Air India

I checked in my baggage again for Hyderabad. The existing tag was removed by the officials and another tag for Hyderabad was affixed to it. This particular baggage's tag was only till Mumbai as the owner of this bag traveled only till Mumbai (I came to know later). I don't know how they removed the tag of Mumbai and put the Hyderabad tag on it. After reaching home at about 11 PM, I saw the bag and tried to open to check the contents. It had a small lock and I twisted and it was opened. I realized that the bag did not belong to me as the contents were not mine. I searched the bag to see if we can find some contact information of the person to whom it belongs to, so that we could get in touch and exchange the bag. Unfortunately there was no information.

The next day I immediately contacted the Air India Hyderabad and informed all the incident and asked them the process of how to return the baggage and how to get my baggage. They took all my details and gave a on hand file number. They never gave me a complaint number. In the meantime the Bombay AI people reached out to me and asked me to hand over the baggage to AI Hyderabad and after they receive the baggage then only will they release my baggage. The next day I went to the Hyderabad AI Office and handed over the baggage to one Mr. ** of the AI office. They did not give me any receipt for receiving the baggage. After that I have been continuously trying to get my baggage but there is no response from AI. They only work from 10 to 5 Monday to Friday.

When I handed the baggage on Friday morning they could have sent my baggage to Hyderabad by evening flight, but they did not. After that it was a weekend and you don't get a response. March 5, I got a call from Ms. Asha ** of Mumbai AI office and she informed me that the owner of the bag has made a complaint with the Mumbai Police that certain material from the bag was missing and they cannot return the bag till the investigation is complete. I have been continuously under stress and frantically trying to reach the baggage department to send my baggage. I had to spend the whole week without my basic necessary clothing as the Mumbai AI were holding my baggage. I had to buy my whole wardrobe. When I inquired with them they said it was with the customs and it has to be cleared by them. One of the manager of AI spoke to me on 6th March and told that I could collect the bag while I am returning.

I was returning back on March 6th from Hyderabad to Newark via Mumbai. I reached AI office Mumbai by 7 PM and requested them to release my bag as I will then check in for Newark. Then they started giving me all excuses and told me that the other customer has given a police complaint and they cannot release my bag. They detained me for more than three hours asking me all the questions which they already knew. For everything they had to speak to some superior officer.

They also forced me to speak the other owner and to request him to withdraw the police complaint. That owner was really angry for mishandling his baggage which he says was given to him in a broken condition, I had informed him that I had given the bag at the AI Hyderabad office in a good condition with all the material intact. After three hours also when they refused to give my baggage I requested them to give my clothes which were my basic essentials but they vehemently refused after speaking to Ms. **. Ms. ** was very rude and said all this started because I took the bag, she was trying to put all the blame on me.

They have not released my bag till date and they have retained my basic necessary clothing and the whole one week I was in Hyderabad I was under lot of stress as trying to reach them continuously without any response. The return flight was also similar experience. This experience has made me vow never to fly with this airline and never to recommend anyone to fly Air India again, until they get privatized.

After landing Delhi airport, I checked the status of the same flight online. Surprisingly, it was not updated and showing that departure and arrival are scheduled on time. The web-based flight status service was showing incorrect information again and created huge trouble for me. Not to mention that the behavior of Air India staff at inquiry room is completely unacceptable. Also, Air India did not inform me in advance about the flight status via email or SMS. In conclusion, I would definitely not recommend Air India to anyone.

As the CISF policeman understand my situation, clear me to check in. Once I saw the Air India check in counter is empty. I went to Air India support staff room and explained my situation. They are not at all ready to help a little. It is a Rs.7697 ticket fare I request them at least cancel my ticket or reroute me, there also Air India strikes, ask me to use the second half ticket (from Mumbai to Bhopal), they guide me to go to IndiGo and book a ticket from Chennai to Mumbai. (Whether Air India had tied up with IndiGo???)

No other way for me. I again ran from International gate to domestic gate, There I check with IndiGo people, the ticket fare from Chennai to Mumbai is around Rs.8000. Lot of stress, pain and also lost my name in my office, because am not able to reach Bhopal at time, once I informed my office, they cancel the ticket but zero refund due to their travel policy. I strongly recommend to all, please not to take a Air India as your airway at any circumstances.

