You can fly from Delhi to New York in around 15 hours, but still the advice will be to not book Air India – because India’s national carrier’s consistency to discomfort passengers can last as long as 14 hours on a flight from Kolkata to Delhi that needs only a couple of hours of flying time.
I was scheduled to fly AI 701 on Monday. But instead of a comfortable journey along with other passengers, I underwent an ordeal that left children, women, elderly and everyone else to the mercy of God for an entire night.
The Maharajah’s head was left hanging in disgrace due to sheer unprofessionalism, incompetence and white lies of its employees that kept close to 200 passengers in the dark.
The misery started with a last-minute change of boarding gate from No. 16 to No. 4 at a time when most of the airport security, amid fan frenzy, was busy ensuring incident-free boarding to the Indian cricket team.
But AI 701 passengers were still rushing as it was already well past the boarding time of 5:30 pm, which was actually the take off time mentioned on my e-ticket. So a delay was certain, though none of us had a hunch that we will see the next day’s sunrise in Kolkata itself.
The swanky Dreamliner made its push back and start, but soon the captain spotted a technical glitch and announced that the plane would require checks, which will cause a further delay.
The personal entertainment system inside the Dreamliner pacified most of the passengers as many were seen with their headsets on. When the wait extended and the captain announced further delay, the crew decided to serve what they called was “dinner” but it turned out to be only refreshments.
With that, AI bought some more time. But not for long.
By now the polite inquiries had turned into demands for an update, voices acquired an agitated tone, and passengers started pacing up and down the plane.
On board was also the Pakistan High Commissioner, his team and Yechury, all of who left after the delay extended to more than two hours.
It was learnt that the Pakistan officials, barring one who was unfortunate to return to the broken aircraft, were flown to Delhi by another flight.
The captain soon gave up hope: “We are trying to reboot the computer. If the problem persists, you will be required to deplane but another aircraft has been arranged that will leave at 10:30 p.m.”
That led to a few smiles, but it didn’t last long.
We de-boarded the Dreamliner and were put on a bus that transported us to a deserted domestic terminal. Besides the AI 701 passengers, there was no soul in the vicinity to cater to distressed passengers, many of whom were hungry and thirsty.
Hearing some of the loud shouts, a few of the airport staff arrived, followed by some of the Air India officials. They had no clue or any communication about what the Dreamliner captain had announced.
21/03/16 Jaspreet Sahni/IBN Live
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I was scheduled to fly AI 701 on Monday. But instead of a comfortable journey along with other passengers, I underwent an ordeal that left children, women, elderly and everyone else to the mercy of God for an entire night.
The Maharajah’s head was left hanging in disgrace due to sheer unprofessionalism, incompetence and white lies of its employees that kept close to 200 passengers in the dark.
The misery started with a last-minute change of boarding gate from No. 16 to No. 4 at a time when most of the airport security, amid fan frenzy, was busy ensuring incident-free boarding to the Indian cricket team.
But AI 701 passengers were still rushing as it was already well past the boarding time of 5:30 pm, which was actually the take off time mentioned on my e-ticket. So a delay was certain, though none of us had a hunch that we will see the next day’s sunrise in Kolkata itself.
The swanky Dreamliner made its push back and start, but soon the captain spotted a technical glitch and announced that the plane would require checks, which will cause a further delay.
The personal entertainment system inside the Dreamliner pacified most of the passengers as many were seen with their headsets on. When the wait extended and the captain announced further delay, the crew decided to serve what they called was “dinner” but it turned out to be only refreshments.
With that, AI bought some more time. But not for long.
By now the polite inquiries had turned into demands for an update, voices acquired an agitated tone, and passengers started pacing up and down the plane.
On board was also the Pakistan High Commissioner, his team and Yechury, all of who left after the delay extended to more than two hours.
It was learnt that the Pakistan officials, barring one who was unfortunate to return to the broken aircraft, were flown to Delhi by another flight.
The captain soon gave up hope: “We are trying to reboot the computer. If the problem persists, you will be required to deplane but another aircraft has been arranged that will leave at 10:30 p.m.”
That led to a few smiles, but it didn’t last long.
We de-boarded the Dreamliner and were put on a bus that transported us to a deserted domestic terminal. Besides the AI 701 passengers, there was no soul in the vicinity to cater to distressed passengers, many of whom were hungry and thirsty.
Hearing some of the loud shouts, a few of the airport staff arrived, followed by some of the Air India officials. They had no clue or any communication about what the Dreamliner captain had announced.
21/03/16 Jaspreet Sahni/IBN Live
