Air India is by far the worst airline out there. On a trip from NY to Bombay... a vacation that I planned for so long. The hostility and rudeness I faced was beyond belief! If it was a refundable ticket and I had the time to plan out another trip I would've canceled. I have vowed never to get on one again, if my life depended on it. They have the worst customer service, the counters and the crew are the same. The female crew especially! They act like they stepped out of a bollywood movie or something, I mean they get paid for what they do right? so why the hostility to those (passengers) that help pay for their damn salary? Some of them act like they paid for my ticket and they are doing me some sort of favor by letting me travel on the blessed "air India"! Please there are many other cleaner, neater and friendlier airlines out there, and I chose Delta Airlines! One of the leading airlines out there now! :)
Arre ! apna Indian Raliways is the best. Travel II A/c and it's abs. comfortable. Looking at the number of trains plying between various cities in India, Indian Railways is doing a fantastic logistics job !
Moral of the story : If you want to fly, never fly Air Deccan. They have a history of such incidences !
RE:Vacation Plans
by Prakash on Apr 30, 2007 01:37 PM Permalink
Before discussing on all sundry and important matters, doesn't one should think of health. Check out www.foodyoga.org for complete health advice for Diabetes, Coronary attacks, Obesity,etc
I had taken a trip from Strasbourg, France to Los Angeles, U.S.A in Lufthansa. My return journey was from Los Angeles to Munich and Munich to Frankfurt and then to Strasbourg. The time difference between the landing of the flight from Los Angeles at Munich and the connecting flight from Munich was hardly 30 mins apart. Therefore, I asked the Lufthansa personnel in LA whether I would be able to catch the connecting flight, what will happen if they reach late and also what will happen to my luggage?? They assured me that nothing will go wrong. The flight landed at Munich 20 mins after the scheduled time. And the connecting flight was waiting for me even though I was late by more than 5 to 10 mins. The moment the aircraft personnel saw me they called me by my name and said that they were waiting for me. I was the last person to board the aircraft. They were informed by the Lufthansa that I am arriving a little bit late bcos of their fault and had asked them to wait for me. I was surprised to hear it from them. I was also bothered abt my luggage. I stepped out of the flight and went to the baggage section to claim my luggage I was surprised to see my luggage which I expected would have been missed at Munich as the flight landed late. I am really amazed by lufthansa service
RE:International travel
by on Apr 27, 2007 10:47 PM Permalink
Have to agree with Suresh Pandey that you have missed the point of the article.
Once I used BA to reach Mumbai from Stockholm. Stockholm-London-Mumbai sector. The BA pilot of Stockholm-London flight missed his take-off time so he was put on hold till there is clearance. This guy got so upset that he started cusing in decent way to Swedish air traffic controllers and how useless they are for not offering him a take-off slot. We got take-off slot after about an hour. My connecting flight was about 1.30 hours after the scheduled arrival of this Stockholm-London flight but since it got delayed, of course they waited for me. BA made an announcement on Stockholm-London flight for 14 of us who had such connecting flight. As soon as we were out, we were take to the respective flight but wait, where is the luggage? It will be delivered when I realized that it won't come. At Mumbai, I realized that my luggage isn't there. I confronted with BA guy at Mumbai airport for compensation. After dilly-dallying for a while and looking at my anger, he politely said, Sir, no matter what you do anything, you won't get a penny. Its usually offered to only white monkeys... I was totally stunned at his reply but I realized the authenticity of his reply. My luggage arrived after 2 days and was given to a courier guy to deliver at my place. The courier guy used local and so he was stopped at check-naka. He was made to pay 500Rs to get the bag out so I had to suffer without my bag for 2 days, had to pay 500Rs to get my bag and the chocolates that I brought, half of them (about 5kg) went directly to the bin.
What lesson did I learn? Never fly with BA. Not only because of this incident but there transit visa for Indian nationals issue. I find it very uncomfortable to get transit visa just to pass through their airport when I am already paying their airport taxes. Thats very racistic...
RE:International travel
by yatrik raval on May 02, 2007 07:52 PM Permalink
Hey I disagree with you.....
I found BA quite good and very cooperative. I was flying Chicago-London-Mumbai and my transit time at London was only 40 mins. My flight from Chicago was 25 min late, to my surprize they had special arrangements for me and my luggage when I landed at Hethrow. A seperate fast security check lane helped me clear security in marely 3 mins and my next flight was waiting for me and few others like me. At mumbai I got all my luggage too.
i approached thomas cook for booking a tour.i asked him about the avvailability.he never responded for 10 days.i called him several times and he says he is busy in his work.this si the state of travel agents.then after 10 days he says avilability is only for this date and for this much of days.they do not want to fix tours as per our suggestions but they want to finish it at once as per their advice.how they are treating us like a fool.has anyone such experience/
RE:state of travel agents
by Mohan Gopalakrishnan on Apr 28, 2007 12:02 AM Permalink
What you dont realize is that travel agents dont make money on tickets(web tickets are cheaper now a days) also they dont make money on one off tickets, where they make money is travel packages which add up to numbers. It may be bad service to you but it is business practice that makes sense. In essence most travel agents dont want ticket selling service(BTW i am not a travel agent but i do know how the economics work because i have friends in that business) Now you may ask why they sell tickets...well its the same way that restaurants will give you water even if you dont buy anything else hoping u will come back for something later. Thomas cook however seems to be out of that mode.....
RE:state of travel agents
by Jaydeep Buch on Apr 28, 2007 02:27 PM Permalink
i am not agree with you. If someone is looking to your for some inquirey related to your area of business you must answer to your furute customer. I have same experience with www.yatra.com I have put up a query on their website regarding some hotel booking. till date they have not turned up. I have to follow another route for hotel booking inquary.