I have seen them how rudely talking to passengers. My flight got cancelled on both ways from US to India via JFK... and they never cared. All of my checked in bags were lost for 5 days. When I tried to follow up with claim department... they dont pick up or take responsibility. Email response is slow or they ignore you. This AI is needed to be privatized. Pls Mr. Modi (PM of Great India) do something on this airline and fire people like Mr. ** and Meena as duty managers at Delhi Airport. They are worst AI staff... I have seen them allowing their own people coming with some jack getting seats. Or moving plane back from runaway to fit more people. For normal people they simply deny. But Mantri's or Pilot's known could get seat easily. This is horrible trend in India... I would recommend people should not use AI at all until they get privatized.

I have wasted my time and money to Hyderabad airport paid for the to and from taxi to airport, the staff has booked my next flight for tomorrow and asked me to call the staff before starting for airport. Why the staff don't proactively inform the affected customers due to delay? The only thing they will provide is a porter service for tomorrow's flight and 2 kg extra luggage, I had already paid for extra luggage. It is a pathetic service offered to the customer in an world class international airport. There is NO special assistance provided for mother carrying babies and at last I need to bear all my expenses for the delay.

To add to the misery, the screen was broken as well. It was pixelated with RGB color cubes splashed across the screen. The flight attendant's response was "let me reboot the system!" which seemed like a generic response that they are conditioned to say every time people complain about screens. Of course nothing happened and I had to travel 16 hours with a broken seat and no entertainment. The food was subpar and looked and tasted stale. At one point they served a pathetic looking sandwich with one slice of cheese in it. I think even homeless shelters serve better food. It made me sick! I was so shocked by this incredibly ** service on a flight I spent $1100 on! Never again in my life will I fly Air India. Just unbelievable how a national carrier could be so shamelessly pathetic!

I finally get the Visa and my Uber returning to JFK takes nearly 3 hours because it is now rush hour traffic and I return after hours for the staff at Air India and have to wait until they open at 8 am according to the gentleman in the ticket office next to theirs. I am a disabled Vet with 12 herniated/bulging discs and very little labrum left in my right hip now spending the night inside JFK, that has very limited seating, for the next 12 hours until they open. 8 am arrives and I don't see anyone. I look on JFK site and notice it says 9 am. I continue to wait and nobody. Then around 945 I notice someone at the check in counter and go over there. After 7 minutes of standing in front of her, she finally asks if she can help me. I tell her I need to switch my ticket and she rudely tells me they don't open until 1045, so I go sit against the wall near there until then.

They all start to arrive and have their morning meeting where I listen to them talk about how poorly they are doing in customer service and they need to sell upgrades. I finally get to speak to someone and then go over to the ticket counter and the computer isn't working. She has to call their IT dept. I sit for another half hour while they get that working and then I am told it will cost me $650. $400 for a no-show and $250 for the flight change. I live on military medical compensation, that doesn't allot me much of extra spending money. I had been saving and booked this trip a year prior and had a set budget for it, that I already wasted mostly on the emergency Visa and Uber rides.

I am then told to talk to the manager and when I do she tells me there is nothing she can do. Says she will talk to a manager and walks away. I go sit down and a while later she comes back and asks me what I am going to do. I ask her if it's still $650, she says yes and I tell her I guess I will go home. She says she hates that I wasted all this time and money and says she will talk to her manager and walks away. The same thing about another 20 later. She then says she will see about "waiving" the no-show fee. I agree and never see her again for another 45 minutes. At this point, I grab my luggage and leave. Head to JetBlue and pay $200 for a flight home. I still dream to visit India but will figure out another airline somehow. Maybe even another city/state to fly out if I have to. I have never been treated so poorly by someone from in a customer service position like this!! I will continue to post this review and many other complaints for a while.

The counter staff were rude and the Manager refused to even listen or believe that I had travelled to India from Canada on the same ticket on business class with 2 pieces of baggage. I was so mentally stressed and felt harassed by Air India staff over an issue that should not have really been an issue with a business class ticket. Further to add insult to injury I was issued a business class boarding pass for Mumbai to Delhi and two onward boarding passes were issued on economy. When I got to Delhi I was informed by lounge services I was travelling economy as Air India had issued economy boarding passes. I got to the flight and Air Canada informed me that Air India had changed my confirmed seat to another seat although my boarding pass showed my seat number.

I felt mentally tortured and literally no avenue to access any help by Air India staff at the counter at Mumbai Airport. If it was not for the kind intervention of the General Manager, the Duty Manager walked away without even offering a solution or accommodating my request. I would not recommend anyone to travel on Air India. The aircraft was not cleaned, the seats were dirty and soiled. In addition the headrest disposables had oil stains and showed signs of prior use by other passengers. The food quality was abjectly poor. This experience has made me vow never to fly with this airline and never to recommend anyone to fly Air India again.

