Complaint Rating:

I would begin narrating my experience from the time when I checked in for the Bangkok to Mumbai on 29th Apr 2008 at 18:45 (TG 317).

I arrived at the airport 2 1/2 hour before departure I was informed that the flight was delayed till 00:15 (5 1/2 Hours Delay). I requested the ground staff to put me on the Indian airlines flight departing an hour later as I only had hand baggage and the airline did have room for passengers on it, this they were not able to do saying there wasn�t enough time.

Hence, I checked in for the Thai Flight and asked them for what their policy for delayed flight is. To which they informed me, that they would give me 300 bath ($10) meal voucher. This I thought was being very unreasonable for such a long period of delay and I found out that as per Thai Law they were supposed to give compensation of 1200 baht for more than three hour delay on domestic flights and understood that for international it would at least be the same or more. When informed if Mrs. Titirat B the check in supervisor about this she said that their policy is to give a hotel room only if there is a 6+ hour delay and that she never hear about this law. Now I started to put two and two together, and realized that they only announced a delay of 5 �½ hours to avoid giving out the room and I was pretty sure that the flight would leave much later.

After wasting my time at the airport for several hours, I showed up at the gate on time for boarding at 23:35. But as I had suspected they didn�t start boarding yet, 00:15 not movement whatsoever, 00:30 nothing, finally they did start boarding at 01:00 and departed at 01:30 clearly after the 6 hour norm as per their policy.

This to me is clearly unethical behavior on part of the airline. It is most definitely their responsibility to take care of their passenger especially in situations like this. Not only they misinformed me and other passengers on the flight they also most probably broke the law.

I am thoroughly disappointed with the airline and would rather not fly with them anymore. There are several other airlines who do value their customers. I just hope that my message gets across to some on in the airline and helps them realize their mistakes.