'Air India' experiences - 1

case 1:
I was about to join a new job in UK. Mumbai - London Air India scheduled at 1:30 in the afternoon. After check-in we all were waiting in the gate for boarding to comence. Clock moves on from 1:15 to 1:30 to 2:00. Nobody informs us anything. People get desperate and clog infront of the air india customer desk but no information comes. At last at 3:00 PM, someone comes into the customer service desk and informs that there is a technical problem in the plane, hence the plane is rescheduled to 11:30 in the night. We who got this information at the counter went and dissipated this information amongst the other passengers waiting in the lounge.

See the style with which the whole thing went on. Firstly at the time of check-in itself nobody knows that there was a technical problem and there could be a delay in take-off. Then when people are waiting for boarding and when the boarding is getting delayed none of the officials come forward and explain the reason to passengers. When passengers repeatedly pound the customer service desk, only then somebody bothered to inform the passengers, that too not as a public announcement but just to those who are waiting infront of the desk.


Air India provided hotel accommodation for non-locals and taxi-fares for locals. Again we all locals were promptly back at airport by 11:00 PM.ofcourse this time I call Air India enquiry at airport to check whether the flight is on time, before leaving for the airport. Again at the airport we come to know that the flight is not yet ready and will now depart at 9:00 AM next day. The same was informed to all those who stayed back in hotels and hence none of them returned to the airport.

Again see the missing communication link. Air India enquiry does not know the latest status of a flight and hence informs us to come to the airport.No body else calls up on the telephone numbers provided by us.

We also were sent to the hotel. Come next day morning, we all board the plane and sharp at 9:00AM plane starts taxiing on the runway. After 10 minutes of taxi, plane stops and we hear an announcement that the auxiliary power unit of the plane is not working and hence technical team is working on it. 30 minutes plane stays on the runway and then takesoff. Iam not sure if this is the same problem on which the technical teams are working from the previous day. I do not know how serious others are but I heard many of them swearing that they are not going to travel by Air India again.