Mental stress and financial loss aside, Monty Majeed had to sue the Air India and the Indian government to travel from Germany to Kerala under the Vande Bharat Mission.
I am one of the non-resident Indians (NRIs) that the Indian government claims to have 'rescued' heroically from abroad through their much-celebrated, evacuation exercise, Vande Bharat Mission. However, my experience with this so-called rescue mission has been one of the most stressful times of my life. It was not just an emotionally draining experience, but financially, too. Finally, I had to sue the Indian government and Air India to get a seat on a Vande Bharat Mission flight and fly back home to Kerala. Here is my story. The hassle of securing flight ticket I have been living and working in Europe since 2015. Since 2018, I have been based in Munich, Germany. In early 2020, I got a job offer from an IT firm in Bengaluru and was all set to relocate back to India. I put in my papers at my German employer and booked my tickets in the beginning of March to leave Germany on June 5. And then, both the German and Indian governments announced lockdown in both the countries. My German visa, called the EU Blue Card, is connected to my employer. So when the employment contract is terminated, the visa, too, gets terminated. However, considering the travel ban to India, the German government had made provisions for stranded foreigners to extend their stay legally in Germany without much of a hassle. One week before the scheduled flight for Thiruvananthapuram on June 5, Qatar Airways wrote to me saying that the flight has been cancelled and that I could reschedule (get a voucher) for a future flight or apply for a full refund. I applied for a full refund and waited. The same week, the Indian Government announced three flights to Delhi from Frankfurt under the Vande Bharat Mission. When I say 'announced', our Digital India-endorsing government makes announcements only on Twitter and Facebook. For these first set of three flights from Frankfurt, the Embassy of India in Berlin (the nodal authority for VBM), announced via their social media platforms that stranded Indians who wished to return had to register themselves via a Google Form, which asked our personal identification details and reason for travel to India. The procedure, then, was that the Embassy would go through the applications and shortlist deserving passengers who would get priority to travel on the VBM flights. Naturally, pregnant women, senior citizens, students or those stranded with expired visas etc, would get first preference. I waited after registering and my name didn't make it to the list for the first three flights. The Indian Embassy announced, again via their social networks, that stranded Indians need not panic because there will be other flights to more Indian cities in the coming days. In the next few days, Air India put up a list on its social media handles for the VBM Phase 3 flights, which included many flights from Frankfurt to India, of which one was scheduled for June 19 to Thiruvananthapuram as well. In the next few days, the Embassy instructed stranded Indians via text and video posts to directly book tickets through the Air India website on June 10, when the airlines opened their bookings. Unfortunately, when I tried to book on the June 19 flight to Thiruvananthapuram, the Air India website showed that there were no flights on that date. This is even after the official handles of the Indian government and Air India put up the flight schedule. Then, through a WhatsApp group of other stranded Malayalis, I learnt that there are three other flights to Cochin from Frankfurt: on June 16, 23 and 28. By the time I got this information, the June 16 flight to Cochin got booked out. I managed to secure a ticket for the June 23 flight, for 650 euros (Rs 56,000 approximately). But, the real nightmare begins Despite all the miscommunication and misinformation, I was relieved that I finally got a confirmed ticket in my email inbox. I spent the next few days cancelling my contracts (apartment, phone, internet, insurances etc) in Germany because I was preparing to leave the country on June 23. I was scheduled to join my new job virtually on June 29. And, everything seemed to be going well. On June 14, a new list started doing the rounds on these WhatsApp groups, in which only the June 16 and June 19 flights to Kerala were also listed. From then on, the real nightmare begins. On June 15, the same list was published on Air India's official social media handles and on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Most flights scheduled for after June 19 were missing from the list. On trying to retrieve the booking through the Air India website, it showed an error, saying that I had to contact the airline customer care. I called the customer care of Air India and also wrote an email at ecommerce@airindia.in. From June 15 to July 1, I called up Air India every single day to get information on the ticket and flight status. However, no clear information was given and each time a different reason or solution was giving, without any information about the flights. Every time a different answer is provided on whether the flights have, indeed, been cancelled or if and when a new schedule will be issued by Air India. There has never been an email or official communication from the Indian Embassy or Air India about whether the flights were in fact cancelled and, if so, why the flights were cancelled. The final information that I got from the Air India agent was to wait until new flights are announced. Unlike normal airline websites, Air India doesn’t allow passengers