New Delhi: Grammy award winner Ricky Kej has raised concerns about Air India's services by citing two recent incidents and the airline has said that corrective steps will be taken where necessary. In a series of posts on X on Sunday, Kej mentioned about his experience at the Delhi airport before taking an Air India flight to Bengaluru on September 14. The incident was related to payment for excess baggage. Also, he levelled serious allegations about Air India staff who rejected the UPI payment system after the singer failed to pay the charges on credit cards.
"I reached the Air India check-in line at the Delhi Airport. Was flying business class. As always the lady at the counter was distracted, had to get her attention. I had not slept for 2 days and was travelling directly after performing a concert at the ITC Maurya. My bag was overweight by 6 kilos, I immediately offered to pay, as I always do," Kej said in a social media post.
"They told me I need to go to a counter which was quite a walk away just to pay. I requested them to bring the wireless payment machine to the check-in counter, like all the other airlines do (I routinely pay for excess baggage due to the nature of my profession). They refused (Devika, Ravi Kumar, Mukeeta & Neha). So I walked to the counter they directed me to. The person at that counter (Sunil) refused to even look in my direction and rudely said he was busy - either I could wait there for a while or he directed me to their ticketing counter which is at the other end of the terminal," he added.
"UPI is useless and Air India does not accept it"
"I refused both options and went back to the check-in counter. They told me there is nothing they could do and made a call to Sunil and told him to accept my payment. I made the walk back to Sunil (for a second time). I offered to pay by UPI. I did not have any credit cards or cash. He flatly refused UPI (Shocking for an Indian brand). He said UPI is useless and Air India does not accept it. I protested.. told him that I have UPI attached with multiple banks and can ensure the payment goes through, he refused to talk to me further. I went back to the check-in counter. They told me there was nothing they could do and offered to cancel my ticket instead!! They refused to give me any details on a refund and gave me back my suitcase," he claimed.
Second incident
The musician also wrote about an incident onboard the Mumbai-San Francisco flight on September 20 wherein initially flight attendants did not respond to a passenger's repeated call for service. "Almost a 17-hour flight. I like to take walks on the plane every 3 hours. During 1 of my walks, I was standing at the back of the plane. In deep animated conversation were 2 female flight attendants and another woman in a pyjama and t-shirt (I assume she was a flight attendant on a break, she was accessing the stowed away containers and shelves.. even helping passengers who walked to her.. giving them water, etc)," Kej wrote.
"A blue light was switched on by one of the passengers (call for service). One of the flight attendants saw the indicator, and very nonchalantly (while being seated on a makeshift chair made from trays) reached up to the touchscreen and turned off the blue light while not skipping a beat in the conversation," he alleged.
"I was appalled, but did not say anything. Then as expected, after a few minutes, the blue light was switched on again by the same passenger. Like clockwork, the same flight attendant turned off the light through the touch screen. I was now shocked that all three flight attendants were totally fine with this response and behaviour. Now the blue light got switched on again by the exact same passenger for the 3rd time. This time I did not hold back. I told the flight attendant what she already knew, that the same passenger has called her for a third time.. so maybe she could take a break from her conversation. She made a huge face, an under-the-breath remark and went to check on the passenger. I could not get the name of the flight attendant, because she was the only one not wearing a badge. This shows the complete apathy that @airindia has for customers and as I said, it is a systemic issue that may take years to address. All 3 flight attendants did not care about passengers and 1 of them was partially on duty, accessing containers while not in uniform.. she was obviously skipping her mandated rest. I am pretty sure there is CCTV footage for Air India to figure out the offending staff," said the singer.
Air India issues clarification
When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said the airline has taken the feedback seriously and will take "corrective steps where necessary so that such incidents are not repeated". While mentioning about the two incidents, Kej also said, "I am certain a few people will troll me, asking me why do I keep doing this to myself... travel through such a terrible airline, but I will continuously give them chances and criticize them for errors, till they improve".
While regretting the inconvenience caused, the Air India spokesperson in the statement also said such isolated incidents are not representative of the commitment of its staff towards service excellence.
(With inputs from agency)
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