Meet and Assist services at airports, like every other part of the Indian airport, have been farmed out to private contractors. Meanwhile, airlines reserve their own Meet and Assist services for their ultra-exclusive guests, such as movie or cricket stars, politicians, and high-profile individuals. This has created an opportunity for Credit Card issuers to attract users to spend money with them, allowing them to sell more credit cards. However, there is a problem: as MAAS providers scale, they often forget that their true north is to help their customers, and they recruit inexperienced people, causing themselves more harm than good to their brand.
Why have I stopped using Encalm at Delhi Airport?
Encalm was born out of the demise of Plaza Premium Lounges in India, when they took over the services and lounges, rebranding them as Encalm lounges. They launched Atithya, which on the Encalm website is described as,
Atithya is a bespoke Meet and Assist service by Encalm. With the concept of Atithi Devo Bhava in mind, Atithya endevours to provide a comfortable airport experience for travellers. Every service has been carefully curated to ensure the utmost comfort and luxury for our guests. For a smooth airport experience, we offer an array of services such as airport meet and assist, concierge service, baggage assistance and buggy service.;
Initially, they were nice. They’d recruited people from Allways VIP, a brand of Plaza Premium, who were aware of their tasks. This was circa mid-2022. And then, the downfall started when everyone (including me) started using their services thanks to Magnus.
They were so overwhelmed with onboarding clients (banks such as Axis Bank, American Express, and Visa, among others, and taking over their lounges) that they forgot to train their staff for the job as well. The good services lasted just about one year, and last year, I found them lacking.
In December 2023, they failed to appear altogether for a flight at Delhi Airport, where I was flying out with my family for a wedding, and there were, of course, a lot of bags to be handled. They were paid for three services (for me and two family members), which they never fulfilled.
In 2024, this behaviour of not showing up was at its peak. I just checked, and I’d requested their services a total of 10 times in 2024. Some through Axis Olympus, and some personally. They had a 40% failure rate among the ten services, meaning they failed to deliver on four out of ten occasions.
I was flying out in mid-November for an important event, and the guy did not turn up at all. Causing me to write this.
Dear @EncalmIndia, when you accept a Meet & Greet contract, your folks need to be out and waiting to meet the car, not arrive after ten minutes when the customer has walked in and ask “kaha ho”. The Porter is the only useful thing there, the rest we anyways have access to
— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) November 12, 2024
While I was flying Vistara to Paris from Delhi (which was merged with Air India that day), Encalm was looking for me according to the timings of an Air France flight. How inept, especially for something for which they get paid INR 4,000++ or more.
At the end of that trip, when I was coming back from Boston to Delhi (via Europe), I had an even nastier experience. I was scheduled to fly BOS-VIE-MUC-DEL and was due to arrive at a particular time in Delhi on the A380 of Lufthansa, with the MAAS booked accordingly. As it turns out, the only use for the MAAS for me is after I collect my bags, for them to escort me through customs, where the queues can be long, especially at night.
Anyway, I had a flight cancellation on my VIE-MUC sector, causing the airline to reroute me via VIE-LHR-DEL. I sent an email about the schedule change, which ultimately required an email confirmation from the airline to proceed with the rescheduling. I mean, the two hours I stood in queues at Vienna counted for nothing. Another booking down the drain
And another day, exactly four weeks later, I was flying Lufthansa to Munich in December 2024, and yet the same thing happened again. It turns out the Encalm concierge was missing when I arrived at the airport. Oh, sorry, she was on her phone chatting with her bestie rather than holding up the paging board to announce that they were waiting for me. She eventually found me at the check-in counter after I had finished checking in. To cover herself, she brought along her manager, but the manager also had no answer to what had happened and why. I told them to leave me alone at that time.
Here was a message I sent to someone who works at Encalm.
Why am I writing this post now? Because someone asked for my recent experiences with Encalm’s Atithya at Delhi. That’s what inspired me to write this article. They might be good if you’re a celebrity, and even take pictures with you. But otherwise, they might miss you at the gate, and you might meet and greet the greeter if you need the service, rather than the other way around.
In the meantime, Encalm has stopped focusing on operational excellence and is busy recruiting influencers to prop up the chat about them.
In the meantime, in 2025, I’ve made Zero Bookings with them, and we are already 7 months into the year. So that is how annoying their attitude has been over time. I’ve faced similar issues with Mumbai’s Pranaam service, long before it was acquired by Adani, and stopped using it as well.
And 20 years on the road, I’ve used anything worth its name across the world, from Marhaba to Oryx to anyone else. I’ve generally found that the propensity to hire and leave people to figure it out themselves is high amongst Indian service providers.
Bottomline
Delhi’s Meet and Greet Service has dropped the ball. It now exists as a mediocre offering, which might feel suitable for some people who have not experienced it before, but has proven unfruitful for frequent travellers like me over time, since they are unable to get the basics of passenger experience right.
What has been your experience with Encalm’s Atithya in Delhi?
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