Worst Flight Experience Ever. Review on Air India

I was travelling back to Hyderabad from Dubai on 22nd October 2022. The overall experience is the worst ever I had. I have been flying for nearly 20 years now and have used multiple airline services, but even the budget airlines like Indigo, Air Asia, Jetstar, etc provided me much better experience than the so-called premium airline service Air India.

I chose Air India over Emirates for this trip(Emirates was cheaper by INR 2000 approx.) just because it is an Indian Airlines but I regret my choice by the time the trip is over.

Check-in was smooth and hassle-free. The real headache started at the boarding gate. Boarding was started just 30 minutes before time(which is normal). But the catch here is they have this weigh machine to check the cabin baggage weight, which I have only seen once before while I was flying with Air Asia(which is a budget airline). The purpose of this is to extract as much money from the passengers as possible, to be honest.

My baggage was as below:

1 Laptop Bag with a laptop which weighs almost 3KGs and along with the charger it weighs 5 KGs+ 1 IPad

1 Cabin Size suitcase which had few clothes for emergencies and a overcoat in case it is cold inside the aircraft + 1 additional laptop + 2 liters of Whiskey which I purchased at duty free. (overall weight was 9 Kgs)

1 Bag of chocolates purchased at duty free(weighing 2 Kgs)

Overall weight for all 3 baggages is 9+6+2 Kgs= 17 Kgs

Now based on the baggage rules of Air India(refer https://airindia.in/hand-luggage.htm) my allowance is as below:

1. 1 bag weighing upto 8 Kgs.

2. Additional allowance for a laptop+ overcoat among others.

I was unaware that duty free products are part of 8 Kg limit and also to be honest not clear in the rules mentioned in the website unless you read the rules for business class.(which was not the case in any of my prior flying experience. Normally duty free products are allowed beyond the baggage limit as long as it is in acceptable quantity)

I break my weight into 4 parts

1. Duty Free= 2+ 2= 4 Kgs

2. Laptop(1 allowed)= 5 Kgs

3. Overcoat= 1.5 Kgs

4. Others= 6.5 Kgs

If I take above calculations into picture, I had excess weight of 2.5Kgs(4 Kg duty free+ 6.5Kgs Others). However, the ground staff has calculation of their own. They weighed all luggage together which is 17 Kgs and they gave allowance of 2 Kgs for a laptop and said I am carrying excess of 7 Kgs.

They want me to pay 55AED per Kg in excess.

I have requested them saying my laptop weighs heavier and since you don't even allow me to put my laptops in check-in baggage I have no option but to carry them onboard and also laptop should not be included while calculating the baggage weight. But the staff was not ready to listen saying different airlines have different rules. I quote here again, I was mentioning the Air India rules only but well apparently I was wrong which means their website is wrong?

Then I gave them the second option, I can send my baggage except 2 alcohol bottles + laptops to check-in baggage. They said we have to do it at check-in and not at the gate. Quoting the website again - "In case the hand baggage weighs more than 10 kg, the same will not be allowed in the cabin and has to be checked in as registered baggage."

My duty free products are much less in value compared to the 55AED per KG I am being charged and when I mentioned this, they said we can return the duty free products and I will be refunded but hey the gates will be closed by the time you return. This was down to the line blackmailing.

I was not the only one who faced this issue. There were more than a dozen passengers who were being harassed to pay up. And I have witnessed many more who just paid up and boarded.

My question here is if these are the rules, why was the same not being mentioned at check-in? Why not check the weight there and inform these rules? Well, the reason is they can't charge passengers if they inform it at check-in. The best part is I have used only 15Kgs of my 30Kgs limit of check-in baggage.

Finally, I have ended up paying for 4 Kgs(after they reduced 3 Kgs for my laptop), which again was forced to pay after being threatened to miss the flight.

In-Flight experience

The cabin staff were well mannered and helpful which is the only saving grace for me this trip, but otherwise even in-flight experience was dull.

It was like flying a budget airlines with a food option. There are no entertainment screens available on-board and the space was crampy. I was not served food of my choice as the options were over by the time food was served to my row. I have faced the same issue when I flied from Hyderabad to Dubai and I tried to choose my food option 72 Hours before the flight but well Air India app had no option to do this. I normally don't complain about this but with the boarding experience everything, small thing mattered to me this trip.

To top it off, the aircon was bad, I was literally sweating in the flight. After me and multiple passengers complained about the same, cabin crew have tried their best to improve the condition, but well it just got a bit better but not to the satisfactory levels.

All said and done, this is my last trip with Air India. I will never bother to even check this airline ever after.