Bengaluru Flyer Criticises Air India for Last-Minute India-US Flight Change: 'No Empathy Whatsoever'

A Bengaluru woman has accused Air India of “high-handedness” after the airline abruptly cancelled her flight from India to the United States. The flight from Delhi to San Francisco was originally scheduled to take off on August 18, but was pushed back to August 22. When passengers objected to the new date, Air India offered an alternative route via Mumbai on August 17. However, it was inconvenient for those already in Bengaluru. These passengers requested a direct flight from the Silicon Valley of India to San Francisco via Mumbai but the airline “categorically denied” their requests and people were left with the options of a 10-hour layover in Delhi or waiting until August 22.

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Loveleen Arun, while sharing the incident on X, wrote, “High-handedness by Air India on another level.”

“Delhi-SFO flight booked for August 18 has been arbitrarily cancelled and the passengers were offered to fly on August 22. When they said that is not acceptable they have been given delhi-mumbai-sfo on August 17. Passengers have pleaded that they will be in Bangalore and this would mean flying BLR-DEL (having a 10 hour layover) and then taking Del-MUM- SFO and instead give them BLR-MUM-SFO which has been categorically denied by Air India.”

She further slammed the airline, saying that they have “no empathy whatsoever” towards passengers. “First you cancel flights at whim and then don’t try even a slight bit to help your clients. Just no empathy whatsoever! Money lost in booking, cancelling and re-booking domestic flights is another matter altogether!” she concluded.

Take a look at her post on X below:

After receiving a lot of backlash online, the airline apologised to the woman. The company’s comment on the woman’s post reads, “Dear Ms. Arun, we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by the disruption. Please help us with your booking details via DM to promptly look into this.”

Check out how Internet users responded to Air India’s last-minute flight change:

“One of the things I find worse in these cancelled international flights is how long that large amount of money is stuck. Because you make a last-minute transaction, the fares are high and the refund takes long. And by the time the bill comes at the end of the month, it’s for both the amounts and takes a toll if you are on a cash crunch issue,” wrote X user Bhaibhav Mishra.

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Another expressed, “My flight from NYC to Delhi was randomly cancelled two days before (Aug 10) departure, all I got was a WhatsApp text saying your itinerary has updated, rescheduling on Aug 13 flight. When I called though the call center person was good and he rebooked us on the JFK-BOM flight.”

“This has become a norm for Air India, last week my sister’s ticket from Del to EWR was cancelled and rescheduled 10 days later. My sister went to the Air India counter at the airport and got changed from BOM to EWR. The call centre was hopeless as they offered a full refund or travel later,” fumed a third X user.