Air India Reviews & Complaint Guide

The app changed first, the airport screen changed later, and the people at gate F14 still had no explanation. By the time someone finally said the 11:10 departure was delayed, several passengers had already missed the chance to adjust their connections. The delay was frustrating, but the silence made it worse.

People at gate A4 were asking normal questions about vouchers, hotel options, and whether the delay would affect connections. The answers kept changing, and one staff member spoke to passengers like they were wasting time. It was the attitude, more than the delay, that made the experience feel so bad.

After the cancellation, passengers were told hotel vouchers would be sent by text. Some people received them, some did not, and the desk could not explain why. By the time I found a room myself, the nearby hotels were much more expensive than they had been earlier in the evening.

I submitted the refund form after a cancelled Toronto Pearson to Vancouver trip and received a case number right away. After that, nothing was simple. Each call felt like starting over, one agent could not see the previous notes, and the email replies never gave a real date for when the money would be returned.

The best part of this trip happened before boarding. A check-in employee at Madrid Barajas noticed a document mismatch and corrected it before it became a gate problem. The process took extra minutes, but it saved me from a much bigger issue later in the day.

After a tiring trip, I mostly wanted the bags to show up and the staff to be polite. That is exactly what happened. The baggage belt at AKL started quickly, both checked bags arrived together, and the employee nearby helped an older passenger lift a heavy suitcase without being asked.

The check-in line at Johannesburg was long enough that I expected a disaster. A gate agent near A4 noticed the tight connection on AI940, moved the document check along, and explained exactly where to go next. It was the kind of calm help that makes a stressful airport morning feel manageable.

At gate D21, passengers with bags that had already passed the sizer were suddenly told to check them. The staff sounded annoyed when people asked whether the bags would come out planeside or at baggage claim. I would have packed differently if Air India had made the rule clear before boarding started.

The area around seat 18A smelled strongly of the lavatory for most of the flight. A crew member offered a middle seat several rows back, but that was the only option. For a long trip, this was one of those problems that sounds small until you are stuck with it for hours.

We started a vacation with one suitcase missing after Air India AI171. The desk at BOM took the claim and told us to buy basic clothes, then every phone call after that gave a different answer. The bag finally reached the hotel almost two days later with a broken zipper pull, and the reimbursement offer did not come close to what we spent.

After boarding Air India AI208, the screen at my seat froze and the crew tried restarting it twice. Then we were told there was a maintenance warning and everyone just sat there without a clear timeline. I understand safety checks, but the communication on January 18, 2026 made the whole cabin feel stuck and ignored.

The app said Air India AI245 was boarding soon, the airport screen still showed delayed, and the gate desk told us to ignore both until they made an announcement. That kind of mixed information is exhausting when you are trying to decide whether to get food, call a ride, or run to a different gate.