DO NOT FLY JET AIRWAYS TO KOCHI !!!
Jet Airways are currently taking more load than they can handle when flying to Kochi from Doha. This means that whenever the flights are fully booked, they are resolving the weight issue by redirecting the luggage through Mumbai meaning that when you land in Kochi, you may not receive your baggage at Kochi Airport. Please pass on this message to your friends, relatives and colleagues so they don't have to go through the experience that I had to go through.
I chose to fly jet airways from Doha to Kochi recently 9W 555 on 12 January. The whole experience was dreadful. The journey itself was bad and I will write more on this but the worst part of the journey was the way my luggage was handled.
I received one piece of my luggage and it was obvious that someone had rummaged through it. The purses were turned inside out and my neatly arranged clothes had been messed up.
We were shocked further when it turned out that the atleast thirty passengers did not receive their luggage! I was travelling with my aged parents and we were fortunate that only one piece of ours was lost. There were people who had lost all four pieces of their luggage. My heart went out for a lady who was travelling with a sick infant who was in tears because the child needed care and here she was stuck at the airport with no food, medicine, clothing, nothing!
There was no senior person answerable from jet airways, the only people at the airport were junior staff. All they could do was fill up the concerned forms.
I submitted the form and returned home. Later jet airways delivered the luggage to our home. We were shocked yet again when our brand new suitcase was damaged. Fortunately we had secured the bag with industrial grade packaging material! Yet someone had ripped the zip apart even from under the ropes!
We refused to receive the luggage and called up jet airways. The agent even without listening us out, put the blame squarely on us that the luggage was damaged out of wear and tear and there was no fault of jet airways in the way the luggage was handled! I welcome any person with common sense to survey my suitcase and arrive at the same conclusion. It is bad enough that they disrupt my journey but to blame me for their carelessness in the rudest of fashions left me speechless!
Later, I inspected the contents in the presence of jet airways staff and we found items (clothing, foods) missing.
I gave a formal complaint to jet airways, they replied after 12 days saying that my bag was 'overstuffed'. Another WHITE LIE, much like the lie they told me that there was no 'loss in baggage weight' even though they had not weigh my baggage separately so they never knew how much it weighed to begin with, how could they have concluded that there was a weight loss??
Let me now deliberate on the journey itself. The flight was delayed by one hour and there was no formal announcement regarding the delay. They boarded passengers from the front and the back of the plane at the same time, so they actually expected people with hand baggage to squeeze past each other through the aisle! My seat was on the last row and I was boarded from the front!
When I reached the last row after a good 20 minutes of boarding the plane, the last row seat was smelling worse than a public toilet! After take off we learnt that only one bathroom was functioning! People had to queue up to 15 at a time to use the one functional toilet. My father who is an aged diabetic had to wait half an hour in the queue to go to the toilet!
Needless to say, on my return journey, I cancelled my ticket and chose to fly another airline. Better lose your money than risk your life and property flying this airline.
As confirmed by the Jet Airways ground staff at Kochi
Hence the subject 'do not fly jet airways to KOCHI' as opposed to an unqualified statement like 'do not fly jet airways'
Pls take in to consideration that there were a good 30 people who did not receive their luggage
that is not just an 'isolated mistake' but rather a 'planned chaos'
I considered it important that people are aware of this risk
If you would like to continue taking it, then by all means continue to do so...
So far I have travelled 6times with my family by jet airways to and fro from kochi in the past 2 years.I would say that my experience had always been pleasant with them. definetly way far better than QA. And like 'fieldbuzz' above there is no need to mention Air India anywere in air travel section ( they r best described as cargo service for cattle). It is very unfortunate and I feel sad for your unpleasant experience and you have every right to be angry. But I believe this may have been one of those odd 'bad moments' and not a regular happening with jet airways.Its also possible that the load was too much on that particular day. We try and avoid travelling on weekends and holidays. Also one must remember "less luggage more comfort".
I am not an airline employee either...am a hotelier!
Do you have any other airline that you may suggest ?
Qatar Airways - High Price + Old Plane + Congested
Air India - ...............What to say
Air Arabia ..............Good
Transit flights - Risk of losing luggage are the same.
Jet Airways - Vast improvement from earlier to now..
Your experience was really sad, but seems to early to make a decision such as these...
They are merely following airline regulations.
If they overload the flight, who is going to suffer ??
They are allowing 30-40 KGs of luggage at a very small fee, i think :D
I sincerely hope that the airlines don't think about implementing the "FLY ONLY THE PASSENGER, Everything else in CARGO" policy :D
Anyways, thanks for sharing your experience.
PS: i am not an airline employee :D