Air Sahara woes
December 15th, 2006 | Published in India & Around, Living, Personal | 10 Comments
(Update — December 21: After more than a week, they finally emailed the ticket! Phew. That was one long wait!)
For all their promises to ensure customer satisfaction, it’s hard to understand why they continue to be so slack!
This happened to me on Monday while booking an online ticket. The page timed out and I didn’t get the ticket. I called up customer service and they assured me that the booking was done and the lady gave me my PNR number. She also said I could retrieve my booking from the online site. She assured me they would email the ticket. Definitely. Not a problem at all.
So far so good.
Not really. Tuesday, I made a call and told them the ticket was yet to come. We will definitely email it within half an hour. Please check in half an hour the customer service person says. Okay, I sigh with relief, thinking this time they mean what they say.
Day 3: Tried calling their centre and can’t get through : it’s either engaged or no one picks up the phone!
Day 4: The saga continues. Will I get my ticket at some point of time, I wonder? I call back and explain my whole story. Our systems have been a little slow says the customer service person in the lines of an excuse. Air Sahara’s systems down for 2 days and so she can’t email me the ticket!! Wonder, of wonders. What do I do, I ask? She says I can pick it up from their office on St Marks Road. So basically, I go through the whole processing of online booking to AVOID going to a counter. And finally, I have to go to a counter to pick up the ticket!
Day 5: Friday has dawned. No sign of the ticket. Should I give up hope? Will one of the nice people at Sahara finally take pity on me and send me what is rightfully mine? Or are their systems still down? Or they obviously don’t take their jobs very seriously, if you need to call them 4 days in a row to ask (no, beg, literally) to send you the ticket!
Hail, Sahara, I say!
December 15th, 2006 at 2:59 pm (#)
I booked a ticket a few days ago (using Make My Trip) and the page timed out for me. But I got the e-mail an hour or so later.
Did you at least get the ticket at the counter?
December 15th, 2006 at 5:00 pm (#)
hyde: i wanted to avoid a trip to their counter which is why i booked online! but it seems i will have to go now!
December 15th, 2006 at 10:27 pm (#)
tell me abt it…used to use air sahara from chennai to blore as they have an early morning flight i think at 6, I mostly did the booking online and got an eticket…the beauty of airsahara e ticket is ..you still have to go to the counter at the airport and get the real ticket issued..and only with that u get the boarding pass.…Im like whats so E abt it then :D
December 17th, 2006 at 7:01 am (#)
Why didn’t you escalate the issue to someone higher up…don’t they have an accountability for their actions? I wonder what ever happened to “customer is king”??
December 19th, 2006 at 9:40 am (#)
I have had a similar exp with AirSahara.….that time too they had the same excuse…‘Our systems are down’.…had to go to their counter @ the Airport to collect the tickets..
December 19th, 2006 at 9:56 am (#)
Actually, if can record your telephonic conversation with the customer service and on the call itself you can tell them that you are recording this call and will file a consumer case if you do not get the ticket in specified time..
December 19th, 2006 at 5:26 pm (#)
Any system can be only as good as the people behind it. This shows why it isnt the most popular airline in the country in spite of the cheap airfares they offer.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:49 pm (#)
One week!! snail-mail is faster than that :P
December 23rd, 2006 at 5:02 pm (#)
Just my 2 cents!! You dont need the ticket per se to travel since it is a e-ticket. If you have the PNR number, the Sahara counter at the airport can print out the ticket in a minute for you to enter the airport.
I have had similar experiences with Sahara too with ticket number generation being timed out. I just printed that page, with which I could enter the airport and with the PNR number could checkin.
But yes, taking five days to send an email is bad. Good luck with them next time.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:51 am (#)
generic viagra lowest prices
generic viagra lowest prices