He said that even though he had the option of taking up the cheaper prices he was getting at Etihad, he chose AI since it offered a direct flight service.
An Air India passenger shared his "horror story" from his travel in a business class flight -- AI 105 -- from New York to Newark, New Jersey in United States. Vineeth K, an X user, said, "After flying with Emirates for a few years, I recently moved to Air India as they offer direct flights to NY, Chicago and London which are my frequent travel destinations."
Vineeth noted that his flight was "no less than a nightmare", adding that the seats were not clean, worn off and at least five of the 35 seats were not functional.
He said that the take off was also delayed by 25 minutes, adding that once he settled in 30 minutes after take off, he wanted to get some sleep around 3:30 am and "realised that my seat doesn't go to a FLAT BED, reason it's not working".
However, he noted that after requesting the crew for some time, he was moved to another seat, which was functional.
Vineeth added that "woke up after a few hours, the food was served and it was uncooked (never faced this in AI), the fruits were stale (everyone onboard returned back)".
He said that even the TV/Screen never worked, adding that not that he was bothered to watch but he just tried and it showed "Not Found error".
After all this, he said, "final nail in the coffin is THEY BROKE MY LUGGAGE". He describe the Rs 5 Lakh-worth round trip as "BAD FOOD, WORN OUT SEATS, DIRTY SEAT COVERS, NON WORKING TV, Damaged my luggage".
Vineeth said that even though he had the option of taking up the cheaper prices he was getting at Etihad, he chose AI since it offered a direct flight service.
He also shared pictures of his broken luggage handles, missing tags and lock/zip tie.
Later, Vineeth shared a "deleted post" of Air India's apology, which read, "Dear Sir, we're sorry for the discomfort and we never want our passengers to face such inconvenience. Please DM us your booking details, seat number and DBR/filer reference number. We'll promptly look into it."
The post critizing Air India, triggered a slew of reactions from netizens on X.
"Air India must be Privatised to make it efficient," said one user, while another said, "Issue is there are no other operators with direct flights to US destinations. Not sure if others are not seeing a potential market or AI is having some kind of monopoly."
Another user said, "It's a serious allegation against the prestigious national carrier #AirIndia. Immediate action is solicited with intimation to the customer @Ministry_CA @airindia."
"@airindia is facing too many complaints these days including the suffocation it subjected to flyers on board aircraft from Delhi to SFO for several hours," another user said.
An X user said that as a policy, "I always avoid AI for international flights and keep it as last option for domestic. Can't spoil the trip."