Well here is the report on my recent trip to Chennai. We decided to fly the new budget arm of Air India called Air India Express as the fares were very competitive and for us with five tickets, this would have saved us a real bundle!
Our adventure started at the Singapore Changi Airport. As we were checking in we saw that the flight was scheduled to depart as planned. Then came the fun part - as we were five people travelling as a family we were under the impression that we were entitled to a maximum of 35 kgs in hand luggage. of course this would not mean a big bag, but a smaller bag, which can be filled to capacity. So we had a small trolley-like bag which was filled with the kids milk, the video camera and change of clothing for all of us. In addition we had 2 hand bags, the kids had a small haversack bag (their school bags) each and a plastic bag with jackets and sweaters and some food in it. So this girl at the check-in counter now says to put each of our carry-on luggage to be weighed and none will weigh more than 7 kgs. As expected the trolley bag weighed some 11 kgs. Inspite of me arguing with them, they wouldnt budge, so right there we had to scramble moving stuff from one bag to the other. The camera went on the neck and then the bag weighed about 7.5 kgs, which they graciously allowed. We were also well within our limit for checked-in luggage and then when we got the boarding pass, we realised the flight was now 2 hours late. The ETD was 7:30 pm and we were at the airport by 5 pm, so now we realised we had to spend almost 4.5 hours at the airport!
Next stop immigration. Again Air India had to show why they are such a paranoid airline. All passengers travelling by Air India had to go through something called Channel B. This is a seperate door where there is a uniformed policeman who checks your tickets and boarding card. He also ensures that each piece of your luggage is less than 7 kgs each and it does not exceed the dimensions prescribed by the airline. So what he did was to take our trolley case and then fir it in a mock up of the dimensions. By this time I was so angry I remembered why I don't like Air India and vowed that I will never take my national carrier ever again if I can help it!
The flight was also terrible. The stewardess had apparently never heard of the IATA regulation of giving infants the extra seatbelts with which to attach the parent's belt with. Then when asked for pillow before take-off, she said after which I agreed to. The kids were tired and were out as soon as they sat in the flight but no pillows. Adults asked and got pillows but kids were ignored. This went on till I raised a stink, when magically pillows appeared. I was so fed-up and angry by the time we reached Chennai.
What I don't understand is that on our return trip we had such a different experience. Based on this experience we reached the airport 3 hours early but it was such a contrast. The person checking us in was not bothered about the weight of our carry-on luggage and didnt blick an eye when we tried to check in more pieces. In fact he asked us to check in our carry-on luggage also but we had to decline as it didnt have any lock in it. The flight was also very smooth with better trained stewardess around.
Too long post, so I'm gonna end here....
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