Air India: The Maharaja
We have been thrilled with Air India as it flies direct flights from cities in India to London Gatwick airport. The ownership of the airline company Air India shifted from the government to the private sector company of the Tata Group. But this has not changed the infrastructure in the plane or around it, in the services. Still we persist in flying Air India for the sheer convenience of a direct flight to a smaller airport in London. Avoiding the mess in Heathrow is part of the positive externalities of the Air India direct flight. However the Maharaja (mascot of Air India) played delinquent again! We were in for a great shock.
We booked on AI 171 from Ahmedabad to London nearly 4 months in advance as the prices were much lower. We have been telling all friends and sundry how convenient this direct flight has been. It leaves at a very reasonable hour in the afternoon. No more waking up in the middle of the night and loosing sleep. No torturous wait at some airport in an unfamiliar country. Arrival at a small airport meant smaller queues at immigration. A direct train from Gatwick to London, close to our place of stay. Have I listed sufficient advantages of the Air India flight?
We arrived well in time when there was no one at the check-in counter. Immigration and check-in process were smooth. We arrived at the gate and were thrilled to see that the plane was already in place. Wow we are all set to go. I drank some really bad filter coffee from the Sankalp corner. My husband got some better tea from the Wagh Bakri counter, and we waited.
Closer to the boarding time, my husband noticed that the cargo was being downloaded from the aircraft. Alarm bells began to ring in our heads. On checking with the ground staff, we learnt that there was a minor fuel leakage in the cargo region. We will fix it, they said. Apparently the ground staff cleared the aircraft for flight but they were waiting for clearance from the Delhi Centre. Soon we saw more cargo being taken of the aircraft. We got the point, though the staff said a request for another aircraft had been made. Having flown many miles, many many miles, we knew that this was not happening. Instead of panicking we contacted our travel agent and asked her to check for other flights leaving by evening.
And then began the drama. No announcement was made, but smart people noticed and began to question the ground staff. At first we got vague answers. However, one of the ground staff was smart and gave us at least part of the story: there was a fuel leakage and a new aircraft would arrive. How many people believed that? Two men in the crowd said they had come recently from the Gatwick airport and the flight was cancelled. That was scary because our return flight was also booked from Gatwick airport.
Soon the flight details on the digital dashboard at the gate disappeared. That was the sign. No official announcement of the cancellation of the flight was made. Some people began to panic. I could hear one young boy sitting behind me, cry and speak on the phone. I could understand what he said as he spoke Malayalam. He was a student from Kerala travelling to join his University. I felt sorry for him but could do nothing. There were some girls sitting next to me who enquired about what was happening. And I let them know. I discovered that these girls were newly married and were travelling to meet their husbands in the UK for the first time. And there were some smart ones who went about telling people that if we united and stood firm, Air India would be forced to send us an aircraft! Long experiences of international travel told us that this was not happening. There were unlikely to be any planes free to substitute for our technically challenge aircraft.
We have since long been using the services of a travel agent to make our bookings. Our friends and well wishers often told us that this was an expensive proposition and we could book online instead. However, out of sheer laziness, we continued to use the travel agent. It is in such times of stress that we have found the travel agent to be most resourceful. The travel agent gave us two alternatives, one on Etihad airlines, and one on Singapore airlines. The first was to leave early evening and the latter leaving later also reaching London much later. However, she told us that the Singapore flight was cheaper. We had had enough and were only interested in leaving at the earliest. We booked on the Etihad flight which meant all the advantages listed above of a direct flight evaporated! 
Next steps: How do we get our checked in luggage? Do we get a refund on our cancelled flight? How do we apply for a refund? Due credit must be given to the Air India ground staff. They were dealing with harassed passengers who were also harassing them. The staff kept their cool. One explained to us that we would need to go down to the arrival area and collect the baggage. Another one explained that once we had the new airline bookings we could write to a particular customer service email ID. She provided us with the email ID and the details of what need to be sent to them, which included a cancelled cheque. Here lies the problem. How does one get a cancelled cheque? Both of us surfed through our emails looking for some mail where we might have sent a cancelled cheque to someone. After some surfing my husband was able to find a cancelled cheque. We informed the travel agent of all the details and the customer ID. Now you can see the advantages of booking through a travel agent. Time will tell if we get a refund or not!
Customer services id
We proceeded to the arrival area. Amazingly there was no confusion there. Most of the luggage had been taken off the carousel and placed neatly on the floor. Two of our bags were sailing in on the carousel and the staff identified the third. Done with that we proceeded to sign off from Air India. The staff politely told us that lunch was being provided. We got packed lunch, rice dal and paneer and some excellent soft crumbly sponge cake! At least the Air India sign off was good!
We wondered what happened to our co passengers. Some of them we knew had also got tickets on the Etihad flight. When we boarded the flight to Abu Dhabi, the young Malayali student was seated next to my husband. We heard his harrowing story compared to which ours was nothing. He started from Kottayam in Kerala to board the flight at Kochi. The direct Air India flight to London from Kochi was cancelled. He was given a ticket to fly to Mumbai and then to Ahmedabad to board the same flight that was cancelled. And that was not all. Air India had booked his flight, which he paid for, to London on Etihad via Abu Dhabi but via Dublin. One more flight. It is likely that the direct tickets from Abu Dhabi to London were already filled. That made it 5 flights to get from Kochi to London!! Unfortunately, the flight from Dublin to London would be on another airline, adding to his woes! Poor kid.
All said and done we did not have such a harrowing time as some of the other passengers! It was better than if the Air India pilot noticed the fuel leak half way through the flight and landing us in Ukraine! Kudos to the ground staff of Air India for the keeping cool and dealing sympathetically with the distraught passengers. I genuinely mean this and not stating it in the hope of receiving our refund!! What is with Tatas and Air India? Hoping the new planes they have ordered arrive soon and passengers are not subject this form of uncertainly and stress again!
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