Every industry has its ups and downs when dealing with customers; airlines is no exception. For some, travelling by air has always been a pleasant experience, but for some, a harrowing ordeal has made them swear off travelling with certain carriers.

Take the example of K Ramakrishnan, a corporate executive and frequent flier, who says that some of his journeys were made better due to careful handling of sticky situations by the airlines. “The most recent one was on Lufthansa. We had to take a connecting flight, but we were not able to make it, because it was a very short connection and the flight landed late in Munich. They really took care of us. They ensured that we got a good hotel to stay in and kept us informed of when the next connection was possible. Everything was set, including our baggage arrangements. They said they were sorry about the six-hour gap. They were very pleasing, there was a personal element.”

“But such experiences are not a given when travelling by air. Over a year, you’ll find 20 per cent of the time there’s a situation where baggage is misplaced, a flight missed, food is not available or the flight is cancelled,” he says.

“There have been two cases in the past where the airline was able to locate missing baggage very quickly. On one Swissair flight, I had to attend a meeting directly from the airport, but my luggage, with all my clothes and other things, was misplaced.” Ramakrishnan says the airline helped him buy the stuff he needed in the Duty Free shop. “They even made arrangements for a shower.”

Emotional baggage

But not all lost baggage claims are a pleasant experience. Take the case of Kartavya Jain, visiting India from the US, whose well-laid travel plans went awry when his baggage got lost on a Jet Airways flight. “I checked in three bags. But when I landed in Indore, one of the bags had been misplaced. I had a lot of important documents in the missing bag.” Jain says the airline informed him that it takes up to 14 days to trace a bag, but after the period was over, he had to apply to secure compensation. “Airlines do not make any effort to contact you. It is very disappointing,” he says ruefully.

When the deadline for locating his bag was over, Jain was in for a rude shock. “They made a compensation offer of ₹5,400, which I found insulting, given that you can’t even buy a decent suitcase these days for that much. Finally, I had to persuade them to reconsider the offer. They are now asking me to present the bills and receipts of the items in the baggage.”

One of the problems in a situation like this, according to Jain, is that it’s difficult to raise a complaint. “I don’t know what I can do other than file a complaint in the consumer court. The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has a website but that doesn’t work.”

Jain’s complaint is by no means unique, as lost baggage is a common complaint among fliers. He now has the option of approaching a consumer court, which is likely to lend a sympathetic ear to his grievance. In one recent case, Air India was ordered by the New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum to pay ₹50,000 to Punjab resident Manish Sharma for the loss of his suitcase. The airline was also told to deposit another ₹50,000 in the Consumer Welfare Fund under the Department of Consumer Affairs.

If Jain had opted for travel insurance, it would have mitigated his trauma. But here again, he would have faced the onerous task of compiling a list of each and every item lost, as well as provide invoices in order to make a claim. What’s more, travel insurance isn’t free.

Flight turbulence

The recent trouble faced by SpiceJet has resulted in uncomfortable moments for passengers too. Jana Viswanatham, a shipyard engineer, was left in the lurch when his flight was cancelled days before his journey. “I had booked a ticket and four days before the journey I received a message that the flight was cancelled due to technical reasons. They gave me a contact number to change the flight. I contacted the number, but whenever I tried, the number was busy,” he says.

Viswanatham says he hasn’t even been reimbursed for his ticket after the cancellation of his December 5 flight. “They said they will return the money in five days, but it has still not come. When I called again to file a complaint with them, they said it will take one week.”

As a consequence of this late cancellation, Viswanatham had to scramble to book a train ticket for his journey. Will he fly by this airline again? “I don’t think so, because I lost time on this journey. I am aware of the problems faced by this airline; I learnt the next day after my flight was cancelled.”

Gauri Mehta, an advertising executive, had a similar experience. “My husband and I had booked seats on SpiceJet in August for a December getaway to Coimbatore. We were zapped when a week prior to our departure SpiceJet announced that the flight was cancelled.”

But she was all praise for the efforts taken by the airline to accommodate them despite its precarious situation. “What we did appreciate was that SpiceJet accommodated us on another flight even though that did prove to be a roundabout route. The SpiceJet staff, both on the ground and in the air, remained pleasant on all legs of our flights, though reports in newspapers and television painted a very dismal picture of the airline’s state of affairs - with salaries not paid since November.”

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