Air India flight nightmare compensation query

bagand96

So at the time of sale Flightcatchers sold a valid Air India ticket, the OP's screenshot shows it's on a single ticket and meets the Minimum Connection Time.  If the Air India reservation system accepted the booking then it's valid.

At some point the schedule has been amended to change AI128 from an 03:10 arrival to an 04:15 arrival.  This causes a mis-connect as it's now fallen below the MCT.  Normally when this happens the airline notifies passengers and offers an alternative flight.  If you book via an agent then the airline will contact the agent, the agent then needs to contact the passenger. Sometimes this can fall through the cracks with poor agents who don't pick it up and act.  This could be what happened here, although there's no proof of that yet.

What's also odd is that the departure time of AI128 didn't change, just the arrival time.  It could be that the flight was loaded into the reservation system incorrectly in the first place.  Would be unusual but I guess not impossible. The fact that Air India did reroute him would suggest they accept they had responsibility to do so.  Although the fact they wouldn't through-check from LHR suggests they knew it was a mis-connect at that point.

I agree with @eskbanker I'd probably start with a UK261 claim.  See what Air India say. They may come back and say "there was a reschedule, your agent was notified on DD/MM/YY."  If that's the case you'll know it's the agent issue. Or they may accept it was their issue.  But it seems a good place to start.

Westin

bagand96 said:

So at the time of sale Flightcatchers sold a valid Air India ticket, the OP's screenshot shows it's on a single ticket and meets the Minimum Connection Time.  If the Air India reservation system accepted the booking then it's valid.

At some point the schedule has been amended to change AI128 from an 03:10 arrival to an 04:15 arrival.  This causes a mis-connect as it's now fallen below the MCT.  Normally when this happens the airline notifies passengers and offers an alternative flight.  If you book via an agent then the airline will contact the agent, the agent then needs to contact the passenger. Sometimes this can fall through the cracks with poor agents who don't pick it up and act.  This could be what happened here, although there's no proof of that yet.

What's also odd is that the departure time of AI128 didn't change, just the arrival time.  It could be that the flight was loaded into the reservation system incorrectly in the first place.  Would be unusual but I guess not impossible. The fact that Air India did reroute him would suggest they accept they had responsibility to do so.  Although the fact they wouldn't through-check from LHR suggests they knew it was a mis-connect at that point.

I agree with @eskbanker I'd probably start with a UK261 claim.  See what Air India say. They may come back and say "there was a reschedule, your agent was notified on DD/MM/YY."  If that's the case you'll know it's the agent issue. Or they may accept it was their issue.  But it seems a good place to start.

I would agree with above.

At some point it appears the Air India schedule changed. At that point Air India, via the agent, should have sent a schedule change notification.  This may of been missed if sent via email, or not sent.

The STA for AI128 has been 04:15 for a while - perhaps a longer scheduling due to the southerly diversion avoiding Ukrainian airspace. Not sure a loading error, just a change aligning to longer flying times and air route congestion.

I could not see AI2413/17Feb as scheduled to operate at all.   Air India have AI 649 schedule for 05:30 departure.  On 17th it departed at 05:50.   This to me would flag up that a notification about a change to the booking was either missed when sent, or possibly not forwarded on by the agent/airline.

Very unfortunate situation with a gentleman of that age flying alone.  It does perhap reinforce the need to ensure that regular checks are made to reservations in the lead up to travel, and also use online check in to obtain warning of flight changes.

Personally, I don't see any financial compensation coming along.  You may get a 'sorry' email after a lot of back and forth to the agent.

bagand96

Westin said:

At some point it appears the Air India schedule changed. At that point Air India, via the agent, should have sent a schedule change notification.  This may of been missed if sent via email, or not sent.

The STA for AI128 has been 04:15 for a while - perhaps a longer scheduling due to the southerly diversion avoiding Ukrainian airspace. Not sure a loading error, just a change aligning to longer flying times and air route congestion.

Ah of course, that also makes sense. 

I also tend to agree that if it's a agent error, then getting any recourse will be unlikely. 

eskbanker

Westin said:
The STA for AI128 has been 04:15 for a while - perhaps a longer scheduling due to the southerly diversion avoiding Ukrainian airspace. Not sure a loading error, just a change aligning to longer flying times and air route congestion.

OP says the flight was booked last September, so surely any impact of Ukrainian airspace closure would have been factored into schedules since long before that?

Westin

eskbanker said:

Westin said:
The STA for AI128 has been 04:15 for a while - perhaps a longer scheduling due to the southerly diversion avoiding Ukrainian airspace. Not sure a loading error, just a change aligning to longer flying times and air route congestion.

OP says the flight was booked last September, so surely any impact of Ukrainian airspace closure would have been factored into schedules since long before that?

You would think so. Schedules can however change and be updated by seasonality.  Not sure how AI compile forward flight planning schedules, whether they finalise and set accordingly to the traditional summer/winter timetable or if they have been adjusting on a rolling basis given no one knows how long the conflict is to go on for.

