Air India Cancelled my flight due to lack of passengers, lost about $400 No refund for my damages ripoff Los Angeles California

On 12/30/2006 I had a flight with Air India (AI) from LAX to FRA (Frankfurt). It was the first time I was going to use this airline and definitely the last. My destination was Spain. When I arrived at the Airport I was told that flight AI 136 was cancelled because the plance had been damaged on 12/28. Instead, AI had ordered a replacement plane that would fly to London, instead. When I asked the manager why they were able to fly to London but not to Frankfurt (AI does not have a flight from LAX to London) I was told that there were only 17 passengers going to Frankfurt and it was not economical to fly to Frankfurt.

I explained that I would not be able to get my connecting flight if I'd travel via London or Paris (the alternative that they offered me later). AI promised that they would take care of that and contact Condor, the airline that would take me from Frankfurt to Spain. Arriving in Frankfurt, the plane to Spain was gone, as expected, the AI counter was already closed, nobody to talk to. I had to spend the night in Frankfurt, buy myself a new ticket for a flight that left about 24 hours later.

When I talked to AI about my damages (new ticket from Frankfurt to Spain, rental car that I had paid for but that I was not able to receive on 12/31, Hotel, food, taxi from airport to hotel and back) the answer was:

"We apologize the inconvenience, but we are not liable because you had two separate tickets."

AI saved money when they decided not to fly to Frankfurt as scheduled and cared a sh** about damages that would occur to their passengers. This is an airline that is happy with passengers that fly once and never again with them.

Steve
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.