Air India flight - Christmas hell! (Air India)

Member Name: MishaAden

Product:	Air India
Date:	05/02/06 (2107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Non

Disadvantages: Horrible service

My husband and myself were travelling to Bangkok by Air India.
We were supposed to change in Mumbai. Once we sat on the plane, captain announced that we are flying to Dehli and then to Mumbai. Then they explaine dwe are stopping there for new passangers.

The flight attendants were very strange - older ladies, who did not give a damn about serving us. The lady who was serving us always knocked my head with her stomach when she was passing. My TV wasn't working so I asked her 3 times to look at it. Everytime she took a remote and played with it for a minute and then threw it back on me and left without saying anything. Once she came to offer a water and before I even said yes and she started pouring before I gave her my cup and she spilled in on me. When she was giving a coffe to the guy who was sitting next to the window she was pouring it over me with hot kettle, without the tray. If there was turbulence, the hot coffee would be all over me.

Once we arrived to Dehli, some people got out and some cleaners came to clean the plane. New passangers boarded. That took 3 hours. We thougth..."ok, now we will take off". Still nothing. After 2 hours, the captain announced that there is fog outside and bad visibility. He was right. We could not see a centimeter from the window. It was obvious that the fog was so heavy it will not clear away fast. After another 2 hours the captain said that we need to get off the plane and that somebody from Air India will be waiting for us outside. Yeah right. We could not find anyone at the transit service. Other airlines were waiting for their passangers. We were all running aroung like chickens, becoming friends. It was Christmas Eve! We were hungry. Some guy came and said that they are going to accommodate us in the hotel. We gave them our passport as we dont' have visas. That took at least 1 hour. When we passed immigration control, we found ourselves alone again. Nobody from air india. We went to the outside gate, but security would not let us out. So we waited. My husband went back through the security and got some officers, who were unaware about the situation, because there was a shift change. Finally they promissed busses! 2 hours waiting and we got two small old taxis for over 100 people. What a joke.

We were lucky to get in to the first one. Accommodation was in Intercontinental, which was ok. We had breakfast and slept for a while. They then called us at 12.00 to check out and get back to the airport by busses that will be provided. Check out was weird, because some people took things from the minibar and decided not to pay for it. They were arguing for a long time.
Once we went outside, there were 2 busses...again not enough for all of us. Finally 3rd buss arrived and off we went to the airport.

Once we arrived to the airport we went to the Aid India office, where officers were sitting with the feet up unaware, that we were coming. They could not find our passports at all.
We started doubting wheter they have a plane for us. Then they realised that they forgot to notify some passangers still sleeping in the hotel...

They found the passport. Everybody was laughing at that stage. It was Christmas Day!!! Everyone who received passport got clapping and joy. Some people even took photographs as they were getting their passports. Funny, we were laughing, but not for long.

Once we went through the security control in the massive que, again, there was nobody from air india. It was 4pm in the afternoon. We only ate at 7am. Everybody was warning us not to eat in the airport. We were getting angry and frustrated. Started shouting "Air India" - all of us at once. By then we become familliar and were one big force. Once I spotted air india officer passing by and shouted "Air India come here" and pointed at him. When he saw us, he run off scared. Physically running through the security control, which we could not pass. I was amazed.

Then again, some men asked security to let them go back to the airport to the air india office. Finally they brought someone. It was one of the manager's with walkie talkie. Everybody was screaming at him. He said that he is going back to the office and will send someone. At that point some passangers pushed him to the chair saying that we are not lett him go until we have a plane. We were all upset and screaming at him. the passangers were so angry that they announced that we are holdign him hostage until we have plane. The manager was almost crying in desperation. Security guys with guns were quite scared of us to help him. There was one old gentleman and he got so upset that we had to pull him away to prevent heart attack. I can't remember how long it took, but we had plane by 6pm.

Once we got on the plane, which wasn't moving for another 3 hours, I asked one of the fly attendant if we are going to get warm food. She said: "no, just finger food". I told her we are starving, she said that she hasn't had lunch neither! She shouldn't have said that. People started attacking her angrilly. She did not know anything. Not even the time we were taking off.

Finally we took off and arrived to Mumbai. Obviously we missed our flight to Bangkok from 2 days ago so we went straight to air india. It was around 10.30 pm.

The officers told us that next flight is at 6.30 in the morning. I could not believe it. They did not care much. We asked them to put us to another airline, to compensate for all the hassle. No!

One young guy from air india took us to the "lobby" which was horrible and also to the restaurant called "celebration restaurant". Our christmas dinner. In the restaurant, there was long table with few bowls of food. At the end of the table, there was a fat man with a pen and note book. We had to give him our name, flight number and then he gave us paper plate. The food was absolutelly runny and discussting.

But anything warm was ok. The guy from Air India constantly reminded us that we should give him tip, as he wants to save and travel to London and find a nice woman....Great!

For the tip of £10 he gave us blankets and drinks at the lobby. We slept on the sofa until 5am. Finally it was time to go to Bangkok. Of course there was 90 minutes delay, but we did not care. We were getting closer to our target. Once we arrived in Bankok, we could not come out of the plane, because the doors was broken and they could not open it. Great. Another 2 hours of waiting. We just wanted to get off!!!!

After getting off and seeing all the lovely thai welcome, we relaxed a bit. Finally here. However, my Hubby's suitcase never arrived, he had enough!!!Apparently still in London - Heathrow!!!

He went straight to the Air India office and finally met officers that were able to talk and listen! The manger was Thai. He told us that we can buy clothes and that they will repay the money back.

Shame is, that we spent Christmas like this. After this travelling we were tired for 2 days so could not enjoy our stay. 4 days of holidays gone.

Still, what an experience....

Summary: Christmas with Air India