A couple of days ago, I wrote about how a long haul Air India flight had to divert over clogged toilets. By all accounts, it sounds like the carrier’s handling of this situation was not impressive. The airline has now provided some details of how exactly this happened, and why the decision was made to…
Continue reading: Clogged Toilets Cause 10-Hour Air India Flight To Nowhere
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Sadly, the western perception of Indian customer service is one of sanguine gestures and non-accountability to an infuriating degree. Sir/Ma’am I understand that you are having a difficulty. That is not the experience we want you to have. Kindly allow me to research the outcomes. Thank you for your patience. I have determined that you are indeed having a difficulty. Is there anything else I can help with today?
Not the first time for the Chicago flight, although the other was to Chicago some years back. Given the situation then it does make me wonder if they dispatched from Chicago with fewer than 100% operable toilets.
Ignore this comment. I just read in the article that there is a curfew.
But Manchester would’ve been open. And Gatwick maybe also.
Perversely I always picture the situation in J on these flights as a positive. Eat. Sleep. Start again in two days. Two flights in one! 🙂
I enjoyed air India for the first time from Sydney to Delhi last year. With vistara onward to Frankfurt.
This kind of stuff sucks largely but it’s not unexpected when flying an airline like air India. And it’s a pretty rare occurrence to be fair.
Aside from the curfew, landing at LHR could have caused a lot of issues with CIQ.
For US citizens to enter the UK, they now need UK ETA. Indian passport holders also need a visa(not ETA) to enter the UK.
Since the flight originated from the US, most passengers would have no problem with entering the US(unless their US visa have expired), and the most logical option for a divert could be going back to the US.
For Americans, it began at the beginning of 2025. For EU passport holders it begins in April.
S***e country. S***e airline.
Third world country, third world airline.
Send them ALL back. And no I didn’t vote for Trump. They come to the USA and infest our communities like rodents. Send them back.
For US citizens, it's already been in effect since this January.
From Apr 2 is for other nationals.
Amazon was outsourcing their customer service to India a couple of years ago and it was AWFUL. Nothing but a bunch of lazy, corrupt, and incompetent reps.
I have a question regarding a similar situation I encountered with United. I purchased a business class ticket via Avianca LifeMiles from HNL to GUM. We flied most of the way there, but had to return to HNL due to poor weather conditions in Guam. 11 hour flight to nowhere.
United rebooked me on the same flight the next day, but business class was full. I accepted a downgrade to economy under the condition of United providing flight credit for the fare difference (approximately $800). Despite having screenshots of this agreement, United is now denying any flight credit, since the ticket was booked through Avianca, and I need to address any possible compensation directly with them.
Do I have any recourse? I thought having screenshots of two different United representatives ensuring me flight credit would put me in good position. But United has held firm in offering nothing.
I understand the potential issues with diverting to London, but still it feels like diverting to Newark or JFK would have made more sense. Slightly shorter distance to backtrack and more options for rebooking passengers.
Very fortunate for VT-ALQ passengers.
If this was VT-CIE, passengers would be told to visualise yourself taking a dump in a Japanese bidet or A380 shower suite ;).
Way to rub the crap in.
If they rebooked you in coach and you accepted it then LifeMiles ticket, LifeMiles discretion.
Might be a different story if you're rebooked in business then get bumped.
At most probably miles back as if you redeemed a coach ticket.
"Eat. Sleep. Start again."
You forgot the part that a Wells Fargo executive pees on you.
You must have been to the amazing India part.
There is Delhi Mumbai and maybe Bangalore India and there is India.
Do you include the former VP and the current VP's wife too?
What about CEO of Google, Microsoft, IBM, just to name a few. Lots more at the head of major companies.
What about that famous South African with over a dozen kids, also infest our communities too?
Par for the course for Air India. Will take a decade or more for service to go from the completely unacceptable to the merely intolerable
"Another evidence of Star Alliance superiority over SkyTeam. This would never happen on a SkyTeam airline."
Certainly true to their tourism slogan: 'Incredible !ndia'. 'The campaign aims to showcase the diverse and rich experiences India offers'.
I guess some of us are more adventurous than others. You can't really say "I've travelled in India" when you've spent three nights at the Lake Palace hotel in Udaipur and then left the country again.
