Damages for NRI flier

Calcutta: Air India has paid a 72-year-old NRI Euro 1,200 (around Rs 80,000) in compensation for not informing him about the cancellation of his flight.
The national carrier had to cough up the amount following an order from the UK’s Air Transport Users Council.
London-based Ambika Prasad Dutta and wife Chitra had booked tickets on Air India’s London-Calcutta flight, now withdrawn, on November 30, 2006. “We had booked the tickets seven months in advance. It was a special trip for us as we were to attend two weddings in our family,” Dutta said over the phone from London.
The flight was finally cancelled but the airline did not convey the information to Dutta. “The airline kept me in the dark about the development though the norm is to inform passengers well in advance about any cancellation,” Dutta said.
On reaching Heathrow airport, Dutta contacted the airline and was accommodated on a Jet Airways flight the following day. Dutta and his wife reached Calcutta via Delhi two days later but both weddings were over by then. Dutta wrote to Air India narrating the harassment he and his wife went through. Back in London, he got in touch with the Air Transport Users Council, a grievance redress forum for air travellers in the UK. The airline initially refused to pay the compensation. “It agreed much later, after the council posted the incident on its website,” Dutta recalled. The airline informed Dutta about its decision to pay the compensation in March 2009. The NRI received the money a few days back.
25/05/09 The Telegraph

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Categories: Air India - International May 2009, Foreign May 2009, NACIL May 2009