Seriously, I do. Air India was obviously not responsible for the bird hit that caused their 747 to be grounded at Heathrow airport for two days. They were, however, responsible for the comfort and travel arrangements of their 434 stranded passengers, and once again, they failed miserably. Where most carriers would do their utmost to provide emergency accommodation, or reroute passengers through partner airlines, it appears Air India did the bare minimum.
Normally I would give the airline the benefit of the doubt, keeping in mind that catering to the needs of 434 irate passengers isn't the easiest job in the world, but considering Air India's track record, and my own personal experience with the airline, it is hard not to empathise with the passengers. In 2002, my flight from Bombay to Delhi had to return to Bombay due to heavy fog in Delhi. Fair enough, one cannot help the weather - except Delhi had been fog-bound for the last four days and Air India did not have a contingency plan yet. It was the proverbial fly crashing into a window. I can only assume that planeloads of passengers were constantly ferried from Bombay to Delhi and back again for four consecutive days, and yet the staff appeared surprised every time they saw a fresh group arrive. Being international travellers, no one was allowed to leave the airport to spend the night at home, in spite of most of us (myself included) being Indian citizens. No accommodation or other arrangements were made available, barring a coupon for 'refreshments' i.e. stale chips and some water, and we ended up spending the rest of the night in the departure lounge. In spite of their incompetence, the Air India staff continued to treat customers with contempt, which only angered us further, thus intensifying their contempt, and so on.
Naturally, I missed my connecting flight from Singapore to Auckland, though Air India was good enough to reroute me through Hong Kong to Singapore, finally arriving in Auckland a day later than expected.
And that was when I realised Air India had lost my luggage.
For more air-travel horror stories, check out Sepia Mutiny's piece on a Punjabi-Slovak airline.
Normally I would give the airline the benefit of the doubt, keeping in mind that catering to the needs of 434 irate passengers isn't the easiest job in the world, but considering Air India's track record, and my own personal experience with the airline, it is hard not to empathise with the passengers. In 2002, my flight from Bombay to Delhi had to return to Bombay due to heavy fog in Delhi. Fair enough, one cannot help the weather - except Delhi had been fog-bound for the last four days and Air India did not have a contingency plan yet. It was the proverbial fly crashing into a window. I can only assume that planeloads of passengers were constantly ferried from Bombay to Delhi and back again for four consecutive days, and yet the staff appeared surprised every time they saw a fresh group arrive. Being international travellers, no one was allowed to leave the airport to spend the night at home, in spite of most of us (myself included) being Indian citizens. No accommodation or other arrangements were made available, barring a coupon for 'refreshments' i.e. stale chips and some water, and we ended up spending the rest of the night in the departure lounge. In spite of their incompetence, the Air India staff continued to treat customers with contempt, which only angered us further, thus intensifying their contempt, and so on.
Naturally, I missed my connecting flight from Singapore to Auckland, though Air India was good enough to reroute me through Hong Kong to Singapore, finally arriving in Auckland a day later than expected.
And that was when I realised Air India had lost my luggage.
For more air-travel horror stories, check out Sepia Mutiny's piece on a Punjabi-Slovak airline.
2 comments:
i like MM's new look!
Cheers :-D. I was getting tired of the old template. This is the closest thing to a wordpress theme that I could find.
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