I had flown Air India before this flight and thought they were generally ok. However my opinion about them changed completely after this flight.

1. I used the early check in option and checked in at their headquarters at Nariman Point. Next morning, when I boarded the aircraft, we came to know that the aircraft had been changed without telling anyone. This meant that the seat number on my ticket did not exist on the craft. This happened to a lot of people who either checked in early like me or those who checked in at other cities. We were left standing in the plane for half an hour before someone came and reassigned us seats. However even these seats turned out to be already filled. The ground crew then silently disappeared. The cabin crew then told us that we should just go and find an empty seat by ourselves and sit in it ( I was too shocked to react.) Furthermore the flight attendant refused to even help me find a place for my hand baggage. The seating situation was'nt rectified even in Frankfurt by which time AI had had 9 hours to fix things.

2. When I got to LA, I came to know that my bags had not even been put on the plane. I got my bags 4 days later. The phone number they gave us for baggage enquiry turned out to be a regular phone instrument with answering machine. It's tape filled up pretty fast so we couldn't even leave meassages. No one ever picked up the phone.

I wrote them a long letter about 1. However its been a year and I haven't heard from them. I have not been compensated in any way or even got an apology.

I only got an apology about my delayed bags after repeatedly being told I'd be compensated. The manager said that whoever promised me compensation didn't know what he was talking about.

I am Indian, but I will never fly Air India again. While I understand that crises can occur, their utter incompetence and apathy in the face of it is what was highly disappointing.