Indian Airlines - Compliments & Complaints

randomviolins

There have been a number of posts in the past commenting on the reliability and quality of service provided by Indian Airlines. Given that IA is planning to initiate international flights to Britain later this year, it may be worth revisiting this issue. Has anyone taken recent domestic flights with IA?

I just returned from a 2-week trip to Mumbai, Kerala (Kochi and Trivandrum/Varkala), and Chennai. It was such a short trip that I decided to travel by plane because I didn't have time to spare for the train. A friend who visited India (including Kerala) this past December had told me she had had a great experience with a 2-week Jet Airways pass and that based on what she had heard from other travelers I should avoid Indian Airlines at all costs. Since I had had good experiences with IA in the past, I was not too worried that IA would be all that bad (you can tell where this is going, right?). As it turned out, I was able to fly with Jet Airways for part of the trip, but Indian Airlines was the only airline offering flights for the other legs of my itinerary.

Everything was perfect until I arrived at the Chennai airport for the connecting flight back to Mumbai to catch my international flight home. I was informed on check in that Indian Airlines had canceled my 8:40pm Chennai-Mumbai flight because there had been too few passengers scheduled for the flight. They offered to put me in a hotel overnight and to get me on the 7:00am flight the following morning – which would have been great except that I was scheduled for the return flight from Mumbai back to the US at 2:00 am that same night!

Rather than trying to see whether any of the other carriers might be able to accommodate me that night, the IA manager spent 5 minutes telling me that IA was not responsible for my predicament since I had left no contact information. Which was also fine, except that as he was telling me this, 3 other guys who HAD left contact numbers came in to check in for the same flight, and the manager had been telling another 3 guys (who were scheduled for international flights to the Far East) the same thing when I had come in myself. All 7 of us along with a bunch of others scrambled around the airport trying to fly standby with one of the other carriers, all of whom were *overbooked*. It amazes me that IA felt there wasn’t enough demand for the flight, yet the other flights were all overbooked and there was a crowd of people trying to fly standby.

I ended up missing my Delta flight back to New York that night and a business meeting I was scheduled to attend at work the following day. But, fortunately, there was an open seat on the New York flight 24 hours later and I only had to pay a $200 change fee (and wander around Mumbai for an extra 18 hours without a clean change of clothes or a shower). Of course, IA refused to reimburse me for the change fee.

I can only wonder what might have happened if there hadn’t been an open economy-fare seat back to New York the next night. Imagine if I had had to cough up the difference in fares to cover a business-class/first-class seat, or if all the international flights for the next few days had been fully booked!

After this experience I would advise any foreigner traveling on Indian domestic flights to: (1) always leave a contact number with the airline (even for domestic flights), (2) plan to be back in the city from which your international return flight leaves at least 24 hours before your home flight, (3) get to the airport early because all the flights are routinely overbooked (this applies to Jet Airways too), (4) fly early in the day whenever possible, and (5) AVOID INDIAN AIRLINES AT ALL COSTS!

edwardseco

Yeh, I hear you. But, they let me travel way overweight one time because I had to leave my son behind in a hospital (& take his stuff back). Its the luck of the dice throw with Indian Airlines and I take back all that I used to say about them, shukriya..

nedhopkins

Last December, on the 24th, our Varanasi-Agra flight was cancelled. We were put on a Varanasi-Delhi flight with the promise that we'd be bused to Agra. After two hours waiting in Delhi for a bus, we gave up and took a taxi.

The next day I e-mailed a complaint to IA.

Just this week I received a reply. An IA manager offered to refund the taxi fare if I sent him "the original taxi bill." I've done that.

If IA does indeed send me all of the fare -- or even a substantial part of it -- I will be surprised. I will also applaud IA, on this board and elsewhere.

Rob_The_Pom

I flew with them a couple of summers ago.
I was flying from Osaka via Hong Kong to Delhi, but because of SARS they cancelled the flight and re-routed me via Tokyo & Bangkok.
On the return leg an Air India employee phoned up and told us that flights to Osaka via HK had been re-instated. We headed to the Air India office to get our tickets changed.
Of course, on arrival we were told that nobody there had much such a call and the flight via HK was full. We were now in time pressure to get to the airport to fly to Tokyo. We kicked up a bit of a stink and got to see the 'duty officer', who was a very decent chap indeed. He spent the next 20 minutes making sure we were able to get on the Osaka flight. He was pretty much over the moon when he managed it as well.
So, in the space of a few hours we had to deal with an idiot who nearly left us stuck in India, and a guy who was absolutely brilliant.

