Air India

Not Verified | I have not even started my travel I fly on May 18, 2022, but till now I have not been able to contact the customer service. I just got off a call i was trying to make and I was on hold for 1h and 15min listening to COVID prevention commentary on a loop! It is just impossible to get anyone to talk to you and most or all of the phone numbers do not work or has no one on the other side keeping with the standard work culture in India! I wanted to get some one to help me select a seat for my flights but cant do so.

✅ Trip Verified | This travel in Air India economy is the worst experience. Their ground staff service has improved however cabin service is poor. Food amount and service modified to do cost saving. Seats are uncomfortable and not a pleasant travel. Seats were dirty and pockets were filled with trash. Plane landed on time. Luggage arrived 50 minutes later. Overall a poor experience.

✅ Trip Verified | I was very disappointed by bad client service experience from Delhi airport by Air India team. First thing first was at baggage register counter was full with a lot of peoples because at the same G counter there was not just Paris flight register counter it was with Paris, New York , Toronto flight baggage counter . So there was a lot of rush it took us 2 hours to register our bags. And when we reach at counter the lady took almost 30 minutes to print our boarding passes . Then it took us 1 hours to complete the immigration process. We asked Air India employee to help us to speed up the immigration but he said we can't do anything then when we finished the security check. And ran towards our gate air India employee call us to come fast to boarding gate. We said we are coming but they did not wait for us for 5 min and can't let us in. We missed our flight. After that when i ask air India employee to help us but they were not helping us a lot. I asked them to at least give me tickets for next flight because it was not my fault. But they said its completely your fault and we can't do anything for you. My wife was ill. she beg to your employees to at least help us in something but there was nothing from them. I asked to give us tickets for next flight but they said sir you have to pay 500€ extra for that tickets. Not a refund Not a coupon to eat something between the waiting time to get our bags. Not a single penny refunded and they are asking for 500 € We paid 500€ because we need to start our jobs. After that i asked them any help to at least a stay in hotel for waiting time but they said no we can't do anything. For me it's the first and last Air India experience.

✅ Trip Verified | The flights were relatively economical and more importantly available for the days I sought. I was very pleasantly surprised. Perhaps having low initial expectations was part of it, perhaps it is a reflection of the privatisation of AI but I found the flights enjoyable. The Boeing 787s were showing a bit if age, the IFE was limited, but the service was top notch, the crew were brilliant, food was great. I will definitely be travelling with AI again.

Not Verified | Before you call AI Customer service - grab tons of patience and few hours in hand to get through the whole process. You need to call AI customer service number which is not trained at all for any customer service. Not even basic greetings. The rep is talking to you and behind you hear a supervisor shouting at staff constantly. Couple of times I asked the representative if everything is ok there and lady responded that it is usual. Once you have your basic itinerary ready, they will transfer you to billing department which can take only AMEX or Visa card. They do have few other options like net banking, Indian credit cards etc. When you are ready to pay AI, representative will send you a link where you can authorize the payment - 90% of the time that doesn't work. With that link your reservation is secure for 4 hours, so you keep on trying to pay. Then I put my Credit card information and my India address which is not connected to my credit card and magic happened. My payment was accepted and here I am wondering will that be a fraud inquiry from my credit card company. Finally, after all this I had a ticket to travel. Before the flight I updated our food preferences and all the passport and global entry information. The website will save the information but when you go next time to check your information that is gone so you need to add that all over again. BTW they don’t have separate line for TSA APPROVE either on the airport. It is one common line at Newark Airport (EWR). Finally, we settled in the flight and after takeoff it was time for the first meal. The air hostess came and said there was only 1 request for a child's meal so unfortunately, we don't have an extra child's meal. I am glad my older one eats a little spicy food so I convinced her to eat a regular meal so that my younger one could eat a meal. I had reconfirmed on the website as well as on the call multiple times about our food preferences but still no luck. The flight was Boeing 777 (OLD) plane which has no Wi-Fi. Everyone gets their personal screen in front of the seat but most of them were not working. The whole flight complained so they restarted the whole system. After that only 10% of the screens started working. Now on a 14 hour long flight you don't have Wi-Fi or screen. The people who already downloaded from home are very smart. In short, have plenty of downloads so you can kill 14 hours on flight. Finally, we made it to India and felt now everything will be fine, but my misery continued while coming back from Vadodara to Newark. As we reached Vadodara airport, all looks good, easy going, all documents verified and here I am waiting at the counter to get my boarding pass so we can head to lounge. The rep is saying - Mam, all boarding pass issued for both flights except yours, so we need to issue handwritten boarding pass. Did he say had written boarding pass, I was like no one will believe this is a valid document and security won't let me pass. The AI rep is no mam, it happens sometimes, and they know. You please go ahead. As I reached to security line and handed over my boarding pass, the officer was looking at me as though I am an alien and had I issued a handwritten pass to myself. AI supposed to inform Airport security about this so I can have easy transition but knowing AI they didn't bother to inform the security. When I said firmly that it's between AI and Airport security finally AI security showed up and resolved the issue.

