As my introductory post put it the other day, I am also an automotive journalist (read post). I was on my way from New Delhi to the Southern city of Kochi (also known as Cochin) via an early morning flight of Spicejet Airlines. This was for driving the upcoming compact SUV from Tata Motors, the Nexon.
Now Spicejet is India's fourth largest airline and is a budget carrier. No business class seats, no free meals and then some more - as I experienced today first hand. I was up since 4:30am so that I could be at the airport by 6am. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:20am and as I took my seat (no 8A) at 6:45am, I was in for a surprise. Not a good one.
The table tray / snacks tray was closed with the help of an industrial tape. Wow. Needless to say I wasn't very pleased. I had been up and hungry since hours and didn't know what to do next. I clicked an image and sent a tweet to Spicejet. This is what it read:
Immediately, I got a reply - which wasn't a good one. I guess they just follow a pre-set list of answers. So I gave them a piece of mind
Anyway, once the plane took off, I dozed off, only to be woken up by the talks : snacks / food was being served and the air hostess approached me and handed over my pre-booked meal. Umm, right then, I kept holding the box in my hand until she saw what was wrong! The tray could not be opened. She understood BUT had no regrets - i got no apologies and she went about doing her 'duties' - brilliant.
Had no option but to put the sandwich box there - didnt wanna make a mess by holding the box in one hand, eating it from other and in between shuffling with the ketchup sachet
I tried to remain as cool as possible, put the sandwich box into the space below the tray and dozed off again. However, before I shut my eyes, I saw the condition of the arm-rest of 7A - see the picture.
The broken armrest of 7A!
It just made me laugh out - the condition of this plane was really bad. Not having the tray also means no place to keep the water glass, or your mobile as you watch a downloaded movie. It just feels 'incomplete' specially when you are on a 3 hour long fight! Thankfully, we landed well and before time.
I am sure a lot of you here are frequent fliers - what would you do in such a situation? I have the email ids (thanks to their inflight magazine), but would shooting a mail help? Are you allowed to sue such airlines in certain countries? Or would you just ignore this bad episode and try avoiding them the next time?