The Shiite hits the fan

While we were going through the customs I heard an announcement that we should meet an Air India representative outside of customs. So we make our way to a crowd of people and sea of luggage surrounding this tiny desk. There is one guy behind the desk and about seventy people have surrounded him; there are no lines; kids are crying and people are pushing each other to get in front. I find out that this cattle-fest filled with confusion is about getting a voucher to get on the next flight.

My wife stands in the line or somewhere in the crowd and I guard the luggage and watch my son. After a few minutes I hear yelling and arguments between two passengers in the crowd; tensions are high and everyone wants to make it on the flight. This goes on for about half an hour; I can see the customs counter from where I’m standing and see more people being harassed and forced into paying bribes.

My wife gets to talk to the bald guy behind the desk; he gives her a voucher but tells her that our tickets are “not confirmed”. WTF? We already had boarding passes for the flight we missed. I confirmed the tickets on AirIndia.com myself. This airindia.com link shows that US passengers don’t need to reconfirm their tickets.

Air India was giving out vouchers to put people on Jet Airways flight for 10am. There was a 6am flight but everyone there would miss it. We tried to ask the idiot behind the desk about this “not confirmed” business and he didn’t have any other answers and repeated himself. He said you can stand in line for Jet Airways and if they have room they will take you.

So we stand in this line which is 10 feet away from this guy’s tiny temporary desk; Jet airways is scanning everyone’s luggage; we just came through an international flight still behind security; what’s the need to rescan the bags? There are two desks open and they’re moving people extremely slow. It took almost an hour to get our bags scanned and get up to the Jet Airways “transfer” desk to ask them if they have room for us. One hour standing in line at a US airport would have been paradise compared to this airport is a run down hellhole filled with mosquitoes, foul smell, and dripping pipes overhead. I wanted to assume it was just water. I wanted to take pictures but I was afraid that I might be detained and harassed. All of this including customs is happening in the same area; I can see the customs desks; luggage belts; and Jet airways counter from where I’m standing. The place is not bigger than a high school gym.

There are no public phones in the area so we can call and inform our family who might have come to the other airport to pick us up. The phones are outside the security and I didn’t feel like venturing out there because I might not be able to get inside.

There are restrooms that are being attended by multiple genitors who are there waiting for you to tip them; my wife took my son to the restroom and there were four female genitors inside, one of them asked “what do you want to do?”

Jet Airways employees told us that you’re not “our list” and Air India has not “confirmed you”. They said they could not do anything about it. I asked if they had room in the business class to which she replied “there is no business class” on our flights. I asked if there was a later flight, she said she can get me on a 4:55pm flight which was 12 hours away. So we are left with standing there like victim of Katrina hurricane in a very similar hellhole with no idea what’s going to happen next. The bald air India employee was no where in sight and there were a few other passengers with similar problems. We all met each other and I quickly understood what had happened. All of our last names were at the end of the alphabet. Air India bumped us all because there was limited seating on the Jet Airways flight and we were at the end of their list.

Any other airline would have remedied the situation by offering compensation to volunteers to make everyone happy. Instead we were lied to, discriminated against and they made us stand in line for hours with a toddler. They could have leveled with us; offered us accommodations; and confirmed us on a later flight. That could have saved us from the emotional rollercoaster and we could have gotten some rest. Air India doesn’t work this way; they don’t care about their customers; some bureaucrats make the decisions who don’t have a clue about customer service. They should be hit with a class action law suit and banned from providing service until they clean up their act.