At 31, Ashling Hendoick is a successful Irish entrepreneur in the US and her encounter at the India's first representation, will ensure she never returns.
Airport managers try to dupe Irish businesswoman
At 31, Ashling Hendoick is a successful Irish entrepreneur, with three stores — dealing in tattoos, funky jewellery and pot porri merchandise — in the US. But when the businesswoman took fancy to Yoga Vidya Dham in Nashik, at the suggestion of a close friend, her encounter at the country’s first representation — the airport — has ensured that she never returns to what was her dream destination.
Hendoick, who was to leave for London on July 7, was forced to cut short her yoga classes after she met with an accident. Her return ticket booked from Mumbai on a Virgin Atlantic flight for July 7 had to be pre-poned but caught in traffic, Hendoick missed her flight. Stuck at the Sahar airport, she said, “I felt lost, alone and scared. There is no facility at the airport for a foreigner who is a first time visitor, nobody to whom I could talk and get things explained. It is also difficult for the officials here to understand my language.”
Probably what Hendoick experienced at Sahar was an aberration, but it speaks volumes about the likely ways a foreigner can get misinformed or duped, though it may seem as a service charge for ‘helping’ out a firangi. “Apart from my passport, the airport managers took Rs20,000 from me for rebooking my ticket for the British Airways flight, for which, they said, I would have to pay a service fee of Rs2,000,” said a shaken Hendoick, with tears welling in her eyes.
The managers had apparently set the stage for ‘helping out’ Hendoick by punching and beating up a helper for allegedly picking up something from a passenger’s trolley. “Well, I do not know how things work here, but is it normal to beat people up like this?” asked Hendoick, expressing fear about getting her passport and a BA ticket.
However, when the BA spokesperson in Delhi was contacted, she said, “Why should airport managers take money and passport to buy tickets?” So, after Hendoick had booked her e-ticket from BA’s Delhi office, she asked the managers whether they had managed a ticket for her.
A manager at the airport’s Terminal 2A replied that only business class BA tickets were available. But there were some, as Hendoick had just found out. In fact, the airline booked her on lowest fare, which “was about $100 less then what I was asked to pay by the airport managers,” she said.
Not that the airport was not helping at all. They did eventually help her to get her e-ticket by allowing her to use the internet facility at the airport, when the incident was narrated to higher-ups. The episode took nearly two hours. “Is there a number or any e mail id on which I can lodge a complaint and tell what I have gone through, once I am back in my country?” Well, we all have to figure that out. But I did give her one id and hope the airport is more human then it is.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}