Dear Alex,
My partner and I recently came back from a trip to India. On our return we booked a Kingfisher flight (using a separate ticket) out of Goa to Mumbai – from there we were to connect with Emirates’ late-night flight to Dubai and Johannesburg. We allowed 4.5 hours to make the domestic-international transfer at Mumbai.
Two days before our Kingfisher flight from Goa, the airline emailed me to say that the flight had been rescheduled to depart 80 minutes later. We weren’t unduly worried because we still believed there was adequate time to make the connection.
On the day of travel, Kingfisher check-in staff told us that the flight was delayed [beyond the revised departure time] by 65 minutes. We were assured we still had sufficient time for our transfer. An alternative but earlier Jet Airways flight, which would have provided an earlier arrival into Mumbai, was fully booked. To cap it all, as we proceeded through the security checks we discovered that our Kingfisher service had been delayed by a further 30 minutes.
We reached the Emirates check-in desks at Mumbai 50 minutes before departure [Emirates has a 90-minute check-in deadline] but were turned away and told to telephone a call centre. The Emirates duty manager would not help us. The call centre staff charged us more than US$1,000 to change our tickets to a flight the next day and we spent the night in the airport terminal.
Although I have been a gold member of Skywards for many years, it seemingly meant nothing. Do I have any recourse with either Kingfisher or Emirates?
Greg White, Johannesburg
Alex replies:
Once again, here is an example of where passengers using separate tickets need to take extra care. As I have explained in the past, each ticket provides a separate contract with the respective carrier. It means that it is of no concern to Emirates that you were flying in from Goa. As far as Emirates knew, you were starting your trip in Mumbai. And as far as Kingfisher was concerned, your trip terminated in Mumbai.
Readers need to take greater care when flying within or from India because passengers have no rights whatsoever. It has always been this way. Airlines are free to overbook, cancel or delay flights at will. If an airline is willing to help or provide compensation, it will be purely out of goodwill. An exception concerns US and EU-based carriers, which honour US and EU passenger rights when taking international flights from an Indian airport (see “What are my rights?” businesstraveller.com/archive/2010/may-2010). Emirates does not fall into this category.
It is wrong that Kingfisher staff claimed you had enough connecting time, but airline staff sometimes keep passengers in the dark, as otherwise tricky situations could arise. As for the ground transfer at Mumbai, readers should note that this is one of the world’s worst airport transits because the domestic and international terminals are located on different sides of the airfield and are not connected by any special roads.
It means that after you arrived from Goa on Kingfisher, you would have had to wait to claim your bags, fight through the crowds to the transfer service and then endure several miles of stop-start traffic through congested urban streets before dealing with more crowds at the Mumbai terminal.
I would have thought 4.5 hours would be the very minimum to have allowed given Emirates’ lengthy check-in deadline and the fact there is no certainty with air travel. Better still, as you were using separate tickets, it would have been wise to have stopped over in Mumbai using one of the numerous quality hotels located near the airfield.
Seemingly, Mumbai airport staff (apparently the Emirates team are employed by a ground handling firm) are not empowered to make changes on the spot or collect money. That is why you had to go through the rigmarole of contacting the call centre.
After contacting Emirates, a spokesperson said: “Mr White and his travelling companion arrived at our check-in desk at Mumbai after the flight to Dubai had closed and so we weren’t able to check them in. We are sorry to hear that they were dissatisfied by the service they received from our staff at the time. We take customer service extremely seriously and, as a gesture of goodwill, have been in touch with Mr White and offered him and his travelling companion a partial refund.”
