Last Week Indigo Skids off the runway, yesterday it skidded off my favourite list. Here’s why !

A few days ago, I read about Indigo skidding off the runaway and clipping the runaway lights, but also failing to inform the said authorities.

April 8th 2013, I faced a slip up as well.

I am copying an email I have sent verbatim to Indigo Customer Service. I look forward to your comments on this, and if any Rodinhooder knows somebody in Indigo Customer Services, this would be of help, as well as a learning :
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Sirs

This is to bring to your notice an incident which happened with my wife (Ashima Babbar) and me (Aditya Babbar), on the morning of April 8th 2013.

We flew into Chandigarh on Friday (April 5th 2013) by the 3.45pm flight for work and a friend’s wedding. The incident happened when we were returning into Mumbai (6E437), scheduled to depart at 10.15am.

The first instance was the check-in, and the lady (Sonia) and the gentleman(Nitin), were curt, not curteous. They looked at our carry-on luggage (a laptop bag, a ladies purse, an overnighter and a strolley) and asked us to weigh our cabin luggage which was 8.04 kgs(an overnighter) and a Strolley (8.15kgs). Being overweight by an average of a kilo, they insisted that the said bag was to be checked in and in no uncertain terms be allowed to go onto the flight. I tried to explain to them that the similar bags had come in from Mumbai to Chandigarh a couple of days ago, as Cabin Luggage, and were not checked in. What ensued further was the lady, looked at my wife’s strolley and announced it was unfit to go into the cabin (this similar bag and has been used on Domestic flights including Indigo on numerous occasions, and has never been questioned), and the lady proceeded to inform us that the bag was not of the correct dimensions and not fit for the cabin. As per the rules, only 1 Cabin luggage was allowed to be taken on board.

Both of them were purely interested in following the rules of the station(Chandigarh) and exercise their discretion, instead of the uniform rules applicable across the airline. Unfortunately, it did not stop there. The boarding cards were printed, but were not handed over with a constant reminder, that we had to checkin our bags.

To try and avoid any further harassment, we pulled out a small bag and shuffled the contents of 2 bags into 3, thereby each being under the prescribed limit of 7 kgs. We proceeded to bring the bag to the counter for weighing, and then we were handed over our boarding cards.

My wife was upset by the treatment being given to us and was unhappy about the way we were being spoken to. She made her emotions clear and voicing in no uncertain terms, that she was upset at the way the situation was handled. The gentleman, then proceeded, to ‘thank her’ in what can only be described as a mix sarcasm and a smirk. Thankfully, we were not the only ones who noticed this, and a couple of other passengers as well as a couple of our friends (one who was travelling in the same flight, and the other in a Go-Air flight) also brought up that hint of sarcasm and the attitude.

I hope you understand the fact that a gentleman would be miffed to put it mildly, when his wife (or a lady) was spoken to in such a manner. That pushed my over the edge and I lost my patience and proceeded to raise my voice and demand and apology from the gentleman. That however, was not come forthcoming and instead were dismissively asked to proceed. A couple of our friends, one of whom was travelling in another flight(Go Air) also shouted back asking for an apology and demanding his identity number (2387 – Assistant Manager) for records. We proceeded to record these details as well as take photographs of the employees and their badges, on our phone. In the meantime, another staff member (Manmohan) came in from the Indigo X Ray counter and proceeded to shout at us, for recording these details. Citing, self respect, we were shouted at and pushed. 3 of us(myself, 2 of my friends – Manish (flying in Go Air) and Anurag (travelling in the same flight)) proceeded to shout, protest and in return pushed them.

In this commotion, 2 things happened – 1. The CISF came to the scene to enquire as to what was going on. 2. The gentleman (Nitin) called the Captain to Deplane 3 of us from the aircraft for rude behaviour, getting into an unprovoked scuffle, with the Ground Staff. The 2 gentleman pleaded grounds of self respect to the CISF officials for such a measure. The attitude towards the lady as well as the manner in which he spoke was carefully ignored. The CISF as well as the Head of Security on Duty, pulled us to a corner and heard our story, as well as the ground staff’s version. The Ground Staff kept interrupting our interaction with the CISF officials and repeatedly going on about having everything on CCTV and would not allow us onboard and kept telling his support staff, the number of passengers will be “3 MINUS”.

The personnel from CISF as well as a gentleman (Ravinder) from Indigo(might I admit, the only reasonable and sane member in the staff at that instant), proceeded to apologise and asked us to resolve this matter. It was also pointed out that if we proceeded to continue, a Case would be instituted against us. I chose not to carry this further, calmed down and I realised I might have over-reacted, so asked for both parties (Us as well as the Ground Staff from Indigo) to apologize and proceed.

With the intervention of Ravinder and one more personnel from the Ground Staff, we were paged and able to board the aircraft, after over ruling the 3 Ground Staff. In my walk to the aircraft, I was also quickly handed over a white A4 sheet to write out an apology. As stated earlier, based on my ‘over-reaction’, I did. That paper was promptly collected before take off, however, none of the members of Ground Staff, who were oart of this, apologised to my wife, my friends or me, instead were no where to be seen, when Ravinder was escorting us through security check.

I still await the same from Indigo.

From once a preferred travel option, to what can only be described as upset flier, who will look at other options to fly.

Name of Passenger – Aditya Babbar
Seat No – 11A
Flight Number – 6E437
Flight Date – April 08,2013
adityababbar@gmail.com
+91983 377 7227

Disclaimer –
Between 4 of us, who were part of this, we do the following, and this has to be the first instant when such a thing has happened to any one of us.
– I am an Entrepreneur who has setup an Electronic and Mobile Payment Solutions Company.
– My wife works for the world’s leading IT research firm.
– One of my friends, works with the biggest Television Network in SE Asia.
– The other friend, works for the world’s largest networking site.

We work with customers on a daily basis and do exercise reasonable care and provide certain leeway in our dealings, to make the customer more comfortable.
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UPDATE – The same email has been sent out to Sanjeev Ramdas (VP Customer Service) as well as Suman Chopra(Head Inflight Services).
It has also been forwarded to Indigo using their Facebook page.