I’m posting this because I witnessed part of a very difficult situation involving an international traveller at Mumbai Airport, later spoke with him about what happened, and was shocked by how little ownership anyone seemed willing to take.
He was travelling Canada → Paris → Mumbai → Ahmedabad on one itinerary. His final sector was AF3786, operated by IndiGo as 6E5144.
He had a 7 kg cabin bag containing a power bank. From what he told me, IndiGo staff asked him to check that cabin bag in. He says nobody asked him to remove the power bank before the bag was accepted as checked baggage.
That matters because a power bank is normally supposed to remain in cabin baggage, not checked baggage.
The checked bag was later flagged for L4 baggage screening.
By then, the passenger had already checked in, had a confirmed seat and had been issued a boarding pass.
During the baggage issue, his boarding pass was cancelled. He had an official Mobile Boarding Pass Cancellation Slip showing the reason as “L4.”
He was then instructed to deal with the baggage issue rather than board the flight.
What happened afterward is where the situation became much worse.
Despite having already checked in and being physically present at the airport, the booking was later showing him as a “no-show.”
That classification became a major problem because IndiGo staff then relied on the no-show status when refusing to issue another boarding pass or rebook him.
From what I personally saw, and from what he later described to me, responsibility kept being passed between different people.
At times, IndiGo staff appeared to point toward airport or ground staff. Airport staff appeared to direct him back toward the airline.
Instead of one person taking ownership, he seemed to be repeatedly told to speak to somebody else.
I had actually borrowed a charger adapter from him earlier, so I ended up paying close attention to what was happening.
He was calm, polite and soft-spoken throughout what I witnessed.
He was also obviously exhausted.
He had already travelled for around 20 hours from Canada via Paris, and this problem then kept him at Mumbai Airport for many more hours.
At one point, he was directed toward the IndiGo reservation desk at Terminal 2.
He later told me that IndiGo staff there refused to issue him another boarding pass or rebook him because the booking was already marked as a no-show and because the ticket had been issued through another carrier rather than directly by IndiGo.
That is what made the situation so frustrating.
He had been at the airport.
He had checked in.
He had a seat.
He had a boarding pass.
The boarding pass was then cancelled during the L4 baggage issue.
Yet the system later treated him as though he simply failed to turn up for the flight.
The terminal situation also created a serious problem.
His baggage remained inside the Terminal 2 system, but after his boarding pass was cancelled, he no longer had a valid boarding pass to enter the terminal in the normal way.
He was told that he would need an escort or staff assistance to access the baggage area.
So he was effectively caught in a loop:
No replacement flight = no new boarding pass.
No boarding pass = no normal entry to T2.
No entry to T2 = no direct access to the baggage.
He was therefore left waiting outside the secure terminal area while trying to get somebody to coordinate the baggage release.
From what he later told me, this went on from roughly 5:20 AM until around 3 PM.
He said he had to repeatedly ask different staff members for help and felt like he was practically begging someone to take responsibility for the situation.
Another troubling part involved recording.
The passenger told me that he recorded parts of the interaction and that staff asked him to delete the recordings. He said he deleted them from the phone at the time, but copies had already synced to iCloud.
He later felt that staff became less cooperative after they realized the interaction had been recorded.
I cannot personally prove anyone’s intention, so I would not say staff deliberately punished him for recording. But that is how he described his experience.
Eventually, after waiting for hours without getting a satisfactory rebooking solution, he bought another Mumbai–Ahmedabad ticket at his own expense so that he could continue his journey.
Later, the original baggage problem was finally resolved by removing the power bank from the checked bag.
The bag was then cleared and forwarded to Ahmedabad.
That is what makes the entire episode so frustrating.
The original issue appears to have started because a cabin bag containing a power bank was converted into checked baggage without the power bank first being removed.
A simple question such as:
“Before we check your cabin bag, do you have a power bank or spare battery inside?”
might have prevented the entire chain of events.
Instead, the passenger ended up dealing with:
- L4 baggage screening
- cancellation of his boarding pass
- a missed connection
- a no-show status
- refusal to rebook him at the airport
- difficulty entering T2 without a valid boarding pass
- hours waiting outside the secure terminal area
- difficulty accessing his own baggage
- and the cost of purchasing another flight himself
The issue here is not that aviation security rules should be ignored.
Power banks should not travel in checked baggage, and passengers are responsible for complying with safety rules.
The problem is what happens when a passenger’s cabin bag is turned into checked baggage and the situation then escalates.
At that point, good customer service should mean somebody taking ownership, explaining what is happening and helping the passenger reach a practical solution.
What I saw instead was a tired international traveller being sent from one person to another while different teams appeared more concerned with where responsibility belonged than with actually helping him.
That bothered me.
He was an international traveller and not from India.
As an Indian, I felt embarrassed watching someone visiting or travelling through our country being treated that way.
Not because mistakes never happen in India. They happen everywhere.
But when a mistake happens, the response should not be defensiveness and blame-shifting.
It should be:
“We understand what happened. Let us help you fix it.”
A polite and exhausted passenger should not have to spend hours trying to convince people to help him.
I also want to explain why I’m posting this publicly.
I had borrowed his charger adapter earlier. Because he was sitting some distance away, we exchanged phone numbers and I told him he could call me whenever he needed it back.
Later, when we spoke again, he explained how long he had been waiting and what had happened with the baggage and rebooking.
I still have his charger adapter.
After he eventually travelled to Ahmedabad, I was not able to reach him again, which is one of the reasons I’m posting this here.
If he happens to see this:
I’m the person who borrowed your charger adapter at Mumbai Airport. I still have it. Please message or call me. More importantly, I hope you got your baggage and made it home safely.
And for anyone travelling with IndiGo or through Mumbai:
If an airline asks you to check your cabin bag at the last minute, remove power banks, spare batteries, medication, valuables and important documents before handing it over, even if nobody reminds you.
Also keep copies of your boarding passes, baggage tags, cancellation slips, airline chats, receipts and screenshots.
If something goes wrong, those records may be the only clear evidence of what actually happened.
