Air India refunds fare to Indian-American CEO after his ‘worst first-class cabin’ video of Chicago-Delhi flight went viral | Business News
Air India has issued a full fare refund to Anip Patel, a passenger whose video of the shabby state of the first-class cabin on a Chicago-Delhi flight went viral recently. In the video, which Patel posted on Instagram earlier this week, he had said that his first-class seat on the flight was priced at $6,300. Patel, founder of a Chicago-based venture capital firm, later wrote in the video’s comments section that Air India reached out to him and refunded the fare.
“I did not file any complaint with @airindia but through social media they saw this video—they called me today and refunded my entire flight…they did make it right and it’s worth noting,” Patel commented on his Instagram video. The airline has not yet commented on the incident or the refund to Patel.
The video—which showed the cabin in a poor state with damaged interiors, dirty carpets, and broken in-flight entertainment system—clocked over eight million views on Instagram and caused embarrassment to the Tata group carrier, which is in the process of upgrading its fleet and product, and aims to become a “world-class airline”. Several people who commented on the video asked if the airline refunded the fare just because the video had gone viral, or if they do the same for all passengers who go through such an experience.
Although Air India has taken on lease a number of newer wide-body aircraft with upgraded cabins and inducted a handful of its own new planes as well, a number of the airline’s long-haul and ultra-long-haul flights are still being operated by its old legacy aircraft from the airline’s government ownership days. The Boeing 777 operating the Chicago-Delhi flight, in this case, is one such aircraft.
The airline recently started its $400-million refit programme to upgrade the cabins of its legacy fleet and spruce up the product. However, this exercise will first see the old narrow-body planes being retrofitted and upgraded first, and the process for the old wide-body jets—40 in number—is expected to start only after a few months. This means that it will be a while before long-haul flights operated by the legacy aircraft will have an upgraded cabin.
In his video, Patel started by saying, “Come with me on the worst first-class cabin I’ve ever been on.” He said that his one-way flight cost $6,300, and then proceeded to highlight the various issues he faced during the journey.
“Look at how gross this is,” he said, pointing to the worn and damaged state of the cabin. “There were things moving in every compartment, everything was ripped, or had little wear on it. I understand regular wear and tear, but this was next level.”
His frustration extended to the food service. “This was the food menu. It looked very promising, but of course, 30 per cent of its items were not available. They only had one of each item. Four of us were in the entire cabin, and it was basically first come, first served,” he said.
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Patel was also miffed as the in-flight entertainment system did not work during the 15-hour flight from Chicago to Delhi. “No entertainment. The entertainment system didn’t work for the entire 15 hours,” he said, adding, “Everything is broken; they literally put tape on the walls.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
