How to better manage flight cancellations and having a single source of truth system for customer support? Experience with Air India AI 144 (Newark to Mumbai) with my mother who needed wheelchair assistance.
Summary: Travel Partner system (Expedia), Airline Customer support system, Airport operations team system, Airline mobile apps.. all of them provided their own status without single source of truth :-(
Here is my story due to this cancellation, reschedule?and re-reschedule of AI-144...
- Cancellation alert by google early morning for AI 144 for 1st may. Then I received an email on 29th April, 9:46 am est from Expedia stating my air india flight for 1st may 12:05 is cancelled and if I want to rebook for 3 am flight on 2nd may. I accepted a 3:00 am AI flight on 29th April. Since I was traveling with my mom, I had flight insurance bought with my ticket?
- I called the Expedia support team if my tickets are confirmed for 3 am est 2nd may flight.. Expedia support had trouble pulling my rebooked flight details (everytime I called) but I explained my situation of rebooking and then they were able to pull up rebooked information.. they stated that air india has put me 3 am flight segments but air india has not issued confirmed tickets.. should be done in next 12-24 hours?
- 30th April.. I called Expedia customer support and air india customer support, both confirmed that I am all set for 3 am 2nd may flight
- 1st may - I did check-in via air india mobile app..it lets me check-in. I selected a seat as well. Boarding pass is not issued stating connect at airport for boarding pass. I am unable to check-in for my mom as her ticket is with wheelchair assistance.
- 1st may at 10 pm est??- I called air india customer support to confirm if my flight is still on for 3 am..got confirmation that flight is on and I can leave for the airport with my mother. I was a little skeptical as google flight started showing 9 pm est alert but all flight schedules are for toss..I trusted air india support.. my mistake but what to do here.. who to trust when air india support staff is not in sync.
- Reached Newark airport at 11:30 pm est via Uber drive.. seeing only one lady at air india counter (my google alert fear started becoming strong) who is trying her best to manage the crowd by telling them that 3 am flight is cancelled and rescheduled to 9 pm est
- I asked her what to do next.. Where to go : she said folks can go to Wyndham gardens hotel for night stay?
- How to go to Wyndham garden hotel with mom who needs wheelchair assistance..instructions were: take elevator to take air train.. use two air trains with international luggages along with mother to reach P4 from where you take a shuttle to go to Wyndham gardens..
- Once you reach Wyndham gardens, manage to get your bags in.. there is no luggage cart for help?
- There is line for folks waiting to do hotel check in?
- Hotel check in done at 1 or 2 am.. we crash to bed and sleep
- Morning est.. manage your food.. get ready for another ride.
- Please note that there was No cancellation notice / notifications on air india mobile app where I had checked in..?
- Took a hotel shuttle??to reach ewr terminal b. Close to 5:15 pm est, 1st may, air india counter was setup and I got boarding pass for my mom and me?
- My bad I did not carefully check my boarding pass as I was given two boarding pass but both were for my mom…This was caught at the TSC security checkpoint.. wheelchair assistant and I went back to air india counter to get my correct boarding pass.. phew?
- Boarding of flight starts approx 9:40ish?
- And we leave by 10ish?
- how to better manage cancellations early..?
- how to ensure customer has read your cancellation notice
- How can support staff be equipped to handle? Can their system be updated to reflect the right status? Single source of truth?
- Expedia app still shows my flight was for 1st may 12:05 pm est?
- Air india mobile app lets me check in but no alerts on mobile app..
Lead at Tata Consultancy Services
2 年omg, so mush hassles.....please improve airlines
Senior Associate at Cognizant
2 年Airlines customer support and third party support are not at all concerned with travelers convinience ...It's an nightmare to travel that too in international for elderly person.. It should be improved
IBM Partner | Enterprise AI and Hybrid Cloud services
2 年Looking forward to hear more initiatives from Air India Limited.. Satya Ramaswamy to attack this and transform #AI experience
System Administration | System Engineer | DevOps
2 年Really need to find out what is causing this delays/reschedule so often these days by air india. This is messing up everyone’s post/pre itinerary and of course air lines have no regrets and no other alternatives available. Customer has yo bear all hotel/travel hassle cost. More difficult when its comes to parents/old age people. I was on the flight of 29th april which was rescheduled to 30th april without any email/prior notification sent.
Product Specialist | Product Safety | Risk & Compliance
2 年Agreed! I was on this flight as well. Poor communication from the airline was one of the major root cause of this issue and confusion. The whole situation was a complete mess.