That was literally my last call with amazon. So polite while telling my they could not help/
Thanks Eskimo.
I accepted a rebooking in coach, under the condition of receiving flight credit for the fare difference. I chose my words carefully with the chat representative (asking for flight credit instead of a refund), since I knew the ticket was booked with partner miles and a "refund" would be minimal.
If the chat representative had pointed out ahead of time that it was Avianca's ticket, then I would accept that response. But since it was noticed after the flight had been completed, I think United should honor the agreement.
I've flown Air India before. My flight left 3 hours late and there were NO annoucements or apologies, making it even worse than the Indian Railways whose well-known motto is: "The inconvenience is deeply regretted." Air India doesn't even regret the inconvenience.
I hear you. That's what you have to deal with.
I've been through the worst. Ticked by A, marketed by B, operated by C. And they're not all in the same alliance.
This is when your 360 GS CK comes in handy. They take the hit for you and compensate you some but not as much as you hoped.
But if you're mid tier status or less, Enjoy running in circles for eternity.
There's a cap on take offs between 00:00-06:00 I think (roughly that). I also think there's a limit on landings in that time, though that isn't imposed but voluntary.
I don't think, legally, there's anything that would've stopped Air India from landing but there might've been an issue with visas that didn't exist for a landing in the US?
And this is why I always avoid Air India on flights to India despite the direct option for me in Chicago. I really wish United would operate this route - talk about a comparison that makes United's terrible catering look tolerable given the other aspects (seat, bedding, operational reliability) outshine Air India so significantly.
I'm guessing it's not high margin enough for United to find it profitable whereas Air India can make it work with their cost base.
I have a similar story as well, only my delay was 6 hours. First Class was filthy, the aircraft actually had a foul odor.....nightmare with attitude served in spades.
There’s a curfew on arrivals at LHR between 430 and 600. I’ve been in Hong Kong and told the departure is delayed to avoid this.
UA used to operate nonstop to India from ORD to Delhi, which began during COVID-19. But it was stopped after Putin invaded Ukraine, causing Russian airspace bans for US and many other Western carriers. But India's better relationship with Russia means that AI get more leeway in operating flights flying over Russian territory.
The aircraft could have gone to Gatwick, where they have 787 operations with no curfew. A LHR crew could have been used to operate an onward flight.
Their handler in ORD is Worldwide Flight Services (WFS). I wonder where the ORD station manager was when the aircraft arrived? Does AIN contract out station management in ORD?
I am like how did this happen.
Anyone want to have a guess what is my favorite 2 planes.
In all fairness (and excepting cases where the lavatory tanks were not sufficiently emptied before departure), this has more to do with passenger tossing all sort of unsuitable materials (e.g. female sanitary napkins, baby diapers, etc.) into the toilet bowl than with a fault of the airline itself.
That’s why aircraft lavatories have notes attached somewhere near the toilet cautioning passengers not to drop certain items into the toilet blow.
If passengers don’t follow that caution, the consequences are as mentioned in the article.
Vacuum toilets, installed on almost all newer aircraft, are prone to this interference and, as the lavatory system is is interconnected, one toilet being blocked by a sanitary napkin or diaper may affect several toilets. as the system can no longer build the vacuum in the septic tank below.
b
Send all white americans back, they all came to our country and infested our communities like rodents
I think it's a false equivalence to say "sure the customers trashed the toilets, but the airline's call center wasn't helpful".
Is anyone really surprised at the ethnicity of the people responsible for this disgusting, though entirely normal for them, behaviour?
A relative of mine was on a BA flight from LHR to CCU (Kolkata now, but formerly called Calcutta, which is very apt) and this person left his seat in cattle class (again very apt) to visit the commodes, to find them all in use.
Eventually, he lost patience, and just dumped his load on the floor near the midship jump seat over the wing, in front of the emergency exit door.
The Western passengers who witnessed this were aghast, as this was a BA flight, and supposedly civilised, but they were the minority, so little was said, or done, other than the mess being cleaned up.
With air circulation thoughout the entire plane, one cannot imagine the stench that must have lingered.
Horrific to those of the civilised first world, but remember, this is the normal behaviour of the uncivilised third world.
There's not a huge difference, relatively speaking, between 10 hours and 14 hours. Why not just continue to destination and get there? It's just a toilet, no safety risk, don't get the big deal?