Many users shared similar issues they faced with the airline.
A man took to Twitter to criticise Air India, sharing his horrifying experience while travelling in a business class seat from New Delhi to Newark, New Jersey in the US. He said the flight was an “absolute nightmare” and he spent Rs 50 lakh for the round trip. “Horrifying story. After flying Emirates for a few years, I recently switched to Air India as they offer direct flights to New York, Chicago and London where I travel frequently. Yesterday's flight was an absolute nightmare. I booked business class (business trip). The seats were not clean, worn out and at least 5 out of 35 seats were not functional. Take-off was delayed by 25 minutes,” Vineeth K said on the microblogging platform.
He added that his seat could not be converted into a flatbed. Vineeth then requested the flight attendant and after a few minutes, he was moved to a different seat. He continued, “I woke up a few hours later to find that food had been served but it was uncooked (never happened to me on AI), the fruit was rotten (all passengers had returned). The TV/screen did not work at all. Not that I thought to watch it but when I tried it gave me a 'not found' error. After all this, the final nail in the coffin was that they broke my luggage.”
Horror story🚨🚨🚨 #Air India Business Class flight from New Delhi to Newark (AI 105)
After flying Emirates for a few years, I recently switched to Air India because they offer direct flights to New York, Chicago and London, which are places I travel to frequently.
Yesterday's flight… pic.twitter.com/STf2xrPich
— Vineeth K (@DealsDhamaka) June 15, 2024
Vineeth said Etihad was much cheaper but he chose Air India because it had direct flights. “The food was awful, the seat covers were worn and dirty, the TV didn't work, and the round trip cost Rs 500,000. The luggage was also damaged,” he said, along with several photos of the seats on the plane and the food served on board.
Vineeth also shared a screenshot of the now-deleted reply he received from Air India, which read, “Dear customer, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused. We do not want to cause this kind of inconvenience to our customers. Please DM us your booking details, seat number and DBR/filer reference number and we will look into this immediately.” In the same X-thread, the airline had commented, “Dear customer, we understand your frustration and are sorry for the inconvenience caused. Trust us, we do not want our customers to have this experience. We have taken up the matter internally and will investigate further.”
Dear customer, we understand your dissatisfaction and apologize for any inconvenience caused. This is the last experience we would want any passenger to have. We will be taking this matter up internally for further consideration.
— Air India (@airindia) June 15, 2024
Since his post was shared, it has garnered a lot of attention on social media, with many users sharing similar issues they've faced with the airline.
“As a rule I always avoid AI on international flights and leave it as a last option on domestic flights. Don't let it ruin your trip,” one user said.
Another passenger added, “We had a similar experience on the airline's flight from Delhi to Singapore. The seats were worn out, the screens didn't work, the flight was delayed by 30 minutes, the air conditioning didn't work properly for about an hour until we took off, and we were shivering in the heat. Kudos to the airline for getting us through quickly on our return layover at Delhi airport.”
“I had the exact same problem a few years ago. I swore I'd never fly with this airline and ended up not getting on. Hard luck or bad luck. If it's a newer plane it's ok, if not it's awful. The food was amazing, usually the highlight,” commented a third.
One user commented: “Flying from Dubai to Delhi on an A380-900 last month. New aircraft, great food and on time. Maybe I just got lucky.”
“@airindia was grounded last year after repeated 'technical issues' forced them to reroute for emergency landings. Switched to @SingaporeAir and although it's not a direct flight from BLR to SF I feel it's safer and better taken care of,” one person said.
