My horrific ordeal with flight cancellations flying Air India Express

Till date as I write this, thousands of people are being harassed with last minute flight cancellations by Air India Express.

BHPian richie4u recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Call this a rant or call it a complaint, I would like to caution our fellow members and the readers of the impending mess that Air India Express is causing in flight travel these days!

In recent days, Air India Express has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Several flights have been cancelled at the last minute, causing significant inconvenience to passengers. This development has sparked a wave of frustration and concern among travellers who rely on the budget airline for both domestic and international routes.

I for one faced the brunt very recently. I booked a return family trip on Air India Express for 4 of us which includes 2-wheel chair assisted senior citizen from Goa to Guwahati and back on 18th May-24th May. Less than a few hours prior to the flight on 18th May I get the following mails from Air India Express:

Two flights cancelled back-to-back, hours before we expected to leave to the airport! Imagine the horror. Frantically tried connecting with Air India Express customer “happiness” team- only to be redirected to an AI tool, called TIA which seemed to be a trial version of AI because it was useless. I could not get another flight option and it only redirected me towards refund. No support mail ID, no human to talk to, the customer care team at Air India Express is a lost cause. Finally with hours to spare I had to shell out another 50k just for one-way flights with Indigo airlines for my family with no options left.

Cut to 24th May 2024- No email received of cancellation- a sigh of relief! We reached Guwahati airport well in advance 3 hrs prior for our flight back home. We check in, cleared security check and now waiting at the departure lounge for our flight. An hour before the flight is to depart, I get a call from someone from the check-in team stating that I need to come back to the counter- my connecting flight is cancelled!

And soon after I get their standard mail again:

Dejected I reach the counter along with my wheelchair bound parents, Atleast this time I thought I had humans to talk to who will understand my situation but I was wrong! The Air India Express Operations team at Guwahati Airport was remorseless to say the least. After making some noise their operations manager -Tanushree comes to us, takes our boarding passes and promises some alternate flight and told us to sit as she’ll get back to us in an hour. 1-hour passes, the 2nd hour dawned and no answer- all I get from the team is to “wait they’ll inform”. 3 hours later I go to the counter to ask and guess what I’m told- The operations manager has left as her shift is over! This was their heights of customer “happiness” team. Again, I had to approach a different Ops Manager who was unaware of the entire situation but at least this time I can say had a heart. He was helpless again cause by this time there were no flights available for almost 2 days to go to our destination. He helped us with different route for a flight 6 hours later from Guwahati-Bangalore after I sat with him and chalked out a plan where I had to book another flight by paying 52k again for Bangalore to Goa with Indigo airlines early morning next day.

A trip which was taking only 5 hours in total was now converted to a 24 hour ordeal with no food, no water and not even an apology provided for senior citizens left to fend for themselves. I shudder to think, what if I was not there to assist in this entire episode?

After this fiasco, I went in deeper to check the entire mess created and guess what I’m not the only one- till date as I write this, thousands of people are being harassed with last minute flight cancellations by Air India Express. The same reason- “Operational Reasons”. X is filled with disgruntled passengers who are left high and dry with last minute cancellations and no solution, just an AI bot giving superficial apology replies and pushing their flight plans into rebooking or refund!

Sorry for the long post but I found it necessary for my fellow team-bhpians and readers to not go through the same ordeal that I went through and to be vigilant. Until the issue is sorted, I suggest you take any other airline service provider for peace of mind. for those who are scheduled on Air India Express for the next few days- all I can say is Fliers Beware!

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