Bad Experience with Indian Airlines

Misty

Hi.

I had a pretty unpleasant experience with Indian Airlines and thought I would write about it to warn others that this could happen to them as well.

My family of four travelled to Toronto via London in September 2006 from Chennai. As our international carrier was Jet Airways, we had to leave from New Delhi. So our travel route was Chennai-New Delhi-London-Toronto-London-Mumbai-Chennai. For our return trip we booked Indian Airlines to bring us back to Chennai from Mumbai as the timing was more suitable than the connecting Jet Airways flight.

What happened was that the Jet Airways flight from London to Mumbai was cancelled due to the radar equipment malfunctioning, and as the new part from Paris would reach only the next morning, all the passengers were sent to a hotel for the night. (It was 3am by that time and we had to be back in the airport by 7am)

Because of this delay, we (my kids and I ) missed the connecting Indian Airlines flight. After landing in Mumbai the next morning (about 2am), Jet Airways said they would compensate me and get me to Chennai, providing that Indian Airlines endorsed my ticket saying that I was a bonafide passenger. Well, two hours later and I was running from counter to counter and airport to airport.........with my 9 and 6 year old! We were So tired and the staff of Indian Airlines were so rude and not helpful. They kept chucking the ticket back at me saying that it was 'Jet Airways' problem! No one wanted to take the responsibility of signing my ticket.

Anyway, I was SO tired and fed up, that I bought three new tickets (Jet Airways) for the next evening to get back home. By the time the staff at Jet Airways realised that I was really upset and they took the responsiblity of getting my tickets signed etc. The next day I got a call from Jet Airways saying that my endorsed tickets were ready, and I could get my money back for the new tickets purchased!

I was never so happy to touch down at Chennai airport. I am other wise a frequent flier of Indian Airlines and this was the first time I experienced something so bad.

Just to let you know........

thanks
Misty

rangss

Next time you have a problem, tell them (IA) you are a cabinet minister's family friend (memorize a minister's name for autheticity's sake).

__________________
...and I took the road less travelled.

Nick-H

Rangss... Is it better or worse to select one that has just been convicted of murder? I can see advantages both ways...

Seriously, Misty... it would have been bad enough without kids. Sympathy.

rangss

Judicial activism, hyper active news channels, coalition partners...no! Better to name one who has no charge sheet against him.

praks

Keep searching...

vir

Really bad experience. I still don't understand why Jet Airways need your tickets endorsed as "bonafide passenger" when you flew with them from London to Bombay. And you have AI tickets from Bombay to Chennai.

Whats a bonafide passenger?

cyberhippie

I was thinking the same thing Vir your tickets from Indian Airlines should have been proof enough.

Sounds like a Jobsworth scenario to me. The request was so out of the ordinary no one from Indian Airlines wanted to stick their neck out by signing it.

Then hey presto Jet Airways sort it out on their own.........Shouldn't/couldn't they have done this in the first place

crvlvr

Misty,

Welcome to IM..

I don't see how this is an IA problem. Your IA ticket should have been proof enough for Jet. After all, it was their fault that you missed the IA flight. And if Jet wanted an "endorsement" , I would have handed them the ticket asked them to get it from IA. they should have offered to do this for you in the first place.

PeakXV

I don't see this being an IA problem either. Was this a full fare IA ticket or did it have restriction codes imposed on it?
Did you personally book your flights or was it bboked through a 3rd party travel agency?

__________________
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

vir

Yeah...Jet Airways should have taken care of this in the first place.

Captain caveman

We thought a flight was a good solution to our time constraints

We booked a flight with IA from Udaipur to Jodhpur...1hr flight. We were 5 hours delayed no reasons were given.

I could have taken a car for a fifth of the price we paid

the aircraft must have been 50 years old , it had lino on the walls and the fire extinguisher was pre war for sure

i was glad to get out of the air i can tell you... never again

Misty

Hi, really appreciate all the replies.

A lot of you have replied saying that it was JetAirways fault anyway.....

My Indian Airlines ticket was an e-ticket and the 'ticket' was the paper that I had printed on my computer at home. This is why Jet Airways just wanted to have the person at the Indian Airlines counter acknowledge that I was a passenger on the flight that was missed.

I just want to add that when the Jet flight was cancelled, they put us up in a really good hotel by Heathrow, gave us free International calling cards to call home and also an amazing free buffet breakfast. They did not skimp and all though we had our flight cancelled and re-booked (understanding that it was an issue of safety as well) we felt that we were treated well.

Thanks everybody! I am at the moment at the Fortune Landmark hotel in Ahmedabad with my family for a four day trip.

take care
Misty