to see the booking online. They also don’t issue any vouchers. So even if new flights are listed, they ask us to keep looking at the website, find a flight with seat availability, then call the customer care, wait for an hour to manage to get through and then they will inform us that there are no more seats. I tried to book tickets like this twice on Air India flights that showed seat availability (Frankfurt to Cochin and Paris to Cochin), but both these times, by the time I got through to the customer care executive, the seats were sold out. Apart from me, there were also older people and students who were also due to fly on these flights that got cancelled without notice. I spoke to a student, who lived in Dresden, who could not afford to pay for even his daily meals. He said that he was waking up later every day so that he could push his hunger for a bit more and eat less food every day. Amidst all this also, Air India executives continued to read from different scripts and provided no information whatsoever. Meanwhile, the joining date for my new job got postponed. Due to tax and legal implications, my new employer was forced to postpone the joining date. By June 30, I had to vacate my flat in Germany, had no income, my phone and internet contract was cancelled and I had to take refuge at a friend's place with no news of when I would be able to return to India. There was no information on the next flight or if the money paid would be refunded and when. I wrote to everyone possible, including the Indian Embassy in Berlin, the Chief Minister of Kerala and Air India. I even opened a Twitter account to inform the authorities by tweets, but to no use. Air India finally responds to case against them On July 1, Air India again announced a flight from Frankfurt to Bengaluru via New Delhi. And, the same thing followed. I checked online and called the customer care executive. After 20 to 25 minutes of waiting, I got through to an agent who said that there are no seats available. I tried three to four times that day and every agent gave me a different answer. While some said that the seats are sold out, others said the booking was not even opened. After this continuous stress and harassment, I decided to go ahead and file a case against the authorities and Air India. My father, CA Majeed, filed a writ petition, on my behalf, against the Union of India, Air India, State of Kerala, Indian Ambassador to Germany and Norka Roots in the High Court of Kerala on July 3, 2020. The case was heard for the first time on July 6, during which the representative of the Central government said that they were not aware of the case or that they hadn't received the files. The next hearing was moved to July 9. However, on the evening of July 8, the lawyers representing Air India and the Indian government asked my lawyer to provide my details (name, passport number, e-ticket number) and by July 9, just before the hearing in the court, Air India emailed a ticket, confirming my seat on the Air Indian flight AI120 from Frankfurt to Bengaluru scheduled for July 12. While I had paid 650 euros for a ticket from Frankfurt to Cochin, I was given a ticket from Frankfurt to Bengaluru, which was worth 470 euros (Rs 40,000 approximately). I had to book tickets from Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram on my own and pay almost Rs 15,000 for my ticket and extra baggage on the domestic flight. My joining date got postponed by a month, which meant I missed out on one month's salary. I experienced so many financial losses on top of all the stress, humiliation, and dismissive attitude from officials. I managed to get a ticket and I also managed to get home, but the harassment and stress that I went through as a stranded person in a different country, even after having paid the full amount for my flight is unpardonable. Even after shelling out our hard-earned money, neither Air India nor the Indian Embassy showed little or no sensitivity in at least informing us of the cancellation on time or providing us with a better solution. Despite following every rule by the book, the Embassy blamed Air India for the chaos and Air India kept saying that the Embassy has ticket quotas, which they will be allotting to passengers they deemed fit to travel. When I saw all the advertisements and praise for the Vande Bharat Mission online, I felt that everyone should know the callousness with which NRIs are being treated. This, despite having paid upfront for multiple flights. It is high time that Air India gets called out for their irresponsible and insensitive treatment of passengers and stops being given the power to use the opportunity to loot people in distress. It is also time that the Central government takes notice and addresses the harsh reality rather than spending money and time on their rosy advertisements. And this is just my story. I got a place to stay, I had some savings with me, but there are so many other Indians, not just in Germany, but in different parts of the world who may not be able to afford this 'rescue' journey. Air India issued a statement when my plight was highlighted in the media. However, the date of my ticket mentioned in the response is wrong. I had booked a ticket for the June 23 flight but they have written 24. Also, they have claimed that they cancelled my first ticket and issued me a refund for that and gave me a new ticket. This never happened. I have neither received any information about the processing or the crediting of the refund. The author is a former journalist and editor, who now works as a content designer in the tech industry.
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