Air India Express

Booked online then received an email with confirmation number.

6 weeks later at Colombo airport check-in I am told my reservation was cancelled, which apparently is not uncommon for non nationals. Then another European arrived, a young lady, to be told the same thing and like me had a connecting flight to catch at the other end.

The flight was not full, 2 hours before flight and I stated I would purchase another ticket and sort out the refund later so no problem. Oh how wrong I was.

The check in agent said there was no possible way, cash, debit or credit card, could we purchase a ticket from them and Air India had no one on site, which was verified as we made the effort to go to the upstairs office. No answer from AIE office in Mumbai as this was also closed. Spoke to AIE manager in India who said they could sort this out, he didn't.....after all we just wanted to buy 2 tickets.

The flight departed with 2 stranded customers with missed connections.

Air India Express did not even reply to my email nor did Air India. Hopeless is being polite.

Worse experience in what must be 500+ flights.

It transpires that I had noticed payment had not been taken which I had missed as I had made 4 flights and 18 hotel bookings on this trip alone. A cancellation email would have done it.

Do check everything thoroughly before you fly with AIE or AI.

The flight is almost never on time.You can always add 1.5 hrs to the duration of the flight.The food is cr*p and even the Air hostess is also not very welcoming.Seems like they are some friendly passenger other than being a Airline representative.They dont make you feel welcome.I personally feel its better to put a self service counter than put up with the airhostess.

But there are some positive stuff also like you can book tickets online,Planes are new and the rate are also cheap compared to the rest of the airlines as this is has multiple stops in the region where it flies to..