Air Indigo – The night I almost lost my camera.

It was just another flight from Singapore to Mumbai, I was aboard flight 6E 52. Being a budget flight, I knew what I should expect, hence I had a nice lunch before getting in as the one’s they provide in flight are not what I would ever eat. I can’t eat spicy or even moderate spicy food, the menu had nothing without the chili icon besides it. So, I get in and the flight is in air, just for curiosity sake I tried to order something off the menu and i was amazed at the currency and modes of payment accepted. So, if you’re flying from Singapore to India, the flight would accept either USD or INR, also they will not accept coins. Apparently the reason is due to the policies set by the Indian Government, anyways “You get what you pay for”.

Here’s the fun part. I land, I go through the customs happily and I walk out of the arrival gate at the international airport. Meet and greet family, walk to the car and snap! I had forgotten my camera at the customs screening!. I grab my passport, ticket and rush back, the security guards obviously won’t let me in, as I ask them for options I had, I was told that usually the airline crew could escort me to the screening area and I could get it back then and there. Then I call the airport and ask them for the procedure as I couldn’t really take the guards words as one of them was smelling cheap alcohol and the other was simply not interested. I was asked to visit the airport security office, which was a sweaty run and hard to find, when at the office I was given a number of the air indigo per incharge. Upon calling the number, there was no answer for 20 minutes. After losing all hopes, I look at my ticket and i see the toll free helpline number. Then its the same old waiting in line, blah blah and finally a person identifies me, verifies me, puts me on hold for about 25 minutes and tells me It would take a week to get my bag back. I requested if he could simply forward a request to send a personell to come at the arrival gate so he could escort me in and that would be it. I was told to visit the air indigo office at the airport and that procedure would again take a week. I end the call and resort to requesting the security guards to let me in if they could hold my passport and my ticket as identification. It was a long and difficult conversation, two air india employees were about to exit and I asked them for some assistance. They simply told the guards to hold my passport as identification and that was it! When inside, two officers in white were conversing with each other. When i was talking to them, I was not even looked at. One said, “How will i know that this is yours?” I told them the Make and the particulars inside the bag, but they weren’t listening! They were rather busy in discussing some random stuff and laughing about it, It was very disrespectful. After a long time requesting, they finally let me have my camera bag.

A total of 2 hours was spent at the chatrapati shivagi international airport, the worst 2 hours of my life so far. Note to self: Never leave any baggage behind, Air Indigo Sucks, Make more money and live a better life.