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readmymind

i flew sahara air from chennai to mumbai. it was nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that they had only 2 flight attendants and they were both very handsome, young men. this was great for this old lady. i mean, anytime you can get nice eye candy is good !

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~ everything is right for it's place and time ~

Hyderabadi

Over-booking,cancellation,off-loading (bump), mis handled baggage and such does happen not just with IA (actually IC) and AI but with most airlines in India and elsewhere. As randomviolins mentions, over-booking is routine, not just routine but standard operating procedure among airlines, hotels, cruise lines, etc.

I remember one occasion when I travelled (escorted) with a group of 25 Chennai-Singapore-Manila connecting, and was served the same food for dinner (MAA-SIN) and lunch (SIN-MNL) and mishandled the baggage! I'ts an airline that's supposed to be the envy of other airlines. Yes it was not Air India for sure! Airlines have their good and bad days too I guess.

I do have many more horror (now they all seem fun) stories to tell from my past life as a travel agent, sometimes it felt like you are living out Murphy's Law

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manojb

Not IA, but on the topic of airlines. Five of my colleagues flying the Johannesburg - Bombay route by South African have lost their baggage (not on the same day, on different days). The funny thing was that for all of the people who had 2 pieces of baggage, only one piece each was lost. None of the bags were ever traced.

Jorge Reverter

Hi Ramdonviolins,

Overbookings, cancellations, delays, lost of luggages etc., are usual things when you fly often in all airlines. I'm now 57, traveling to India every year since almost always, and flying all over the world, since I was a kid. But in India, with Indian airlines, Jet Airways or Sahara, have never had any problem.

Most probably is a question of luck, or may be my Karma, but is a must for me to say it.

I normally go to the airport with more than ennough time, and leave an extra day (last day) in Delhi/Bombay, just for in case.

Btw, I've only been once in USA and they loss my luggages in Minneapolis, and I've got them, one week later in San Francisco after many phone calls.

Jorge

rangss

Rail bugs like me consider it blasphemous to fly. Yet I flew 12 times in India in my life time...10 times with IC and twice with Air Deccan. 10 of the flights were offtime :-) Air Deccan (Chennai-Hyderabad) and IC (Hyderabad-Bangalore) were on time.

I did not lose my baggage anytime. I was frisked 3 times in 2002 for a Chennai-Vizag flight, the last one being just at the foot of the steps to the aircraft.

My favourite airport as far as staff go is Vizag. Those blokes knew me by sight as I flew in and out almost 6 times and did not even frisk me. One even offered to ensure that my heavy suitcase goes on the plane and I did not even ask him to do so!

Food was awful 10 times...all IC. The food on Hyderabad - Bangalore in 2000 was catered by a Hyderabad hotel owned by my employer then! It was the worst! (Made a note to my employer on this.) DN does not serve any food.

Overall, I give a 6 to IC, and 7 to Air Deccan.

Iam back on Indian Railways now.

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...and I took the road less travelled.

crvlvr

no sane person should fly with indian airlines or air india if they had a choice. Peroonally, I never have. the horror stories I have heard from others will suffice. I was in Goa Airport and met a fellow passenger who had flown in from Delhi for NYE. Obviously, she was going to be in Goa for only a few days. Her luggage could not be found. How could that happen on such a short flight? Well the plane stopped in Mumbai to pick up a few passengers and they had unloaded her luggage from the plane and never loaded it back. The only reason they found it was because it was still sitting on the tarmac in Bombay. Watching her get the run around was just disgusting.

rangss

Well She got it back...
...my friends in the United States frequently loose their luggage forever everytime they come down to India...and none travel by Air India.

kiwi_razz

Flown IA twice, Jet twice, Deccan once.

Never had any problems with any. (Touches wood) Just to balance it out a little.

Hyderabadi

I'm no fan of IC/AI, I've flown IC so many times I've even lost count and AI just a couple of times. The point here is that whatever commercial airline you fly these things are bound to happen some time or the other.

I've had nasty experiences with, Asian, European, US, Australian, Middle Eastern and whatever else airlines personally as well as my now ex clients. On the other hand there have been several pleasant experiences too.