Not Verified | My husband and I were traveling on AI126 on 07 April 2022 when we left a tablet. We reported this to the service counter for Air India in the Delhi airport before 5pm. Approximately an hour later they told us they found our tablet and it was in their possession there at Delhi Airport. However, they refused to give it to us as it was no longer between the hours of 9 to 5. I explained to the woman that we were flying out that evening and couldn't return in the morning as we arrived back in the states in the morning. I even asked if I could pay to have it shipped to me in the states. She said she couldn't help us and then grabbed her purse and left without telling us what to do next or how to proceed. Then once I returned to the states there was no one working the Air India counter but a very nice woman gave me a phone number to call. I called the Air India number and the customer service agent said he can’t help me and that I had to call the Delhi Service desk (the same one that wouldn’t help me when I was standing there, and this same desk that had my computer and refused to hand it to me). I told him I couldn’t afford to call Delhi and that I needed his help and he kept saying no, call the airport and then he hung up on me. We called and emailed numerous times and it has been a month and still nothing. The plane was terrible, seats had no cushions and no room. None of the TVs worked and there was no WIFI ... made for a long 17hr flight. The flight crew were rude and wouldn't let us look out the windows except at specified times even though we were flying over the Himalayas and I wanted to see them. When boarding Delhi to the States you have to go through a second security checkpoint at the gate before you board (full xray scan and everything). The machine was malfunctioning and so they made all 400 of us stand in line waiting for an hour while they figured out they had to plug it in and we took off late because of it. No communication about it at all.

Not Verified | My wife had a carry on for her self and diaper bag for a 7 months old baby. We were harrased right before the boarding that diaper bag is not allowed. She could either bring her carry on or diaper bag. I showed this person from the Air India website that a personal item is allowed other than carry on such as laptop or diaper bag and threatened us that he will not let us take this flight. That was the end of discussion. Very rude staff, I will never fly with Air India again ever. Also for both inbound and outbound flights my in flight entertainment screen was broken. Imagine travelling 14 hours straight without screen.

✅ Trip Verified | They hadn’t served welcome drink or snack till major meal. In the meantime we asked for blanket nobody listened us. Screen was not working. I was waiting for water or some drink to take medicine they asked we will not serve in between meals you have to go at back and grab yourself. When they served meal chapati was missing, and they served snack items with major meal to save their time and energy. On the whole it was bad experience with this flight as I travelled first time with Air India so I will not recommend this flight to anybody.

Not Verified | Toronto to Delhi. My flight was cancelled without any information. Called up customer service and they were extremely rude. Horrible communication skills. I am still unsure when my flight is scheduled for. Pathetic airline. Disgusted.

✅ Trip Verified | Flights are always late in my experience of boarding 6 international and 10 plus domestic flights from same airline. Ground crew as well fight staff are rude. Inefficient communication via e-system (Apps/site/SMS/email) as well as inform of announcement on Gates. Extremely bad inflight entertainment and poor hygiene in general. Overall be ready for a very stressful travel if you choose this Airline.