Just returned from India flying Jet Airways and thought you may be interested in my experiences (apologies for long rant):
Leg 1 QF35 MEL-SIN then QF3955 (Jet Airways) SIN-DEL
Everything went smoothly, connection in SIN fine, Jet airways aircraft was 737-800 in reasonable shape but seats a little old (tiny old IFE screens but not active - have to download JetScreen app to view on own device). Food OK. Comp drinks incl basic alcohol. QFF points and SCs earned on all QF numbered flights.
Leg 2 9W715 DEL - BLR (on separate PNR so no QFF points or SCs). Again food and drinks OK.
Leg 3 QF3808 (Jet) BLR-SIN then QF36 SIN-MEL (scheduled 1:20 transit time). Leaving Fri morning to get home Sat morning.
Here's where the fun started. Arrived at airport at 8:30am for 11:10am dep. Departures board listed flight as "re-scheduled" to 1:10pm arriving SIN 8:00pm, meaning no chance of connecting with QF36 which leaves at 7:30pm. Asked checkin agent why and response was delayed incoming aircraft so they had re-scheduled the flight. Told to wait while they sort out new onwards flight. 9am receive text message that the flight was delayed. Asked if we could get on QF38 instead (departs 4 hours later than QF36). Told no seats available on that or EK404 (3 hours later). Only option they could do was EK404 next day (Sat night) and we should stay in Bangalore and come back tomorrow. Insisted that we would not be taking up that option and that they would at he very least be getting us to Singapore that day. Asked for them to organise accommodation and compensation for missed onward flight. Blank look and "we don't do that". Asked to speak to supervisor. Told supervisor could not do anything more. Requested lounge passes for the now 3 more hour wait which were reluctantly given (not a bad lounge btw). Reluctantly accept boarding passes and go through security where I request to speak to another another Jet Airways rep. A very well dressed man comes out and hears my story then makes a call and gives the same response, including that I could not speak to a supervisor. Get online and book hotel room in Singapore. Not given any documentation or confirmation of the EK404 flight. Flight to SIN eventually goes OK. Next day (Sat) make a lot of calls to Jet Airways but get nowhere. Call AMEX in Oz . (corporate booking). Very nice rep does a lot of digging but eventually says our QF36 tickets have been exchanged for EK404 so they can't do anything. They can see that seats are available on QF36 so advise us to contact Qantas at Changi. 2pm Sat head off to Changi. No Qantas staff visible (not their fault as no flights scheduled until evening). Counter opens at 4pm. Hang around airport. At 4pm head straight to service desk and speak to very nice rep who has a lot of difficulty figuring out what Jet Airways have done. Says he can reclaim ticket and re-books me on QF36. Hands me boarding pass. I nearly hug him. Go to lounge, straight to bar for a few drinks. Eventually arrive home 24 hours late, with a lot more grey hair and a lighter bank balance.
Basically, Jet Airways did whatever was easiest for them, took no responsibility for the consequences of their delayed flight, re-ticketed our onward flight to our least favoured option, provided no documentation of the changes, would not allow us to talk to a supervisor and would not even consider providing any help with, let alone organising for us, a hotel either in Bangalore or Singapore. They have provided a Customer relations email address for me to contact. Will be interesting to see if and how they respond. Will seriously look at other options next time travel to India.
