Cash Stolen from Checked-in Bag: Worst IndiGo Airlines Experience

I want to share an unfortunate experience with Indigo airlines, where ₹8,000 cash got stolen from my checked-in baggage. That’s right! Bags that we hand them over out of sheer faith. This happened while travelling back to Delhi from Mumbai on 30th October 2021. 

Here’s what happened

I flew from Mumbai to Delhi on 30th October 2021. On landing at New Delhi Airport, I fetched my bag from Belt 7. I immediately noticed that my suitcase had been tampered with, the digits on the numerical lock were changed and had clearly been broken into! 

It was a brand new suitcase that I purchased specifically for this trip. Therefore, the opening key position was default as 000. But the bag didn’t open at 000. I immediately rushed to the IndiGo staff to submit a complaint. However, the staffer kept arguing and stalling me with weird and illogical arguments instead of assisting me. He refused to accept a written complaint at the airport. You can watch our complete conversation in this video that I recorded and submitted to the airline Customer Relations team as proof.

On reaching home, I forced open my suitcase and noticed that an envelope containing ₹8,000 was missing. My husband and I got married last week, and the money was a wedding gift from our family. It was not only the hard-earned money of our families but being a gift also held a lot of sentimental value to us. 

What happened next

I immediately emailed IndiGo’s Customer Relations team, highlighting every tiny detail of the incident. The sixth day following our complaint, we got a call from the Customer Relations Executive of Indigo airline. He informed us about an enquiry led by the airport team that concluded: “Nothing suspicious was found in the CCTV footage, followed by advising us to avoid keeping cash or any valuable item in our checked-in bag.” However, upon asking for the report drafted by the airport authority, they refused to share it with us. 

After 10-day worth of continuously heated arguments with the Customer Relations team, they agreed to compensate for the damage caused to my bag. They offered us an Indigo flight voucher worth ₹1,000 (valid for six months). However, by this time, we completely lost faith in them. Therefore, we insisted on getting cash instead of a voucher, to which they eventually agreed. 

The effort and the compensation don’t do justice to the stress and harassment we faced. But unfortunately, we had to settle for the sake of our mental and physical health. 

Flying is already very painful, thanks to long waiting hours before a flight and tedious security checks. And with an incident like this, we feel cheated, harassed and angry. I had very high expectations from a company as large and reputed as IndiGo. However, at this point, we have lost all faith and trust. IndiGo has no right to manhandle our suitcase, let alone steal from it! Therefore, choose your airlines carefully, and don’t trust them with your valuables!

Here are a few more incidences I came across on the internet while searching for IndiGo’s company policy, contact details etc. The motive is to make you aware of such recurring incidences and help you choose your airlines carefully.

• IndiGo’s Phone theft case
• Bag ripped and items stolen from bag on IndiGo airlines
• 32k cash stolen by loaders of IndiGo airlines