AIR INDIA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT LOSING CLIENTS

Dec 13, 2007

trigers's Full Review: Air India
The Air India office staff is definitely polite! But unable to move beyond their inertia!

Buying tickets directly from Air India offices does not help for this reason.

The only people who seem to know the requirements and processes are the people at the check-in counters! At our last (definitely the last via Air India) flight, the check-in people wanted paperwork with regard to visa status for in-transit passengers. They refused to believe we were unaware of this paperwork!

Fortunately, we printed ALL emails from Air India and also had copies of correspondence. They finally managed to squeeze us onto a flight the next day.

Our trip was delayed and we had to make last-minute changes in our plans, resulting in shocking expenses - as all our connecting flights via other airlines had to be changed as well. This included the $125 fee Air India charged us for forcing us to change our flight plans!!!
Also, to worsen the disconnect between Air India office and check-in desk: Tickets bought through Air India are delivered via yatra.com. What their relationship is with Air India is unfathomable, but ALL THE BEST if you go ahead with an Air India flight on any leg of your journey.
And the earlier reviews about unusable toilets are CORRECT! And to make matters worse, the usable ones started back-flowing by the end of the trip!
Punctuality is also not a given. Expect a delay of 3 and a half to 4 hours. We had the delay “due to technical reasons” on both forward and return legs of our trip, though ALL other airlines were flying on schedule on both days. So the problems were not due to weather / airport conditions.

From all this, I have learnt the following when making a multi-leg trip:

1. Research all information thoroughly
2. Though some airlines like Lufthansa or American Airlines will send emails informing travelers of new guidelines, do NOT expect airlines like Air India to do the same.
3. It may be safer to go with Expedia or a travel agent, who will also help keep track of new guidelines.
4. STAY AWAY FROM AIR INDIA. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT LOSING A FEW PASSENGERS AS THEY HAVE MILLIONS OF POTENTIAL PASSENGERS IN THEIR HOME COUNTRY.

Appears $50 - $100 / ticket cheaper initially

The additional expenses caused by delays, lack of information, and plain “don’t care” attitude made it the most expensive segments of our trip! Not to mention the most stressful.

The Bottom Line:AIR INDIA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT LOSING A FEW PASSENGERS AS THEY THINK THEY HAVE MILLIONS OF POTENTIAL PASSENGERS IN THEIR HOME COUNTRY