Air India 'horror story': Passenger shares flight experience of Rs.5-lakh round trip; from worn-off seats to bad food

The Air India passenger took to microblogging site X to share his experience with the airline's business class flight to Newark, and termed it no less than a nightmare.

Vineeth K, who identified himself as a small time investor, alleged that his flight from New Delhi - Newark (AI 105) was not only delayed by 25 minutes, but it also had worn-off and unclean seats.

“After flying with Emirates for a few years, I recently moved to Air India as they offer direct flights to NY, Chicago & London, which are my frequent travel destinations. Yesterday’s flight was no less than a nightmare,” said Vineeth in a post.

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The traveler said that despite paying ₹5 lakh for a round-trip, the food was bad, seats wear worn out, the covers were dirty and TVs were not working.

“After settling for 30 mins post take off, I wanted to get to sleep (3.30 AM) and realised that my seat doesn’t go to a FLAT BED, reason it’s not working. Requested the crew and after 10 mins of trying, they moved me to another seat which worked. 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),” Vineeth claimed in a post.

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He further claimed that his luggage was also broken.

“Luggage handles broken. Tags missing. Lock / Zip tie missing,” said Vineeth sharing photos of his bags.

He also shared AIR India's response to his post on X, which has now been deleted.

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Several social media users have reacted to the post, with one user saying, “Hopefully on your return leg they put you in the refurbished B777, else would suggest you change to partner airline.”

Another user said that he had a similar experience on AI flight from Delhi to Singapore.

“They also broke my luggage, was on holiday trip, goa. Got slip filled with damage from Air India ground staff goa. But Air India never provided compensation for damage,” claimed a user.

(LiveMint has reached out to Air India for a comment)