Somewhere along the way a schedule change has been made and either not sent to the OP’s father, or it got missed in a junk mail filter.

NJ69x

Hi guys just to answer a few points raised:

We did receive an email from Flightcatchers saying there had been a change to the flight. I telephoned them about 2-3 weeks ago to ask what had changed and the agent said it's nothing to worry about and it's only a change of the flight code for the BOM - ATQ leg but it's the same flight. He said everything else was the same and there was nothing to worry about. Clearly in hindsight that wasn't the case and I should have looked at the schedule more closely but I took his word for it.

We received a new updated flight schedule the yesterday from Flightcatchers and it's clearly lies because they have updated it to say the AI649 was cancelled when we know that it flew. Why they sent this false information update I have no idea? I've attached schedule to this message. 

I agree with the comments saying the check in staff in Heathrow must have known we couldn't make the connecting flight which is why they didn't give the second flight boarding pass at LHR. They instead told us it's fine no problem you will make the connection when they must have known we wouldn't have.

What should have happened is once the route became unfeasible the airline should have moved my dad to LHR - DEL - ATQ or offered a full refund. Instead they sent a 83 year old man on a 24 hour journey knowing he was never going to make his original schedule.

I will try doing a UK261 claim but like many have said we don't have much chance of winning it. I think Flightcatchers and air India are both as bad as each other 

bagand96

NJ69x said:

Hi guys just to answer a few points raised:

We did receive an email from Flightcatchers saying there had been a change to the flight. I telephoned them about 2-3 weeks ago to ask what had changed and the agent said it's nothing to worry about and it's only a change of the flight code for the BOM - ATQ leg but it's the same flight. He said everything else was the same and there was nothing to worry about. Clearly in hindsight that wasn't the case and I should have looked at the schedule more closely but I took his word for it.

This sounds like it could have been the reschedule email.  What exactly did the email say? Did you at any time check the itinerary on the Air India website?  Sounds like someone at Flightcatchers may not have grasped the situation properly when you spoke with them.

NJ69x said:

We received a new updated flight schedule the yesterday from Flightcatchers and it's clearly lies because they have updated it to say the AI649 was cancelled when we know that it flew. Why they sent this false information update I have no idea? I've attached schedule to this message. 

As you say AI649 did fly on 17th as scheduled.  However what I think the email you received is showing is that AI649 was cancelled in terms of your father's reservation, and AI2428 is the replacement (as well as presumably another AI flight DEL-ATQ).  When the situation became apparent either at LHR or BOM then someone at Air India will have re-ticketed the revised schedule which will have pushed through another notification to Flightbookers, who in turn emailed you (likely automated)

NJ69x said:

What should have happened is once the route became unfeasible the airline should have moved my dad to LHR - DEL - ATQ or offered a full refund. Instead they sent a 83 year old man on a 24 hour journey knowing he was never going to make his original schedule.

That would likely have happened if your Travel Agent had dealt with the schedule change properly.

NJ69x said:

I will try doing a UK261 claim but like many have said we don't have much chance of winning it. I think Flightcatchers and air India are both as bad as each other 

From your most recent post it looks that Air India did everything they needed to.  They changed their schedule and notified your agent Flightcatchers who in turn emailed you.  It's starting to look very much like Flightcatchers didn't act properly in resolving the mis-connect, even when prompted by you with a phone call.  There'll be no UK261 claim, and it's likely a waste of time trying.

When booking with OTA's (and many will say never do!) always make sure you regularly check the reservation on the airline's own website, for situations exactly like this.  

eskbanker

NJ69x said:

We did receive an email from Flightcatchers saying there had been a change to the flight. I telephoned them about 2-3 weeks ago to ask what had changed and the agent said it's nothing to worry about and it's only a change of the flight code for the BOM - ATQ leg but it's the same flight. He said everything else was the same and there was nothing to worry about. Clearly in hindsight that wasn't the case and I should have looked at the schedule more closely but I took his word for it.

Did the email just advise you to phone them, or did it actually have details of the amended booking included/attached?

saajan_12

Is this partly also due to father asking for assistance with boarding and navigating the airport? Asking as you phrase it as "them failing to get him on " rather than the gate closing. 

If so, are there any guidelines given when requesting the assistance? If there's a limited number of assistance staff and they de-board passengers needing assistance last when there's more space to maneuver, then that could further increase the time needed for a connection. 

NJ69x

eskbanker said:

NJ69x said:

We did receive an email from Flightcatchers saying there had been a change to the flight. I telephoned them about 2-3 weeks ago to ask what had changed and the agent said it's nothing to worry about and it's only a change of the flight code for the BOM - ATQ leg but it's the same flight. He said everything else was the same and there was nothing to worry about. Clearly in hindsight that wasn't the case and I should have looked at the schedule more closely but I took his word for it.

Did the email just advise you to phone them, or did it actually have details of the amended booking included/attached?

This is the email they sent me on 31/01/25, I called them after I got it and was told nothing to worry about it's just the flight code has changed for BOM to ATQ leg. There was a pdf attached with the updated schedule.