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Air India refunds a first-class passenger 's full fare for the poor condition of the cabin(Pic: Mint)
The Tata-owned Air India has refunded the full fare to Anip Patel, the founder of CaPatel Investments, a Chicago-based venture capital firm after his video of the poor condition of the first-class cabin on the Chicago-Delhi flight went viral on Instagram.
The airline refunded the entire airfare even though Mr Patel had not registered a formal complaint with Air India.
No formal complaint
“I did not file any complaint with @airindia but through social media, they saw this video - they called me today and refunded my entire fare,” said Mr Patel on September 18. “They did make it right and it's worth noting.”
On Wednesday, Anip Patel posted a video on his Instagram profile showing how his recent trip from Chicago to Delhi was impacted by the `worst first-class cabin.'
“I recently endured a 15-hour non-stop flight from Chicago to Delhi, and it was far from pleasant. I had heard negative things about Air India in the past, but I was hoping the recent changes under new management would improve the experience—unfortunately, that wasn’t the case,” said Patel captioning his post on Instagram. The video received 6.9 million views.
Mr Patel's post highlighted the condition of the first-class cabin. He paid $6,300 (around Rs. 5.25 lakh) for the first-class one-way ticket.
“Everything was ripped, ruined, or had mildew on it. I understand it was wear and tear, but this was next level,” Mr Patel said in the post.
Food shortage, no wi-fi
Mr Patel also pointed out that the food menu did not have 30 percent of the items. The flight only had one of each item on the menu available, and four people were travelling in first class that day. “It was basically a first come, first serve.”
Mr Patel also noted that the entertainment systems inside the aircraft did not work, even though the cabin crew tried to make it work by resetting it four to five times. The flight did not have a wi-fi system either.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
