Off to the Maldives... the Hellish Nightmare of IndiGo Air

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Today was departure day from Paris. My parents woke up at 02:00 so they could shower and get ready, while I got up at 03:00 to say goodbye to them. They had a prearranged shuttle transfer to the airport, which alleviated any stress about that process. At 03:30 we went out front of the hotel to await the arrival of the shuttle, which arrived promptly on time. We said goodbye to each other and I hoped their flights home would be better than their flights to Paris. Once they had left, I went back to the room to get some more sleep. I had considered joining them for the airport transfer, but my flight wasn’t until around 11:00, so I would have had far too much time waiting around.

I woke back up at 06:00 so I could get ready to leave. I finished packing my things, including the two dozen Olympic cups I had acquired throughout the Olympics, and then left to take the train about the Charles de Gaulle Airport. When I arrived at the airport, the check-in process went fine and my bags were checked all the way to my final destination. I then grabbed a coffee and some snacks for the flights.

Today I was flying to the Maldives, where I would be meeting Thinh. He was departing Hanoi around the same time that I would be leaving Paris. He had an overnight layover in Kuala Lumpur, so we had booked him a room in one of the transit hotels at the airport. My journey to the Maldives would involve three flights:

- Paris to Istanbul
- Istanbul to Mumbai
- Mumbai to Maldives

The flight to Istanbul departed on time and was uneventful; I spent the flight napping and watching Netflix.

Upon landing in Istanbul, I went to find out what gate my next flight would be departing from and discovered that the flight to Mumbai was cancelled! It was the only flight listed on the information board that was cancelled as well. I quickly checked my phone to see if the airline had messaged or emailed me… nothing! The airline, IndiGo, hadn’t sent me any notification about the cancellation or about a rebooked flight.

I went into a bit of a panic because I had no idea what to do at this point. I called Thinh, who was in Kuala Lumpur by this point, and he started to help me find ways of contacting the airline. I tried to manage my flight on the IndiGo website, but their website was garbage and nothing could be done to either rebook my flight or to cancel it entirely. Thinh found a customer service number to call and another for their WhatsApp number. I messaged them via WhatsApp and tried to call that number, but it wasn’t accepting calls. The airline never read or responded to my WhatsApp message. IndiGo Airlines is a terrible airline with even worse customer service.

I then used my roaming minutes to call the customer service number. After sitting on hold for nearly ten minutes, someone finally answered. I explained the situation to her and she said that I needed to go to the check-in counter to get everything sorted. I explained to her – multiple times – that I was in the transit area of the airport and that I couldn’t get through to the check-in counter because that would require clearing customer and passport control. She finally understood my situation, but she was unable to do anything to rebook me on a different flight. She then placed me on hold while she tried to connect with a different department.

During this entire time, I was frantically running around the Istanbul airport in search of a customer service desk or anyone who could help me. The airport is massive, with several wings and I ran between all of them, from one end to the other, but I could not find a customer service desk anyone. There was nowhere that indicated where someone who needed assistance should go for help.

When the IndiGo customer service person came back on the phone, she transferred me to someone else who proved to be equally unhelpful. He said the could not make any changes to my booking and that I would have to speak to someone at the airport. After explaining that I could not find a help desk at the airport, he put me on yet another hold. Finally, he came back on the line and told me where I could find a help desk – which was located at the opposite end of the airport from where I was currently standing. Indeed, I had gone by the supposed location of this help desk twice already in my running around today.

I was keeping Thinh up to date with my situation as I ran back across the airport. He had meanwhile emailed IndiGo Airline customer service for assistance, but they failed to respond to him. IndiGo was proving to be among the worst airlines that I have ever dealt with.

I finally found the Turkish Airlines customer service desk – it was tucked away in a corner and was not easy to find. The queue was quite long, but I had no choice but to wait for someone to assist me. My flight booking had been a combo: I flew Turkish Airlines from Paris to Istanbul, and would be taking IndiGo Airlines for the second two flights. IndiGo insisted that I needed to speak with the Turkish Airlines people at the airport for assistance… again, because IndiGo is beyond useless in every single way.

While I was standing in the queue, which was moving at a glacial pace, a representative from Turkish Airlines arrived and told those of us at the end of the line that there is another desk that is virtually empty and encouraged us to follow him there. I asked him where it was located and, of course, it was on the opposite end of the airport. Once again, I ran across the main terminal area so I could get to the new help desk. By the time I arrived, I was hot, sweaty and out of break from all the back and forth.

The new help desk had a ticket machine, so I got a number and waited for mine to be called. While I waited, I called Thinh again to update him on the situation. I had been looking up alternative options for flying to the Maldives, and most of them wouldn’t get me there until a day after my original arrival time! I told Thinh that if that were the case we should probably just cancel the Maldives altogether since we’d have lost out on one full day at our resort, wasting a ton of money in the process. If we had to go that route, I told him that I would meet him in Kuala Lumpur, and we could spend time there instead (he is able to visit Malaysia visa-free).

