[flyhi152]

I had a confirmed reservation for a flight with Air India from Los Angeles to Frankfurt (non stop). My connecting flight to Spain would have been about 3.5 hours after arriving in Frankfurt.

When I arrived at the airport in Los Angeles I was advised that the flight had been canceled because the plane had been damaged a day before and the replacement plane would not fly to Frankfurt. Instead, it would fly to London several hours later. When I asked the manager why this plane would go to London instead of Frankfurt (Air India never had any route Los Angeles - London at that time) the answer was: "there are only 10 passengers scheduled for Frankfurt, that's why we are sending the plane to London". This still did not make sense to me: If there was a scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, why wouldn't the replacement plane not be able to do that flight ??? I felt that this explanation was complete nonsense.

Finally I was rebooked onto a flight with Air France to Paris with a layover in Paris and a connecting flight to Frankfurt. When I arrived in Frankfurt about 4 hours later than planned, my connecting flight to Spain was gone. I had to spend the night in Frankfurt, buy myself a new ticket to Spain and lost the money for my reservations in Spain.

Later I tried to make a claim and submitted copies of the receipts for my expenses. Air India never paid me a single cent, not even a goodwill voucher or anything similar. Their position was: you had 2 separate tickets and we are not responsible for your loss. I believe that this Airline should make it into the Guiness Book of records for the worst airline customer service.