A lot of these people in Air India, Air India Express, Indian Airlines etc need to be fired for the good of India and their own company. These people will give only pain to the customers.
I once missed a AI flight though I was at the Chennai International Airport about 50min before departure for a flight to Calicut. I was a bit late so I approached the relevant check-in counter first which was open. The AI man told me to Xray my luggage immediately. Came back after X-ray barely taking 2min then same man told me counter is closed.
I was then advised to see the AI duty manager just behind, which was a lady. She told me to contact ticketing without any try to help me. Ticketing told me, sorry sir, you have to buy a new ticket. So I had to fly to Cochin by the next AI flight, buying a new ticket and get a taxi from Cochin to Calicut.
For the next flight from the same international terminal, the whole security process and to reach the door of the aircraft took hardly 20min and since the gate was not open, in fact I had to wait.
But for the flight I missed, though I was at the check-in counter at least 50min early (passengers were even lesser), still I was still not allowed to board. The Duty Manager could have tried to help calling the ground staff - but they wont even try!!
To compare, some years back, I had another experience, whereby we reahed the Airport in Johor Bharu, Malaysia for a budget airline flight just 5-10min before departure. Because of heavy traffic, me and two of my friends reached JB airport only very late (we were driving from Singapore).
However the attitude from the check-in couter was surprising - they immediately contacted the concerned ground staff & piolet and told them there are 3 more passengers. To our own surprise we were able to fly to Penang and the check-in couter staff as well as the security was so proactive (though fault was in fact on our side).
As far as our above AirIndia etc is concerned, they simply do not know how to treat the customers. Their staff are people who will never loss their jobs because of several of their unions - no matter how worse they are! I made anyway a complaint to Air India by email for the above incident but I did not even receive a reply.
Recently I bought a AIExpress ticket from Chennai to Singapore. To connect I also bought a AI Calicut-Chennai ticket. Just 2 days ahead of the flight I am told by my agent that my Chennai-Singapore flight is preponed by 4hours, which meant there was no way to use both flight, so I had to cancel both and buy a Silk Air ticket instead from Cochin. My losses Rs. 6100 + one day leave.
If AI services need to improve - every employee must have a fear that they will loss their job, if they don't perform. If their aim is to become a successful company they have to win the minds of customers! It is unlikely that it will happen!
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