As a frequent traveller, I understand that cancellations and reschedules are a part of the game, and I’m always ready for it, mostly thanks to the Flighty App. I’ve been in pretty soupy situations, and though there have been headaches dealing with the airlines, I’ve managed to get out of them because I’ve had a heads-up about cancellations.
Cancellations need an alternate flight
In India, there is now a legal requirement under the Passenger Charter published by the DGCA, which states that if you are informed of the cancellation of your flight between two weeks and one day before departure, the airline has to provide you with a new flight allowing you to depart or get you a refund. So, on Monday, I booked a flight for later in the week, and Air India cancelled it on Tuesday. The passenger reservation system automatically rebooked me onto the next flight after the original flight was scheduled to depart, and I received an email. Everything was okay, except that I was hoping to get home in time for dinner with my wife and spend enough time in Mumbai as well, so I’d picked a late-afternoon/early-evening departure for myself. And… this cancellation put my best laid plans to nought.
So, I decided to look for an alternate option. All major airlines now have a self-service reschedule portal, such as Plan B for IndiGo, and there is similarly a menu option under Air India’s online booking engine as well.
Except, it did not work. So, the “system” offered me just one flight on the day I wanted to travel (and was initially booked for), and 20 flights on the day before, and none on the day after. There were seats available for sale on practically every flight I checked.
As you can see, 20 flights for Friday and just one flight for Saturday (the one they automatically rebooked me on). And none on Sunday, Monday and so on. The Air India Team informed me that,
Dear Mr. Awtaney, we’ve observed a disruption in your booking (PNR: XXXXXX). Due to this, you have been accommodated on an alternate flight, AIXXXX, departing at XXXX hrs on the same date, 06 Dec 2025. You have the option to reschedule your travel from 1 day prior up to 6 days after the original date, or opt for a full refund if you wish to cancel the booking. Please confirm if you are referring to this booking and share your preference so we can assist you further.
Now, it is interesting to see that they could identify the booking in context and tell me the details. They also mentioned that Air India’s policy is to be able to offer a travel window of one week from the cancelled flight (one day prior and 6 days after), but their “Self Service” booking system only offered me the flights a day prior and not the day after, forget six days after.
This system used to be far better. Long ago, at least 2-3 years ago, they rescheduled my Goa-Mumbai flight, so we chose to depart a day later. Last year, they decided to cancel an early-morning flight to Ahmedabad, so I could find another option, including connections, which got me there in time for a meeting. And now, this is either someone’s whim that they don’t want to offer options (I can always get on the phone and book whichever flight I like), or there is a system bug that they are unaware of.
Even if I gave them the benefit of the doubt, we are straight up heading into fog season in the North of India, and Delhi is their Home. So, why would an airline based in Delhi not want people to do self-service reaccommodation and instead have them call the call centre to change a booking is beyond me. Their lines will hence be clogged, preventing people who need to actually have a conversation from reaching an agent.
Bottomline
Air India’s “self-service portal” is useless for reaccommodating passengers. It only offers “options” a day prior, not on the day of travel or the day after, which is what Air India’s stated policy is, as informed to me. As we head into the fog season, which causes regular airport chaos and cancellations of flights, I am hoping Air India will fix their system rather than hoodwink the public into believing they know better than the customer.
What do you make of this issue at Air India, and have you got any instances you want to share of Air India picking a flight for you automatically?
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In my case booking on domestic sectors has become impossible. I am a south Indian and like most people from the southern states, my first name on my Aadhaar is an initial followed by the last name, just like Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran. Air India does not accept initials in either the first name or the last name. Customer support says either expand the initial and carry your passport for identification while taking a domestic flight, or just type the initial twice in the last name. So Tata’s Chandra should be booked as Chandrasekaran NN. So a person with such a booking cannot use Digiyatra and there is every possibility of the CISF denying airport entry due to name mismatch. Rivals IndiGo, Akasa and even AI’s own sister airline don’t have this issue. Air India needs to get basics such as these right and programme its systems to cater to varied kinds of Indian names for domestic bookings. Mr Awataney, being a leading name in the space, please raise this issue at AI’s highest levels.
For AI rescheduling, I think using the bot is the happiest path.