Malfunctioning seats, dirty floors, tattered seat covers and broken headboards – ANI editor Smita Prakash reported on Twitter how one of her relatives who was traveling from San Francisco, USA (SFO) to New Delhi (DEL) booked a business class seat on an Air India flight but the experience was not the kind expected.
Passengers on board complained about the broken seats, after which they were downgraded to economy class despite paying the full business class fare, she added. After that, two of the passengers decided to disembark and the airline initially refused to give them a refund. She also tweeted multiple images of unclean floors and broken seats.
Air India flight is clearly not up to date in pictures
Smita Prakash said her cousin flew Air India on the long-haul San Francisco-Delhi route. “Paid business class fare, 11 broken seats in store so they and 9 others were downgraded to economy, 2 opted out, no refund. Last row, not adjustable, badly working seats too, dirty floor, endless horror. “
A cousin flew @airindiain last night SFO Delhi. Paid full business class fare, 11 business class seats broken so they and 9 others were downgraded to economy, 2 chose to disembark, no refund. Last row, not adjustable, badly working seats too, dirty floor, endless horror. pic.twitter.com/dwRw7eoc0B
– Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) October 17, 2022
Smita Prakash added that the unexpected service didn’t stop there, as later during her cousin’s flight from Delhi to Bengaluru, Air India again downgraded its seats and declined to issue an explanation. The airline said it had no seats and told her that while she could cancel the flight, she would not receive a refund.
Not only is @airindiain They didn’t reimburse her for the downgrade on that sector, they even downgraded her on the link to Bengaluru. No explanation other than, yes your ticket is valid, we have no seats, you can choose not to fly, no refund. pic.twitter.com/0YjTQEQg4K
– Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) October 17, 2022
Later, in another tweet, Smita Prakash shared that Vistara Airlines, also part of Tata Group, honored her cousin with a business class ticket on Monday morning and she had good experience with the airline on her flight between Delhi and Bangalore have.
Update, Vistara redeemed her business class ticket and she had a good experience with the airline early this morning on her Delhi Bangalore sector.
– Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) October 17, 2022
(In Pictures: Terrible condition of Air India flight on board | Image courtesy: Smita Prakash-Twitter)
Tata Group acquires Air India
Following a competitive bidding process, the Government sold Air India to a subsidiary of Tata Group on 8 October 2021 for Rs 18,000 crore. It has been revealed that around Rs 2,700 crores will be paid to the government and the remainder will be Air India’s debt which the new company will take on. Earlier, Ratan Tata, speaking about Air India’s bid, said that JRD Tata, the airline’s founder, would have been over the moon if he were alive today.
Now the Tata Group has a big pie in the Indian aviation sector as it owns three airlines. The three airlines include Air India, AirAsia India and Vistara. Air India Express and 50% of Air India SATS are also part of the deal for Tata Group’s purchase of Air India.
On October 14, Singapore Airlines confirmed it was in talks with Tata Group over a possible merger of the airline Vistara, a joint venture between the two companies, and Air India. Tata owns 51 percent of Vistara, while SIA owns 49 percent.
(Image: @smitaprakash Twitter)
