Kolkata: Offered what was described as a broken and sunken seat on a flight from Bhopal to New Delhi, an exasperated Union agriculture minister Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan poured out his ire on social media and said he thoroughly disappointed with the service of Air India, which he thought would took pull up its socks under the Tatas. Chauhan suffered the uncomfortable seat on flight AI436.
Witnessing the discomfort of the minister, passengers on the flight wanted to exchange seats with him, but Chauhan didn’t agree since it would have merely transferred the discomfort to another individual. According to reports, the minister tolerated the discomfort during the flight. He was going to inaugurate Kisan Mela in Pusa and attend a meeting of the Natural Farming Mission in Kurukshetra. Chauhan was also supposed to engage in discussions with the representatives of some farmer organisations in Chandigarh.
Travails of seat 8C
On his post on X (earlier Twitter), Shivraj Singh Chouhan mentioned that he found the 8C seat allotted to him damaged and uncomfortable. Worse was to follow. The minister found that there were more such seats in the aircraft. He wrote, “When I asked the airline staff why such a seat was allotted, they admitted that management had been informed earlier and advised against selling tickets for it. Shockingly, there were several such defective seats on the flight.”
“I had hoped that Air India’s service would improve after Tata took over, but that seems to have been a misconception,” wrote Chauhan. He also described the tendency to charging full fare for broken seats “unethical”. He also wondered whether AIr India management would address the situation to prevent recurrence of such inconveniences in future.
Predictably, Air India promptly apologised to Chauhan. “Dear Sir, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please be rest assured that we are looking into this matter carefully to prevent any such occurrences in the future. We would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you, kindly DM us a convenient time to connect.” The Tatas purchased Air India from the Centre for Rs 18,000 crore in October 2021 and officially took over the reins of the company on January 27, 2022.
Where to lodge a complaint
If you are dissatisfied with the service offered by Air India and/or Indigo, you could consider lodging a formal complaint. The following are the people who you can contact with your complaint:
Air India: Customer support team or Nodal Officer at nodalofficer@airindia.com or, (if you are not still not satisfied) Write to the Appellate Authority at appellateauthority@airindia.com.
IndiGo: Customer support team or Nodal Officer at nodalofficer@goindigo.in. If that does not resolve your problem, write to appellateauthority@goindigo.in or one can also submit one’s grievances online with AirSewa Grievance.
Allotted “broken” seat on a flight from Bhopal to New Delhi, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan lambasted Air India on social media. Over the past few months Air India have come under fire for indifferent customer service. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
