Would you want your loved ones to go through harrowing experiences???

Mar 16 '06

husklakdi's Full Review: Air India
Air India, Where to start and where to End. The country known for Hospitality. The airline will surely land people who need care in a hospital or worse. I had my parents coming to US on a flight from hyderabad-bombay-frankfurt-chicago-xxxxxx. To begin with the flight started late in hyderabad. I had requested that my parents need assistance, as my mother had osteo arthritis and cannot walk. She had taken a letter from the doctor and infact on visual inspection you can say that she cannot walk more than 5 steps. The agent at the air india counter decided not to give any assistance and if any assistance would be given they would have to pay money in dollars per person. never heard of that, but the story began to unravel itself. the flight started late by half an hour and then they were herded off the flight in bombay. only to be rushed back into the flight five minutes later. Remember these are 70 year old people who cannot be rushed, yet the airline decided they had to get off and get on. huh, so much for care and hospitality. the flight again got delayed in bombay and was running close to an hour behind schedule, food and everything was OK, but the attendants decided not to bring water and disregard requests. after a long flight reached frankfurt. the flight started from frankfurt late and to just let you all know, the online arrival/departure tracking on the air india site is worthless. even after them being into the flight for 20 hours the site was showing that the flight had departed to bombay... so much for the IT hub of the world. sherlock holmes would love it from here. The flight reached chicago @ 645 pm central time (US). my parents cleared customs and were told by an air india official that the connecting flight had already taken off. the truth being the connecting flight which had to take off @ 8 15 PM from chicago left @ 10 45 PM instead. Not only did they have no idea, they mislead elderly people. Do not forget they are given all the baggage to handle themselves. so they are out there with 4 bags and no idea where to go. Air india decided to put them up in a hotel only after requesting for one, remember hospitality. The information about them being put in a hotel was never informed anywhere or updated to a central location so that if i were to need to contact the airline, i was totally in the dark. They couldnt reach me on the phone, because they were told by the hotel that it would cost them $50 to make a call. So for the night they were in the hotel. Please remember that the air india site still says that the flight has reached bombay, no further updates are available @ that time, this is almost 24 hours after the flight has left bombay. THe ordeal is not over yet. I was expecting them to be in xxxxxx @ 1 AM. they missed the flight(air india told them the connecting flight had left), i dint know that. so i come back home and call air india. the 1- 800 number takes me to the call center in bombay. there i am enlightened to various news. 1) People who are going to destinations other than chicago, their customs is going to be in their destination. told by the call center employee 2) the flight is due to arrive in chicago the nextday, told by the call center employee 3) the flight has not left frankfurt, told by the call center employee 4) may be they missed the flight in hyderabad,told by the call center employee 5) they boarded the flight, but dont know their status, told by the call center employee the call center employee gives the phone number of the air india contact in chicago, but they are only available after 3 PM central time. The time then was 3 Am ET, so i will have to wait 13 hours to just speak to an air india official. So after spending 4 hours on the phone, in the mean while, the call center employees do not transfer you to their manager, even if u ask for one, I get to talk to the manager. the manager asks me to call back after 15 minutes, no please, no sorry. after this happens a couple of times, finally @ around 8 AM ET, i find out that they were on the flight bearing specific seat numbers, XXX, XXX. But the info ends there. If they did reach chicago, or if they were put up somewhere. I ask the employee, if this has happened, the employee with a chuckle, please remember, with a chuckle, says LOTS OF TIMES. So i am totally in shock, the employee says, in such situations the travellers might be spending the time in the airport, he/she doesnt even know. SO @ 8 am i am totally convinced air india can do nothing in this regard. I call Transportation Security Administration, which asks me to call Homeland Security, Which transfers me to Chicago O hare, Customs and Border Patrol, whose officers deny my request to furnish information if my parents were on the flight the day earlier and if they did go through customs. In that time i am afraid that because they are not fluent in english may be they were held back in immigration (Usually when you are thinking, you are hoping something went wrong, somewhere). SO after i tell him that they are two elderly people who need immediate assistance because my mother needs to take certain medication, and i am sure because the airlines handling of the issue till now, she might not have had her medicine and she could get ill. The officer transferred me to his supervisor who decided that he could give me the information and let me know that they had done their customs and had passed. So one down and a million to go. I thanked him and then asked him what he suggested, this is what I call professionalism, he offered to alert the officials in Ohare, use the public address system and also alert officials to look for my parents. He asked me to check with the connecting flight airline, which I call and give the information about my parents. The Representative of the airline, handles my call with earnest and decides to track down every step. she says she needs five minutes and takes my number. she does all her research and knowing i am looking for two elderly people calls me within 3 minutes to let me know that, both of them are on the flight already to xxxxxxxx, and the flight arrives in two hours. SO finally I know the whereabouts and air india still has no answer for me. when i tell the airline that they need assistance, she arranges for an attendant with a airport terminal car to wait @ the gate to usher them and bring them to me. So all in all, I will say that the experience has been dreadful, the service of the airline totally lacking quality and the handling of the issue the worst. If you care for your loved ones, I will let you make the decision

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