21 October,2014 03:02 PM IST | | Sonali Joshi Pitale
The 'English Vinglish' actor was denied a boarding pass by a national airline in spite of reaching before time
Adil Hussain
Adil Hussain went through a harrowing time at the city airport on Monday morning as he was turned down by Air India despite having booked his ticket in advance. The actor was supposed to jet off to Delhi and had reported at the city airport 90 minutes prior to his 7am flight. His ordeal began when he asked for his boarding pass at the airline's counter.
Adil Hussain
Adil says, "I reported at the airport at 5.20am and stood in the queue for my boarding pass. My ticket was confirmed but I was told that my luggage weighed more than the permissible limit. I told them that I was willing to pay for the extra kilos and was asked to wait. But they did not give me my boarding pass. After having waited a long time, I asked them for my pass but to my shock, they informed me that the flight was full."
The actor says he was not the only one to have been kept waiting. "I heard a commotion at another corner of the airport and found out that a family of three had been given the same excuse. The supervisor of the ground staff had no explanation to our problem and even lacked the courtesy to apologise," he adds.
Eventually, Adil had to book a ticket on the next Air India flight to Delhi, scheduled to depart at 8am. "I asked them for a business class ticket and they were not ready to give me that. They didn't refund my money either. Thankfully, I had no immediate commitments in Delhi to honour. But the behaviour of airline authorities was appalling," he says.
The official spokesperson of Air India defended the ground staff saying, "The passengers of AI 601 had to be shifted to 864 due to some reason which led to all the seats of that particular flight being occupied. However, all three passengers were shifted to the next immediate flight AI 809 and 625 and were taken care of."
(With inputs from Neha LM Tripathi)
