Careful: random bug in Air India systems making people miss flights

There seems to be a bug in Air India’s reservation or pre-departure management systems that is making people miss their flights. If you are booked with the airline, it might interest you so that you can be careful.

Air India randomly emails customers about changes and cancellations to their flights.

I first heard of this issue yesterday when someone tagged me in a post on X. Air India notified the said passenger that his flight was cancelled, forcing him to call Air India’s call centre and get accommodated on another flight.  Unfortunately, in his case, this was someone travelling to attend the last rites of someone in their family, and they did not appreciate Air India’s unprofessionalism in this case.

a screenshot of a phone

I figured this was a random incident, but I looked up FlightRadar24, and the flight operated as scheduled. I’ve contacted the person who posted this information to check if the flight was initially scheduled to operate with an A350-900 and was swapped with an A320 at the last minute. It seems so because of a couple of reasons.

Through June 30, 2024, the said flight was operated by an A320neo at 9:40 AM. As of July 1, the flight was retimed to operate at 9:55/10:05 AM. The flight operates with an A350-900 every day except on Fridays (when perhaps the aircraft is pulled into maintenance). So, this was most probably a last-minute swap, and Air India did not communicate it honestly with the customer. Although, I’d wait to see a copy of the ticket to be sure.

a screenshot of a computer

Today, on July 4, 2024, they pulled a similar notification stunt on someone else. Someone was booked to fly from Mumbai to Bengaluru on AI639, and he got a message in the early morning that the flight was rescheduled and would depart 2:20 hours later. He later heard from Air India again that they had reinstated the flight to its original time.

a screenshot of a phone

Yet again, it caused the Air India customer to miss his flight. The customer summarised it in this longish post on X.

Now, it is another case of Air India’s reservation systems acting up and sending out an alert that was not needed. The explanation given to the customer is also hilarious.

a screenshot of a social media post

It’s amazing that there was no cross-check at the network OCC before this information was even input into the system.

Bottomline

Air India has a glitching system, one of hundreds of IT systems that make an airline. While it figures out where the glitch is and rectifies it, you’d do well to cross-check any alerts about your flight changes or cancellations before taking them as a given.

What do you make of the current IT issues at Air India?


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. I got hit with it. For a PNQ-BLR ticket bought 6 weeks ago, got a text message saying the flight time changed by 7 hours from 7:35pm to 2am. Went to their site and it says booking is cancelled. Meanwhile agency that sold the ticket has no notification whatsoever.
    Their AI helper can easily win the worst chatbot award – no contest.

  2. I know IX is different airline, but recently there has been a spree of cancellations here. IX1795, IX782, IX792 – I had scheduled flights here and had to rebook myself on Indigo. Will be helpful if you can throw some light here @Ajay

  3. I have experienced these random messages for years now. I always ignore it. But its understandable that non-frequent AI fliers will take these messages seriously and miss flights.

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