| Complaint filed by | |
| Complaint filed on | October 27th, 2023 |
| Complaint filed against | Air India, Cleartrip |
- Text of Complaint by Shetal Shah
This is regarding a Mumbai to Bengaluru return trip that I had booked for my mother. Mumbai to Bengaluru on Air India on 15th Oct 2023 & Bengaluru to Mumbai on Vistara is upcoming.
My mom is a Senior Citizen & recently went through a Knee replacement surgery. Because of her age & other health issues, she also has problems with walking.
Since she was traveling alone on this trip, I had booked a Wheelchair & also booked paid aisle seats in the front rows.
When I went to drop my mother at the Mumbai International Airport (T2), we reached roughly 80-90 mins before the scheduled time. However, we had to wait for ~15-20 mins at the departure gate for a Wheelchair. The lady there informed Air India people multiple times, but we still did not get the wheelchair. Looking at the time left for submitting check-in baggage, my mother finally went in walking (in struggle) to the Air India counter & she finally got the wheelchair. However, the Air India staff there refused to accept the check-in bag & also mentioned to my mother that she can’t board the flight anymore (this was 59 mins before the departure time). My mother then spoke to me & requested the staff to call for some higher authority. Then the Operations Manager Mr. Pramod Dalvi came & responded very rudely to my mother’s request. He was not even ready to listen to the full thing of what she had to say (that we had arrived much before the closing time, but had to wait for long because they did not send a wheelchair on time). Since I was still on the phone with Mom, I asked my mom to give the phone to that manager & when I tried to speak to him, he just rudely said that today we have a shortage of wheelchairs (or staff operating the wheelchairs) & gave the phone back to my mother.
I want to ask AIR INDIA / TATA GROUP here – what is this way of behaving with a senior citizen traveling alone? Don’t you give some sensible training to your staff?
Mr. Pramod had already put my mother into a big panic, was highly non-supportive & extremely rude too. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.
We understand that there are rules & guidelines, however, this was completely a mistake of the airline & they should have been considerate.
Thereafter, the support staff/porter who was taking my mother in the wheelchair suggested mom to give back the check-in bag to me (since I was still waiting outside to ensure that mom goes ahead without any problems) & proceed to board the flight with just the small hand luggage. We took the suggestion, and he came out to give me the check-in bag & rushed Mom to the boarding gate as soon as he could (god bless this man for being so helpful & sensible).
Finally, mom boarded the flight… however, the next surprise was waiting for us!!! I had booked a paid aisle seat for her (5C) – mentioned on the boarding pass too… however, she was informed by the air hostess that 5C was given to someone else & she had to now sit on 22B (which was a free seat) & mom had to walk so long to that seat. All this amazingly bad experience really made mom sick… she was harassed mentally & then later she had to go through so much physical trauma too.
We seriously believed that the good & humane services of Air India (while it was owned by the Government), would have actually become excellent under the ownership of the Tata Group… as they are known for the humility that is supposed to be a part of the group’s DNA….. But, the reality is something completely opposite… Air India has become worse than many other smaller private players. It has really lost all the goodness post coming to the Tata Group.
So ultimately, Mom was traumatized & troubled so much… at the same time, my money for a paid seat was wasted & also I had to spend another 3-4k to get Mom’s luggage delivered to Bengaluru by Air Courier.
With AIR INDIA, you lose money & also go through a painful experience!!! #AIRINDIA – you need to pay me back for the seat, pay for the courier charges & compensate us for the harassment caused by your on-ground staff.
Now coming to #Cleartrip – when I booked this entire return journey, I had selected paid seats on both flights. However, when I got the tickets, it was mentioned that due to technical issues, the seats weren’t booked & I got the amount for the paid seat refunded. I immediately spoke to the customer care of Cleartrip & they sent me a link for payment for rebooking the same seats on both flights. I made the payments & got written confirmation receipts from Cleartrip – with the seat numbers clearly mentioned on it.
Now when I was doing a web check-in for Mom’s return flight on Vistara, she was again allotted another seat – 8D instead of 3C – which I had paid for!!!
When I spoke to customer care of Cleartrip – the lady checked & initially wasn’t ready to accept that I had made the payment a second time for booking the seats.
Then when I insisted, she finally checked again & agreed that yes, I had again paid for booking the seats. Now their excuse was that due to a technical glitch, the said seat in Vistara was automatically shifted to another seat in the 8th row & they have made a payment to the airline. When I did not agree to this & asked for a refund as it was their mistake, she told me that 3C was booked by someone else & hence, now they will check recordings of my call with their previous executive & then decide on who’s mistake it is. #Cleartrip – you need to refund my money for the seat booking & improve/upgrade your people & technology.
I am seriously fed up with these bad experiences with AIR INDIA & Cleartrip. Now it’s a wait & watch for the Vistara services for my mom’s upcoming flight – I will share an update soon.
I would suggest to all #airtravellers in India to be cautious & think before using the services of Cleartrip or Air India.
