I am well aware that many (if not all) airlines generate an overbooking policy designed to minimise the amount of empty seats. However, my experience on returning from Delhi last weekend leads me to believe that Air India have turned this policy into a fine art!

Following a fantastic week in India, my wife Cheryl and I turned up two hours before our scheduled flight (Saturday 24th) to Heathrow. Having queued for over an hour it became apparent from murmurings ahead that all was not well. I soon found out that many people including ourselves were not going to make the flight and would be going home the following morning (I would estimate that this affected 80-100 people).

We were told that it was due to a large plane being taken out of service and replaced by a smaller one - this was received with some scepticism!

Communication was appalling but we managed to find out that we were to give our details to a particular representative which would ensure travel the next day. We were also given a letter informing us of compensation of £150 each; this letter opened with this brief explanation:

"It is common industry practice that all airlines overbook a flights as a safeguard against passengers not reporting for flights. As a consequence of overbooking there is a possibility that a seat may be denied to a passenger holding a confirmed reservation on a particular flight." No mention of the 'larger plane' there....

We then enquired as to what would happen to the later travellers scheduled to fly on the Sunday - the predictable response was that they would fly on Monday! One assumes that this policy rolls on until a half empty flight turns up in midweek.

After some confusion, we were then bussed to the nearby 'Centaur Hotel', a damp ridden monstrosity which as it turns out is owned by Air India.

We duly pitched up in the early hours to get our Sunday flight. On check-in we were told that we could not board this flight as we had not confirmed our original flight (do people still do this?) and was asked to remove our bags from the conveyor belt. This we steadfastly refused to do as we tried to explain that they had recorded our details the previous day and issued us with the aforementioned letter. I suspected that the representatives were under orders to look for any loophole in the booking procedure that meant that they did not have to issue a boarding pass. An immediate superior was summoned who backed up the command. As a result of our stubborness, another superior was called who when showed our letter, authorised our boarding.

This was our first trip to India and we found the whole experience exhilarating. It is just a shame that the national carrier operate in such a shameful way that treats their customers with such disdain. The next time we travel to India (and we will) we will pay the extra if necessary to fly with anyone but Air India.

PS. Our in-flight entertainment failed to work there and back! - Pete Berkeley, London

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