Help! I Took Air India’s Rebooking Advice, and It Cost Me $2,000.

Dear Tripped Up,

I was planning to fly Air India from San Francisco to Delhi, and then on to Kolkata, India, on May 31, 2024, to be in town for my mother’s surgery three days later. But after five hours of waiting to take off, passengers were asked to deplane and given a notice announcing that the flight was “canceled due to operational reasons.” According to the printout, which I took a picture of, passengers could choose to be reimbursed or rebooked on the next available Air India flight. But it went on to give a third choice: “In the event that you choose to book with another airline, we will reimburse the fare difference.” There was an Air India flight on June 1 that would still get me into town in time for the operation, so I took that rebooking option. But the next day, Air India notified me that my new flight was delayed enough that I would miss my connection, and the surgery. As a last resort, I bought a round-trip Emirates economy class ticket for $3,855 — $2,038 more the cost of my original $1,817 ticket, which Air India refunded. In the time since, the airline has consistently refused to pay the difference, even when I sent it the photograph of the notice and complained to U.S. Department of Transportation. Can you help? Amartya, Foster City, Calif.

Dear Amartya,

The Air India representatives in San Francisco who printed and distributed that notice thoughtfully prioritized you and your fellow travelers’ needs over the bottom line of their employer.

In other words, they screwed up.

Airlines rarely offer to cover the difference if passengers facing long delays or cancellations book a replacement flight on a competing airline, and no U.S. regulation says they have to. Travelers typically must choose between a refund and the next open seat on the same airline or, in some cases, a partner. It typically doesn’t matter if that means missing your mother’s surgery, your granddaughter’s graduation or even your first oral argument before the Supreme Court.

Those who can afford a last-minute fare pay a sky-high price for it, and those who don’t miss out.

So the Air India offer was unusual. I was not surprised to see in the photo you sent me that the notice distributed in San Francisco did not have the official look of a document approved by someone at headquarters. Instead, it had the Times New Roman, typo-ridden vibes of something you might see on an office bulletin board announcing that there would be birthday cake for Catherine in the conference room at 4 p.m.

The responses you received from Air India representatives when you insisted they keep their promise were, shall we say, more corporate. “We regret to inform you that we are unable to accommodate your request for reimbursement of your new booking,” wrote an agent in an email you forwarded to me. “We are able to reimburse the ticket difference only if Air India will not provide any alternate option.”

Now, that sounds like the airline industry I know. But you had no reason not to take the San Francisco staff members at their (written) word, so I got in touch with Air India, and the airline quickly paid you the $2,038 difference in fare, albeit two years late.

In a follow-up, I asked Air India a series of questions, including whether its customer service department’s refusal to honor the notice at the airport had been in error and what led the carrier to change its mind after I got in touch.

In a statement, Rajesh Dogra, the airline’s chief customer experience officer, gave something of a master class in vagueness.

“We recognize the inconvenience experienced by the customer following the disruption to their travel plans,” he wrote, noting that the airline “remained engaged with the customer through the process and refunded the fare paid by the customer per our standard policy.” He did not answer my question about why the airline had not honored the printed notice, and in fact did not mention the notice at all.

“When the matter was escalated for further review,” he continued, the airline “revalidated the circumstances.” Then he wrote: “Following these discussions, a resolution was reached that was accepted by the customer.” Well, I guess that explains it.

It is worth noting that you acted honorably, accepting a replacement Air India flight the next day rather than instantly snapping up the quickest, most expensive competitor’s flight. It was only when added delays would have made you miss your mother’s surgery that you booked the last-minute seat on Emirates.

You did the right thing by pushing back, respectfully, at Air India, and your complaint to the Transportation Department was also a good idea. (Filing its online form has resolved problems for Tripped Up readers in the past.) But getting airlines to reimburse passengers for routine out-of-pocket expenses can be like pulling teeth, and if those expenses are even slightly unusual — as in the case of a band that had to rent equipment after British Airways ruined and lost its guitars, the topic of a past Tripped Up column — it’s more like a root canal.

Mr. Dogra’s statement concluded: “At Air India, we are committed to understanding individual circumstances and addressing concerns with care, empathy and fairness.”

That sounds like corporate spin. But the description does at least accurately characterize the actions of the Air India staff members on duty in San Francisco on May 31, 2024.

If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to [email protected].

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