I have always hated , the official carriers of India i.e. Indian Airlines and Air India. But since travelling to Goa, in the short time possible, i had to choose the lesser from the 2 evils. Which used to be Air India. But weighing the trouble i would face versus time. i would choose other international carriers anytime, over IA or AI …
On the other hand , my father would never agree to my opinion that these are the worst planes /service ever and would always respect them with the highest dignity ever. Until this Monday 28th May 2007. he had to eat up his words.
My Dad , booked/paid & confirmed his flight to Goa 2 months in advance. But i kept on bothering him, saying to reconfirm it every 2 weeks, as of some premonition that i felt , something would go wrong. He laughed it out and said , there is no problem and convinced me not to worry.
So the day comes, according to the schedule , the flight leaves Tuesday 29th May 2007 at 12.30 am, so we were supposed to be there at the airport by 10.00 pm on Monday atleast. so we reach there on time .. just to know that the flight has been delayed by 12 Hours. and to come the next day. So we pack the car back again and leave.
Half way back home, we get a call , the flight is rescheduled to be as before. so we take a turn back 5th ring road and off we go to the airport again. We reach there, and they said sorry it was a wrong information and we have to come back tomorrow. i was arguing with them. so they agreed to atleast that the baggage can be checked in.
Now here is the drama.
 i helped my father to check in, to our shock, they refused his ticket. saying his name is appearing as “CANCELLED” , i was like what the Fuck!!!. I said how can that be possible , when his ticket is reconfirmed the previous day, with this travel agency (majestic Travels). they said its agency’s fault and to contact them.
I kept quiet as i didnt know who’s fault it is. my dad got panicked, but i convinced him its too late right now. we can check in the morning . luckily the flight’s delay helped us into investigating into the matter.
Next morning , Tuesday 29th May 2007. We went to the agency, i met Anthony from Majestic Travels, he called/argued/fought/debated/cursed the people from Indian Airlines headoffice about my dad’s ticket. Finally we found out that my dad’s name was cut off from the IA system becoz they had a system failure. But they said they cannot re add his name. But to come to the airport at noon and if there are seats available they would allocate him. Anthony was like .. this customer was confirmed like 2 months ago… they didnt say anything…
Finally, they agreed to help my dad out. after Anthony spoke to Indian Airlines Airport Manager Luis Rajan. Being Convinced, my dad and myself , left the place. Waited to go to the aiport by 3.30 pm.
We went to the airport. the cops at the baggage control , didnt let me go in to the check in area as i wasnt a passenger.(yesterday they wasnt there). I tried telling them that my dad is alone and needs help with the check in and baggage. they wouldnt listen and started shouting in arabic. i felt like slapping them(some Sad Group4 security people, with bad smelling breath). So im here in the airport, with my dad all alone to handle the problems to be faced ahead.
The counter guys , saw my dad’s status in the system and directly refused him, saying its cancelled. My dad tried explaining to him that we went to the agency and everything was fine. they said no.. they wont allow him, and told him to unload the baggage from the weighing machine. my dad had to carry the suitcase back down all alone.. which pissed me off from a distance. i tried calling Indian Airlines office (headoffice and airport office). They didnt answer, later i came to know that they are off from 1 to 4.00 pm here in kuwait. I called the agency to help. They too started calling people, from one person to another.
Finally the agency got hold of the Airport Manager and he said he will do something to help. but when he came there.. he ignored my father and told him that he doesnt know anything about it. it was like 4.30 PM and within another 1 hour , the flight takes off.
Luckily , my father managed to call one of his old friends, who knew the secretary of the GM on Indian Airlines in Kuwait. So he spoke to her and she got it immediately arranged and my dad finally got his seat and ticket.
Now after all this headache and anxiety , i expect Indian Airlines atleast to apologise for their mistake. But they did nothing, just gave us the cold shoulder.
My Father finally vowed, never to fly any Indian Carriers any more. What annoys me , is that we took the trouble to investigate the matter and solve it right. what about the 100s of other indians, who go through this? who is there to help them ?
When things go bad, they really go back. I feel for your Dad. We’ve had similar problems during one of our trips to Cyprus, but that was with Cyprus Airways; and like your case; nothing really happened. We got stranded in Cyprus for 1 day, and they sent us via Saudi (ewwww).
But my experience with Indian Airlines is pretty decent so far. Usually fly biz class (my son throws tantrums if I buy economy).
Re-confirmation 3 days before the flight is the key to reducing stress with Indian Airlines. I forgot to do that during my trip last month, and the ticket got cancelled. Luckily, I called the hotline 1 day before and they sorted it out.
Yeah thats true, At the rate this is going, my dad was saying that we have to reconfirm everyday , for the last 5 days before travel with such carriers.
I personally travel Air India(since thats the only choice i have if given between AI and IA) , as i find the Business Class services much much better.
My Dad, being traditional in his own ways,, dont like the Business Class and all the other services. he prefers to be simple. and its difficult to convince him.
But with this experience, he now says , he doesnt mind to fly any other carrier than IA.
They treat the middle east flyers as some slaves and Europe/US flyers as king. Hope the stupid people knows they don’t have any revenue from the European and US flights and their bread is from Middle East flights. So if Indian Airlines treats the passengers like this, you guys gonna be in big trouble especially when private flights are coming in with new flights and excellent rates….
Yes it’s true!!! Indian Airlines has the worst service. I don’t really think they deserve to be called “International”, infact our local Jet Airways back home does a way better job.
They need to learn from their counterparts back home on the importance of customer satisfaction and value for money….or else they will definately be doomed.
On this case, I would think that IA atleast should have had to decency to call the passenger and inform if the flight is delayed. What about all those people who rent cabs & simply to travel back & forth.
Forget the part about IA being apologetic about their system error and inefficiency on their job, but atleast when the passenger comes with an-all-clear from the travel agency, atleast then IA should have acted accordingly…..WAKE UP IA!!!
Ray,
Horrible experience i should say. I have stopped flying Air India around 12 yrs ago since the last fight we took almost looked like was breaking apart during the take off and landing. The rattling was so bad that i felt this flight is gonna explode in mid air for sure. The air hostess although being one like us Indians treat you like we are some low lying slaves and they look at us as if we have been gifted free tickets from them and thats why we are flying.
I never traveled Indian Airlines but i always guessed they would be equally bad. Well they beat my expectations by being the worst. I feel its any day worth paying the extra bit and flying business class coz the service is at a complete different level.
Well sorry for you dad and i hope he will continue hating both AI and IA. Guess we should for a club and make sure both AI and IA know what big piece of low lying fucking crap they are…
Yes glen, everytime, i travel with this carriers, it reminds me of airplane movies like Final destination, Turbulence and others , where planes rattle like a can of stones and then explode. i would advise heart patients not to fly with them.
Cypher , i think ,, mostly anything related to Indian “Government”, has crappy service. IA and AI are both Government backed projects so we have a messy product.
But flights like Jet Airways and others are private owned and the Jet Airways management, must protect the investments from the share holders, so in return we get great service.
Unfortunately, we are people who have voted for this government. I dont know if we should say : “we are at fault”?
Hi ray!
they thought Indians are slave thats why they wont reply properly. I never used to go in Indian Airlines its a worst one
:-), its very sad many of us go through this bad experience with them
Hi Ray,
Thank GOD i didnot travel even once out of my 8 years stay in kuwait.
Nice Posting…
That good,, trust me !!!! you are doing a good thing.
I fully agree, it is the worst airline in the world. no two things about that. typical governmnt organization, and they want to promote tourism in india..learm from dubai..they started a world class airline first, toursim flourished.. and learn to respect indians first..