Hi,
I had booked a flight from Mumbai to Cochin by Air India Express for thier 6pm flight on 30th Apr. The booking was done almost 2 months in advance. Just a few days before the travel date i get a mail from the airline that the time has been preponed to 5pm. Despite of this i managed to reach the airport check in counter by 4pm. However, i was denied boarding and the reason given was the flight was "Over booked". I was shocked & was highly pained by the way the authorities handled the entire matter. There were around 10 others too who went through the same pain which included an elderly woman along with her grand child. We were given different solutions at different points of time. Finally when we tried to approach the Duty manager, we were denied permission & finally one Mr.Dennis Contractor who claimed to be assistant manager attended us & literally harassed us in the process. He even went on to say, he cannot do anything on this & we can go & talk to their CMD if required. He was not at all empathetic to our cause & highly arrogant. We had to run around in the airport for almost 4 hours & they finally settled with a booking for the next flight of Air India express on 3rd May. Most o[censored]s who were starnded missed an important function at home on 1st May.
I cannot understand how an Airline can over book the flight & deny boarding for passengers having confirmed tickets. I think the Airline management & the regulator need to look into this seriously. While for the airline, we might be just one among the million passenger, for me this travel means a lot for meeting some of my important personal commitment. I seek justice & hope this forum will help me in this.