| Address: Bangalore, Karnataka, 560029 |
My father had been denied entry to the flight even though he was at the boarding gate 35 minutes prior to departure. He was made to run across gates unnecessarily although being 65 years old and later denied entering the boarding gate. His fault, he had a power-bank in his check-in baggage.
My father had done a couple of flights, though he is not frequent. On an unfortunate day, he set out to board a flight from bangalore to jaipur alone. Here is how the events unfolded. It was morning 5:30 on 17th august, after the security check he started moving towards the boarding gate 9, the flight was at 6:10 am. Simultaneously i got a call (My number was given in booking) asking the passenger to report at gate number 7, the person nervously told me a physical check was required. Unknown about the 'physical check' i asked my father to proceed to gate number 7.
That was when it became a trouble. Indigo crew tossed my father from gate number 7 to gate number 9, back to gate 7 and then again to gate 9. By then he had lost 10-15 minutes. (Later my father told me it was difficult for him to walk fast because of his age and the floor was slippery.) ultimately the indigo crew told him that he has a power bank in his check-in baggage and he had to take it out. A crew member escorted him back to the baggage section and dropped him there. My father took out the power-bank from his bag, got another boarding pass as his earlier pass was canceled and went for security check again, no support from indigo crew.
Indigo crew had a different story. As i called back the number i got a call from earlier, 'rakshith danda' picked it and told me he has been searching for my father but he can't find him in the security check. So he had announced his name, though he did not get any response. Immediately, i called up my father, he said he was still in the security check with 5 people ahead of him. My father went back to gate number 9 where he was denied an entry. Rather they asked him to book another flight same time next day with a difference of 5080 (The flight cost was 5300+ on cleartrip). To which i refused and asked my father to lodge a complaint about the inefficiency of their system.
This started a mockery. I had an argument with the crew at boarding gate named 'shashi'. First, he did not accept any inefficiency second, when i gave him pointers on how he was contradicting his statements, he gave back the phone to my father. My father probed him to talk again on call, though he replied that he had no interest in talking to me. Apparently, i had lost his interest because i showed him the flaws in his arguments and asked him to stop #.
I asked my father to hold the ground and get a written complaint. Though a self-claimed manager came to help, but she gave us only an email-id to send a complaint. She was not in a mood to take any complaint. My father was forced to leave the terminal against his will and they cancelled his second boarding pass.
Two hours later i got a call from indigo, telling me they would book another flight without extra charge. But i had booked another flight already and i refused.
I have few questions left unanswered.
1. How come an old passenger 65 years old, who had reached boarding gate 35 minutes prior to departure, made to run for 15 minutes, while you can't decide what to do with him. Then left on his own later?
2. How cluelessly the staff makes false statements?
I have 4 instances
A. The person at checkin-counter 'ravi' said, he had asked my father if there is a power-bank in check-in baggage and my father replied in a no. Ravi later told me that he had on-boarded 180 passengers so far that day, so i asked if he remembers the response of each passenger. He replied in a no, adding contrarily he remembers my father's response clearly.
My father on the other side does not remember being asked. He said he had not replied anything about power-bank at the check-in counter. Also, he did not have any intention to smuggle power-bank.
B. Non-existent announcements. 'rakshith' one of the indigo crew told me that he had announced my father's name many times but he did not get any response. My father told me he did not hear any announcement. It was a silent airport and my father does not have any hearing problem.
C. When i asked 'shashi' another staff, why was my father not supported all the time? Shashi told me it was not true there was a person with him to escort him. Though when i probed further, he said he did not have enough man to escort a passanger from check-in counter to security check.
D. The self-proclaimed manager said that my father accepted that my father did not know there was power-bank in the bag, though my father denied making any such statement. I probed the manager further and asked about exact words my father said. She said she was convinced she got the information from the conversation between my father and staff 'shashi', though she did not remember the words.
3. How come it took you two hours after sending the passenger back home to understand the seriousness of the situation?
4. What action have you taken so far on the issue?
- ashish
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