nobody is going to question us?" etc etc. They are a complete rip-off worse than the underworld. They don't even realize that they are getting paid bcos of the taxes that every Indian pays & that they have to justify their jobs. I would say that we should demand for this shameful Govt organisation to be privatized so that it can be managed in a decent way.