When my number was finally called, the woman at the customer service desk was dismissive and unhelpful. She simply stated that there was nothing she could do to rebook my flight. I asked her who I could speak with about it and she said I had to go to the transfer desk. Where was the transfer desk located, you may ask? Yep – back on the other side of the airport, apparently close to the first help desk where I had waited earlier!

Once again, I was running across the terminal so I could find this elusive to the transfer desk. When I arrived where the woman had indicated, I could not find any transfer desk whatsoever. I went everywhere, down every little hallway, upstairs, etc and could find nothing. I managed to find a security guard and I asked him for directions. Mercifully he spoke very good English and was able to point me in the right direction.

The transfer desk was located through a set of doors that led to passport control and the airport exit. No signage indicated that the transfer desk was in that area; everything stated that it was the airport exit, which is why I hadn’t gone to that area in my frantic search. After going through the double doors, I had to run down a lengthy hallway, past the passport control lines, until I finally arrived at the small transfer desk area.

The transfer desk was pure chaos. The area was packed with passengers, all clearly from the same IndiGo flight that I was supposed to be on, and they were trying to get any help to get themselves rebooked. There was no queue to speak of whatsoever, so I pushed by way to the front and grabbed one of the people working behind the desk. He took my boarding pass and told me to wait. I overheard another agent at the desk telling someone that they would be rebooked on a flight the next day, and I knew that option would never work for me.

I had found a flight on Emirates that departed Istanbul near midnight that would get me to the Maldives only two hours later than originally planned (with a layover in Dubai). I asked the man behind the desk if I could be rebooked on the Emirates flight, but he said it was impossible since they didn’t have an agreement with Emirates. Frustrated at this news, I asked if I could just cancel my entire booking with IndiGo so I could rebook with Emirates on my own. The agent seemed relieved by this suggestion and said that would be very easy to get done. I would get a refund of the unused portion of my ticket, plus an additional €600 in compensation from the airline! This would just cover the cost of my new flight on Emirates (which would cost $900). While the agent was processing the cancellation, I used my phone to book the Emirates flight.

I texted an update to Thinh so he knew that we were still on for our trip to the Maldives, which was a relief. It was late at night for him, and I encouraged him to get some sleep before his early morning departure from Kuala Lumpur.

Up next was clearing passport control. Thankfully I didn’t need a visa to enter Turkey, and the queue moved at a decent pace. I then had to reclaim my checked bag, which required the staff to locate it, pull it from wherever they were storing the bags, and deliver it to me. I found the luggage help desk in the baggage claim area quite easily (finally!). After giving the agent my claim ticket, he said it would take about an hour and that I should have a seat while I waited. They had free water available and I eagerly helped myself. I checked the fitness app on my phone and discovered that I had covered just over 10km during my running around the airport!

I proceeded to sit and wait for my bags, watching Netflix to help pass the time. It was 17:30 by now and I had five hours until my Emirates flight departed. The first hour went by and my bag didn’t show up, so I kept waiting. Several other passengers were also waiting for their bags and they were relentlessly bothering the agent for updates. I had been watching him as I waited and I could tell he was working diligently to locate all of the necessary bags. Two Spanish women kept coming to the desk every ten minutes to ask for updates, despite him repeatedly stating that it would take an hour or so to get the bags (I thought it was quite rude of them to pester him time and time again). After waiting for two hours, I approached him to ask for an update. He asked for a picture or description of my bag, while I was luckily able to provide both to him. I then settled in to wait some more. I was getting stressed by this point because I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough time to make my new flight.

Finally, at 21:30, I was told that they had my bag (along with the bags of several others in the waiting area). A different agent escorted us all to a nearby room where we were able to claim our bags. It was a huge relief when I found mine. The agent then escorted us to the customs area, where our bags were scanned and he gave the customs officer some paperwork regarding our bags. Once this was done, we were free of the agent and I could leave to check-in for the Emirates flight.

I made a frantic dash upstairs to the check-in area and thankfully the counter for my flight had no queue, so I could get checked in with ease. Going back through passport control and security took forever though. Despite having several passport control desks open, the line moved at a snail’s pace and it took me nearly an hour to get through the entire process. The entire time I was stressing and desperate to get through so I could make my flight.

I had about an hour before the departure time for my flight by the time I cleared security, which left me no time to get a proper dinner at the airport. I had been running around all day and hadn’t eaten a meal the entire time. I was able to get a drink for the flight before it was time to board the plane. I was massively relieved when I finally sat down in my seat – despite the hellish nightmare that IndiGo Airlines had put me through during the afternoon, the trip was still on schedule.

The flight departed around midnight and I did my best to nap during the short flight to Dubai.