On Wednesday, Air India flight 126 from Chicago O’Hare to Delhi took off at 11:24 a.m. on its 14-hour journey. However, four and a half hours into the flight, the Boeing 777-300ER (registration VT-ALQ) crossed over Greenland as the the 11th out of 12 lavatories clogged and became inoperable. One business class lav still worked. The airline decided to fly the four and a half hours back to Chicago.
The plane made it back to Chicago O’Hare nearly 10 hours after departure. Passengers were deplaned, and only two airline employees were on site to assist 300 people. Delta Air Lines staff became sympathetic and volunteered to help Air India employees.
Air India says all passengers and crew were accommodated overnight and that alternative travel arrangements were being organized.
Upon landing at Chicago, all passengers and crew disembarked normally and have been provided with accommodation to minimise inconvenience. Alternative arrangements are being made to fly the passengers to their destination.
Air India Boeing 777, Copyright: boarding1now / 123RF Stock Photo
In fact, organized appears to mean ‘passengers were told to contact customer service’. Customer service representatives appeared uninformed about the incident, and reportedly had no immediate solutions.
A reader shares,
My cousin, for whom I had booked a first class ticket using Avianca Miles (SEA-ORD on United, ORD-DEL on Air India), was traveling for a wedding and wasn’t able to make it there. Instead, she opted to turn around and come back to Seattle. We’re now in the midst of customer service hell with Avianca, Lifemiles and Air India to figure out how to get a refund for the miles ticket.
The aircraft remained grounded at Chicago O’Hare for two days, so significant maintenance and cleaning was required to restore the aircraft to operational status.
The airline used to promote that travel with them was like visiting India, but the good parts. They’re making big investments in plane and branding, but clearly they have work to do with irregular operations recovery at outstations.
Sounds like they need to make better arrangement for aircraft maintenance. Seriously how do you have all 12 toilets quit after 4 hours? There really is no excuse. None. No maybe this or that- an MBA somewhere observed a savings of $1 a day by cutting corners.
Definitely, Ruchard.
Is AI having internal maintenance issues? Having that many lavs going out in just four hours makes me wonder. Are their passengers flushing things that don’t belong in the lavs? I.e., WTH?
I wonder if other travelers will take note about flying on Air India and change their plans. As for the cousin who missed the wedding, a couple of extra days should have been built into the schedule to accommodate flight problems. That’s what I did two years ago when I was traveling to a wedding.
this is india in a nutshell. why is anyone suprised?
I’ve busted the occasional toilet after one too many trips to the buffet counter at my local Indian restaurant.
I’m guessing some pax tried to flush non-flushable items down the toilets. Just because an item says ‘disposable’ does NOT mean it’s flushable.
Yeah, I’m guessing there was actually one clog, but it backed up all the toilets. Rough situation.
And FWIW, I think the problem with Air India is really just cleanliness. I’ve recently considered flying them, and that’s the biggest problem, by far. I’m decidedly not particularly picky about such things (my wife’s family is Nicaraguan, and not wealthy, but we stay with them often). So if I have a problem with cleanliness, it means that Air India has deep, obvious issues.
If they could get that cleaned up, I think they could start competing with Turkish… not the world’ best business class, but decent, with a lot of award availability! Over time they could potentially pivot into a premium carrier, but it all starts with getting those planes cleaned so they’re no longer just saturated with grime throughout and in a layer on everything in the cabin.
I was literally just commenting on a separate post here about how awful Air India’s 777s are—Gary’s point in the other post was describing Air India’s recent privatization and planned purchase of hundreds of new aircraft could be a big deal for the airline—but, for now, there’s no way I’m flying with them again until they have new planes. Accidents can happen with any airline, but with Air India, generally, the quality control and maintenance standards have not been up to snuff for a while. Hoping they will invest in the right improvements and actually lead themselves to become a much better carrier.
Past experience, not flying them even if it’s free!!
It’s a sabotage from Khalistanies. !
AI getting constipated too? That’s a first. But unlikely the last.
It’s not like other airlines don’t have their own set of problems.
But AI’s travails are unique. Keeping my fingers crossed that no passenger safety has been involved in the numerous mishaps since Tata takeover (when eager anticipation of improved services was overwhelming) including many ‘stopovers in Siberia’ due to engine failures etc.
Safety first – all said and done, on these predominantly very long haul flights of Air India
heh, love this part–
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Like any business dependent on service? You see how terrible these “airline alliances” are when things go bad. The partner airlines generally despise the parasite passengers flying “free and privileged” using program miles.
I just flew.Air India from DC to Bamgkok. It was the biggest nightmare I have ever had flying and I will NEVER fly them again even if it is free. The 777 in DC was just as dirty as this one and the flight was delayed on DC for over 6 hours (maintenancd) making us late in Delhi for our connection flight. 24 hours with no place to get food or water or sleep because we didn’t have a visa for India. Finally got to bangkok and NO LUGGAGE. The biggest problem with Air Imdia was the service. THEY screwed up our international flight and DID-NOT-CARE. Every agent.lied to is and was utterly uncaring about the situation they put us in. Ive flown MANY airlines. Most have no problems. When there are problems, they bend over backwards to make it right. We were not the only ones treated poorly in Delhi. They had an entire roomful of angry patrons cryong, screaming and in utter dispair due to Delhis poor service. Air India needs to cease masquerading as an airline. Just because you have planes doesn’t mean you are an airline. Provlems happen. Mistakes come up. THAT is when you have an opportunity to shine as a company. Air India has the worst planes, the worst customer service (they all lied to us and even laughed at us as though we were a joke to them) and they need to have a complete makeover to even be competitive with the failing discount airlines in the USA. You can choose many airlines. I’d recommend not choosing Air India. I flew them 10 years ago with no problem. This experience last week was on a different level of hell and I’m embarrassed for the company that they consider what they offer as “service”.
Air India will continue to be a shitty airline as long as there are govt employees in charge of things.