I reached Toronto International Airport-Toronto at 20:00 hrs on May 01, 2017. At the check-in counter; after submitting my travel documents at check-in, ticketing clerk informed that she was unable to see any booking for AI-7316, she did explain that she was able to see the onward journey bookings confirmed. I was in blue funk, when the ticketing clerk said she was not able to see any booking on the above mentioned flight. I spoke to the Airport supervisor and explained the situation. The flight supervisor was very sympathetic to me, explained that they were able to retrieve booking numbers for onward journey (London) Heathrow-Mumbai. Unfortunately, they were unable to see my booking from Toronto-Heathrow.

Air Canada Airport Manager, my travel agent and the check-in clerk were trying to find different ways to help me with the situation. Everyone, were on my phone having conversation on the status. The fact remains that, I was denied travel on AI-7316 dated May 01, 2017, due to Airport systems not showing Toronto-Heathrow. Hence, status is deemed as NOT-CONFIRMED. With utmost grief and no solicit for help from Air-India at the Airport counter along with financial loss of Air Tickets being canceled. I had to take the next available flight to perform my father’s final rites. I had to make other travel arrangement for the same.

I regret that, my experience was the most frustrating with Air India. Why do you issue a confirmed e-ticket, when your systems are not in synchronized with the Toronto Pearson Airport systems? Is this the way Air-India operates whilst code sharing? No Air-India personnel were present at the Airport. Even after 4 months of travel, I was not provided with full refund of my ticket. My agent was following up with the same and sans response from Air-India. With this letter, I would request you to consider the circumstances and the evidences provided to you for a full-refund of Air tickets. Air India is not even apologetic to anything? What a service is this.

3. Since parents very senior citizens, opted wheelchair assistance and confirmed that, however they didn't even provided wheelchair assistance, simply said "Walk." What is the point to opt this and why to book AIR INDIA, I thought it's our INDIAN flight and helping our seniors. Now I realized, other country flights are more cooperative and assist better for the seniors. None of the customer support team is useless, simply say "Sorry, we can't do anything." If we ask to escalate, "Sorry no service like this." What is this and who help in case of more assistance to work with them to get a service when they travel. I recommend don't go in Indian Airlines, and I am totally disappointed how they are behaving. Please don't book from AIR INDIA anymore for anyone. Wasteless, useless and worst airlines and support. We never get support for sure from Air India for any reason.

I asked the lady flight attendant if she could give me a clean one. She said "I don't have it." They got off the plane and someone didn't care at all, nobody cared. I waited to get a form work and make a complaint. They gave me a piece of paper saying that "this is what you could do." I was all like "Can you please take my phone number and have somebody contact me?" They said this is not the policy. This worst, worst, worst service I can imagine. Air India is the lousy plane. The employees are ridiculous. They don't know what they're doing. They have the worst rudeness you could imagine in them. They don't care. They don't even provide you with a glass of water when you asked for it. I rang the bell 3 times, nobody came to me. I was shocked. I was thirsty and I was dizzy.

I just didn't know what to do. All I have to say is that I hope your India gets better service better employees who cares about people and clean blankets. The staff was lousy. If I could have somebody contact me my phone number is ** from Air India. I feel like I want to go in the news media in India and tell them how disgusting Air India plane is. They give you the blanket that people cough, draw food and everything. When they stopped to clean the plane and career remember that they don't give you clean blankets in the blankets and not in the plastic. Please do not use the blanket. Do not, those are the same used disgusting blankets when people have used on the flights.

My mom requested them that she got the ticket from Air India and if there is any mistake she needs to contact her family (as my mom doesn't keep phone with her). But none of the staff member helped her. My mom borrowed a phone from someone and asked her family to come Back to pick her up but they took her passport and green card and questioned her for 8 hours and my mom was in tears literally, asking them to give the passport and luggage back.

Well my question is if her flight was not that day then how was she even given the boarding pass and why was her luggage checked in? All in all, this is harassment in my eyes and if they don't respect an older woman, who are they gonna spare. This is the worst customer service experience I have ever heard of and would never recommend or board this airline ever again.

On arriving at Delhi I was told by Air India staff that I need to collect my luggage and go through customs. This is height of stupidity. Because of this I almost missed my flight but thanks to Air India's consistent delay I was able to board the flight... During the whole process the staff was rude, illogical, arrogant and utterly stupid. They do not care about customers. Worst mistake to travel with Air India. It's high time we take some action against these so called staff. Stop flying with them. It's a wastage of our tax money.