Me and my wife had to travel from Kolkata to Sharjah on 25th December and I decided to book
my tickets through Air Arabia since it advertised fares at reasonable pricing. They had made such an amount of delay to process my Visa Application that at the end they said they do not have seats for travel in December, inspite of me sending them all information at a time when many tickets were available!
I had to then postpone my trip to 14th Jan but since Air Arabia did not have flights from Kolkata I had to book a ticket on Jet Konnect airlines from Kolkata to New Delhi. On the travel date there was so much
fog in Kolkata that all departing flights got delayed which made our flight reach New Delhi Indira Gandhi Internation Airport Terminal T3 at 11.20AM instead of scheduled 9.05AM arrival time.
The connecting flight from New Delhi to Sharjah through Air Arabia was scheduled to fly at 12.55PM and they were supposed to close the gates 1 hr before departure but in the huge T3 Terminal of New Delhi Airport when we travelled tirelessly to collect our luggage and then proceed to the other end of the Airport to the Air Arabia Check-in counter at 11.50 AM we found it closed and other Airport officials said that they had already left the counters for boarding the aircraft earlier than scheduled. Me and my wife along with our heavy luggage had to run from pillar to post in the huge Airport Terminal asking for help but we could not find any Air Arabia officials anywhere.
When we approached the main Airport Helpdesk they called up Air Arabia Airport office where someone
picked up the call identifying himself as the airlines manager-in-charge who blankly refused to entertain us
and said we could no longer board the flight and we missed it. When we said that we had reached the
counters 5 mins before its scheduled closure he denied it and disconnected the call.
In such a miserable condition, I tried calling up the Air Arabia Booking office, who had made our tickets, but no one picked up the call. After constantly trying for 15mins someone called, Ms. Shweta of Air Arabia finally received the call and after narrating the whole incident she said they can't do anything about it as it was our fault. We told her that we were helpless due to the fog in Kolkata but she turned down our requests of getting us on board the flight.
When we approached Jet Airways Airport ounter they said that since it was due to their flight delay that we
missed the connecting flight they issued a Delay Certificate for the same. They even provided us temporary accomodation if we were unable to catch the connecting flight to Sharjah that day.
We located the Air Arabia Airport office in Delhi which was quite a far walking distance from the T3 terminal
and we had to again take all our luggage and travelled to that place with much difficulty. When we reached
there we met the Air Arabia Manager who identified himself as Mr. Subhasis Mukherjee and after narrating our plight he said that it was he who had spoken to me when we called up their office from the Airport Helpdesk and he had refused us on-board, saying it was rules of the airlines which we said was not valid since we went to the counters 5 mins before scheduled closure, but he said we were late but assured us he would make us fly the next day after making some alternative arrangement and we would be made to
give a small penalty fee. We left after his assurance and we already lost one day from our short Dubai trip via Sharjah to meet our relatives there!
The next day we went to the same Air Arabia Airport office at 8.30 AM and when we approached Mr.
Subhasis Mukherjee he said that the flight was already full and we would have to take new tickets and travel
as extra passengers if possible. This really made us totally nervous, as every day there is only one single
flight of Air Arabia from New Delhi to Sharjah. He made us wait till the last moment saying he will make the
tickets but at around 11.30 AM he said that he received confirmation that our tickets are made and we would have to pay an amuont of about INR 26, 000/- for the same immediately.
This fell like a brick on our heads and we were totally confused how we will be able to give such an amount
in such short notice. He then received a call after which he said that we had received our refunds and after
adjusting that amount we need to pay an amount of INR 21, 000/- otherwise we would again miss our flight.
We had to run to the ATM to fetch money and after giving that amount we were allowed to rush through all the immigration and security procedures in New Delhi Airport and after running breathlessly to the departing place of aircraft we were informed that like last day their flight was delayed by half hour and also
when we boarded the flight as additional passengers we found that plenty of seats were empty in the aircraft, which proved that Air Arabia officials at New Delhi International Airport had just cheated us and
taken such a huge amount of INR 21, 000/- extra whereas our original ticket fare was around INR 12, 000/-.
Kindly help us getting the refund of the extra amount af INR 21, 000/- which we had to pay forcefully to Air Arabia.
Air Arabia office address :
GSA - Track India Private Limited.
1/1, East Patel Nagar, New Delhi-110008
Telephone: 91.11-45092222-24
Fax No. : 011-45092230
Air Arabia New Delhi Airport official :
Mr. Subhasis Mukherjee
Tel: 91-9717399280
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