‘Without any care for customers…’: Foreign national narrates his pathetic experience on Air India flight

New Delhi: Amid the recent controversies surrounding Air India flights, a foreign national has narrated his sad travel experience, citing poor and pathetic services by the airline when his international flight got delayed.

Narrating his bad experience in the Air India flight on January 5, Loic Sanlaville, on his Facebook page, wrote that he found out that his flight to Delhi was cancelled while reaching Paris airport.

“You made everyone wait 1h30 before finally sending a bus to drive us to a hotel. Finally left the day after in an aircraft without a screen, without reading light, without water in the toilet (when I flushed, the button fell down!!!).”

Sanlaville noted that missing his connecting flight to Mumbai from Delhi airport due to the delay, he was not provided any food or a bed.

“Of course I miss my connection to Bombay and spent a second night in Delhi airport, no food, no bed, no “good night on your chair”. Ok I m slightly over reacting here , I received a mail from Air India after waiting 6h near my boarding gate, and finally get informed: change of gate, cross the entire airport again (from gate 27 to 52),” he wrote.

He wrote that he had to eat the worst food during the course of travel, and then could not get his bag even 24 hours after landing.

“Cherry on the cake, the staff in Paris told me to collect my bags directly in Bombay, that was a wrong statement. I reached Bombay without bags. So after 48h of Travelling (eating the worst food in the history of aeronautics). I spent the day trying to call the baggage department. When the server was not down, they promise me that I’ll get my bag in the evening… Finally got a call at 11pm to say half of my luggage reached Bombay, I should come to collect it tomorrrow…This morning I call again the baggage dept, my second bag is still in Delhi. So 24h after landing, still no bags,” Sanlaville said in his Facebook page.

“Air India was a good company, but without maintenance of the aircrafts (sic), without any care for your customers, you’ll quickly become the company to avoid,” he said.

India’s aviation regulator has taken note of many such incidents which occurred in Air India flights in the recent past. The DGCA last week had said that the response of Air India has been lackadaisical and delayed with regard to two incidents of passenger misbehaviour occurring on Air India flight AI-142 on from Paris to New Delhi on December 6, 2022.

One passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory, was drunk and not listening to the crew. Another passenger allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow female passenger when she went to the lavatory.