Air India

Not Verified | Sydney to Delhi. What a way to celebrate the international womens day than spend 5 hours with mom at the Delhi customs office, where we literally left close to midnight. This is after completing a 12 hour journey from Sydney on a flight with Air India. On the day that Air India was boasting about having an all women crew on all flights originating from India, My mother and I were struggling dealing with the rash, unprofessional and unethical officials at the AI office. This was my first and last experience with Air India My only reason to opt for this airline was because Air India is the only flight that was flying direct, allowing me and my pet to travel together. There were a lot things that went down that day, that showed lack to professionalism, ethics, corruption and misconduct. Firstly, my pet exporting company did not get a response from Air India till less than 24 hrs of travel , despite submitting all documentation more than a week ago . Secondly , I was waiting at the airport for least 40 mins as per the advice of the baggage team for my pets collection. After constantly nagging them for more Information, they told me to collect the cat from the cargo area without any directions provided to locate of the building. The Air India cargo group and customs office had absolutely no idea on how to deal with the import of a pet . There was a very obvious lack of training , and lack of knowledge of the process and protocol . All I saw was chaos and officials palming us off from one dept to another. Thirdly , air india mucked me around for another 2 hours before actually sending me to the right dept, all I heard throughout my discussion with them was whether I have an agent as they mostly deal with agents. I assume these are the middle men who get the job done. I told them there is no need for these as ACQS India has a well defined protocol that they should be following , to which that had absolutely no response apart from "I should hire an agent. " The middle men in India will follow the same process as what I did, the only difference would be some extra cash they slip in the pockets of these officials, who did not seem to want to do the job. I was also told that the server was down for maintenance that day, and the money has to be transferred online and only using the net bank of public banks such as PNB. The customs kept repeating that the Air India was not responding . However when my mom reached her threshold at 10. 30 pm and lashed out at the entire dept creating a a scene, the job was done within 15 mins. Air India was responding , the server was working and the money was collected in cash. We were given the gate pass to collect our cat and mom and I finally left the premises at 11 pm at night. This was my warm welcome back to my country. I can only imagine the loops they make foreign citizens go through. Finally, Air India has a vigilance dept, which provides a phone no. to report such misconduct and malpractices. As expected the number does not work. I do hope no one else goes through, what I went through I would not recommend anyone to use this airline after my experience. The airline is 2.5 on a scale of 10, there are some serious concerns with the management.

✅ Trip Verified | Hyderabad to Mumbai. The ticket is not showing up info that flight terminal is changed. When I called the airline authorities a day before my travel to confirm on two wheelchair requirements, they acknowledged for it but never stated that terminal is different. When I called at day of travel they stated we have not received wheelchair ask from you, we don't have escalation point of contact so call later. My dad had to carry my old aged grandmoms through shuttle bus and had to arrange wheelchair at the airport after making several requests

✅ Trip Verified | Birmingham to Amritsar. As my wife have pain knees, we thought pay for seats with extra leg room, paid £120 for both of us for both ways. When we arrived at check in desk Birmingham Airport, lady said are you both physically fit, I replied no, then she said you can’t have these exit seats, I have to assign you different seats. Plus she said we can get refund and gave me email address and phone number to contact Air India. I emailed them after 5 weeks they told me they can’t give me refund it’s on their website in term and conditions, I am sure I didn’t see that somewhere when I choose the seats.

✅ Trip Verified | New York JFK to Delhi. Air India is a wonderful airline. The service is great. The only problems are that the seats cushion are uncomfortable and the inflight entertainment screen is a pain to use. Otherwise everything else is good and the flight was on time.

✅ Trip Verified | Dubai to Bangalore. The aircraft was very old with torn seat covers and very poor seat cushions and cabin lighting. The food was decent, service was decent, but the drinks options were limited to only two. The toilets seats were very untidy with a lot unclean spots all around. The punctuality and timing were smooth.

✅ Trip Verified | New York to Delhi. The service is great. The problems are that the seats cushion is dead and the inflight entertainment screen is a pain to use. Otherwise everything else is good and the flight was on time.

✅ Trip Verified | I flew from Toronto by Air Canada and connecting flight from Heathrow to Delhi by Air India. It was my first time flying Air India. I had a terrible experience. The flight attendants were so rude and unattended. When asked for coffee etc, the FA would throw the cup in front of you, twice it caused to spill the coffee on me. She lacked people skills big time. She looked miserable, no smile. She wouldn't even acknowledge you if you asked for assistant. It was obvious she didn't like the job she was doing. We were all strongly discouraged to travel Ail India in the future.

✅ Trip Verified | Traveling from Paris to Thailand via Delhi, before getting onboard at Paris my wife was forced to write a form saying that she was not going to be more the one month in Thailand because of the fact that she only had a one way ticket and never the ground agent asked my wife anything about visa need it to travel to Thailand because of the fact the she is a Venezuela citizen and we were told that visa was no required because she was a US resident,. The three boarding passes were granted to her and then she boarded an Air India flight from Paris to Delhi, everything when fine until she landed at Delhi and was ready to take her flight from there to Bangkok where the ground personnel realized that my wife did not have a Thailand visa and after having the boarding passes in Paris by the Air India personnel access to board that flight was denied. The Thai Airways ground agent when the extra mile and try to help my wife in any possible matter but her hands where tied and nothing more couldn’t been done, therefore the Thai personnel refer my wife back to the Air India agents and that’s where our nightmare started. First of all the agent was very rude, my wife English is very limited and when I ask her to pass the phone to allow me to talk to him and see what our options were, after having a very un respectful conversation with the agent he toss the phone back to my wife and refuses to talk to me, another agent with a very kind attitude helped my wife, unfortunately the decision was made and my only option was to buy another business class ticket to my wife back to Paris. My wife was a victim of disrespectful treatment by Air India Ground agents I can not believe after you dropping the ball and not following standard operating procedures in Paris in order to review documents to full paying business class passengers we have to be liable of paying another business class ticket and even worst to pay for hotel accommodations. The following morning she was escorted from her room to the plane, forced to board last after everyone else were onboard, after arriving in Paris she had to wait until all passenger deplane in order to wait for the flight attendant who was holding her passport illegally retained.

✅ Trip Verified | Delhi to New York via Mumbai. I have been trying to reschedule my ticket with Air India for the last four hours . Every time they are about to change my ticket the call gets disconnected. This was about 11 p.m clock Indian standard time I called them 5 times to reschedule my ticket. Fifth time I finally had to request then to call me back if the calm gets disconnected this was about 1:30 a.m and again the call gets disconnected and they call me back at 1:45 to reschedule my ticket. Now they are asking me for another 300 USD for no show as it is less then 24 hours for me to fly out of India. They have no morals, no courtesy, all they want is money off you. Very disappointed

✅ Trip Verified | Chicago to Vadodara via Delhi . I travelled with my dad, my dad is 87 years old. In Delhi International airport. I waiting for wheel chair at least 45 minutes, then gave up and walked to Domestic airport, May be half mile. The airline ticket provided wheel chair, but they did not supply this. Not good service in Delhi International airport.