Since this is a India forum I guess it's only natural to talk about IC & AI, I'm sure if we were in a (random--) France, Thailand, US, Kenya forum/s we would have our compliments and complaints about their airlines too!

randomviolins

It's true, every airline has it's ups and downs.
My point about Indian Airlines is that I find it absolutely astonishing that they simply cancel flights at the last minute because 'there aren't enough passengers scheduled for the flight.' Their managers have apparently decided that it makes good economic sense to piss off hoards of future potential customers while saving a few pennies on individual flights.
I fly frequently for business throughout the US and fly overseas several times per year on holiday. Yet I can't imagine American Airlines, Delta, Continental, United, British Airways, EasyJet, AirFrance, Alitalia, or any of the other airlines I have flown just canceling a flight at the last minute because there is 'too little interest.' I have literally flown on planes that had only 5 people aboard. These companies understand a little something about customer needs, particularly when some of those customers are flying because they have to get to business meetings.

What is truly shameful is that Indian Airlines is a government operation. I could almost understand a privately-owned airline doing something like this. But a goverment operation? Doesn't the government of India want to encourage business in India? Doesn't it want to attract foreign investment? After my experience, if I had been planning to undertake a new business endeavor in India, those plans would be dead now.

Ironically, on one of my flights in India 2 weeks ago, I was reading a letter to the editor of one of the local newspapers. The writer was complaining that Indian Airlines had canceled his flight because too few passengers had been scheduled on the flight. He and several other passengers were enraged because Indian Airlines initially refused to pay for overnight accommodation for them, then finally relented and paid for them to stay in a really nasty local hotel. As I read the letter, I thought to myself how unlucky those poor bastards were to have had such a bad and surely uncommon experience. Little did I know then that this is such a common practice with Indian Airlines that I would find myself in nearly the same predicament a few days later.

randomviolins

Ramalaka posted this report on another thread today, but it's relevant here as well:

"After living in Bangalore for almost 1 1/2 years, we are continually amazed the ineptitude of service professionals. This post, in particular, is about travel agents and the airlines.

First, a little info about the travel agency we have used, Travel Tours on 100ft road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. We have purchased well over USD$6000 (six thousand US dollars) of tickets and tours from these folks who proclaim to be a 24 hour agency.

We recently spent one hour booking or trip (Bangalore-Delhi-Bagdogra-Delhi-Bangalore), and then, the next day, another 3 hours waiting for them to issue the tickets.

Literally 10 minutes after getting our tickets, Indian airlines called us to say that the flight time had changed on the return Bagdogra-Delhi leg. We were wondering why our travel agent and Indian airlines didn't discuss that fact in the 3 ours it took to write our tickets.

Since that time, we have received 3 more calls from Indian Airlines and today we were told that the Delhi-Bagdogra flight a slight change of 4 hours!

Confused, we called our 24x7 travel agency and they told us, they were out of power although they claim to have backup power- a fairly common contigency most businesses employ.

So we called Indian Airlines, and they told us the following:

-they don't show our booking from Delhi to Bagdogra (even though we have tickets and just called us)
-that we booked our flights from Bangalore to Delhi in Amsterdam! (not true)
-that we are flying from Delhi to Amsterdam on April 2 (not true)
-And that we are also flying from Frankfurt to Amsterdam some time in the future, although they could not nail it down. (go ahead and guess that this is also fiction)

The Indian Airlines Reservations Manager, Vina something, can be reached at 2297 8423 (Bangalore area code).

More on our call to Indian Airlines to clear up things:

Initially the agent refused to pull up the booking because we didn’t have the booking reference number.

Then the confusion with the Amsterdam flight – no attention to quality as they would have otherwise seen it was a different passenger.

Lack of creativity and listening skills – We told him that we made the booking in IndiraNagar via TT, he insisted it was made in A’dam. We told him we got a call from Indian Airlines about this travel segment and he insisted it wasn’t there. This is something we have noticed in our professional careers in the IT industry and what quality assurance people are discovering about software development and call centers here: There is a lack of training or even caring about the capability to engage with the customer.

In this particular call, the Indian Airline's agent he kept saying, "no ma’am, no sir, the booking is not there." We finally had to repeat the facts 3-4 times before he finally went one step further and pulled up the flight number.

Again, this next course of action by the Indian airline agent, Anshuman Maini., is fairly typical of service "professionals": They try to deflect the customer by asking for the wrong information. He told us he couldn’t do anything because we didn’t have the flight number in front of us. After he pulled up the passenger list for the flight number (which of course he had since we had the dates and the sectors) he found the issue but had no answer when we asked him why he was asking me for the flight number.

We asked for a confirmation that the booking was changed (first and last names in the correct order) via email or fax. He said they didn’t have the security. We asked what that meant. He said he couldn’t use email or fax. Weasked whether they had a fax machine. He said yes but they don’t send faxes.


This country's travel business could screw up a wet dream.!"