Nightmare for passengers as Mumbai-bound Air France flight delayed

Everyone has their own horrible tale of flying and dealing with difficult crew and ground staff While most of us rant and rave and then forget about it a passenger flying from Paris to Mumbai has shared his and 35 other fliersrsquo miseries in an open letter to the airline chief in a letter that has since gone viral on social networking websites Stranded From left Shruti Kore Joandi Jay Shah Ridhima Sarai and S Mishra were coming to Mumbai by the Air France flight Except for Joanda the others were all forced to stay at the airport for 30 hours Jay Shah a resident of Santacruz penned down his plight when his Air France flight from Charles de Gaulle Paris which was to depart on October 10 at 1050 am was delayed Shah and the others finally landed in Mumbai 30 hours later after braving abuse and indifference MiD DAY tracked down a few of the fliers and spoke to them about their difficult journey Jay Shah The 24yearold who runs a family business was the one who refused to let this event just go by After reaching Mumbai he wrote the letter to Alexandre De Juniac Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Air France KLM recounting his miseries Shah who was in New York to meet his sister was on his way home to Mumbai He had chosen Air France flight AF 17 from JFK Airport and then a connecting flight from Paris to Mumbai He says that once they landed at Charles de Gaulle they were waiting for the announcement of their transit flight which was to depart at 1050 am However at 1015 an announcement was made that the flight was delayed owing to technical issues and was rescheduled for 1220 pm At 1245 when panic increased among passengers as no boarding calls were made passengers approached the ground staff and it was then that they were told that the flight to Mumbai had been cancelled indefinitely Shah adds that instead of calming down passengers the crew was indifferent and continued ignoring the pleas of the passengers Later the passengers were given meal vouchers by the staff ldquoHungry tired and thirsty I made my way to Exki restaurant The food coupon given to us just allowed to select one item a Danish pastry or a hot or soft drink Being a vegetarian I was in a pickle as all the items had nonvegetarian ingredients I had very little choice and selected a Thai vegetable soup When I went to the cashier the person objected and hurled abuses saying that I could not buy the soup on my couponrdquo When asked what response the airline provided Jay added ldquoThe airline in its response has only asked us to share our bank details which I presume is to provide us with some monetary compensation But that is not the reason why I wrote the blog As per the rules the airline is supposed to provide us with compensation But I wanted the world to recognise how Indians are treated and how little respect is given to the elderly passengers The only reason to write the blog was to prevent any other flier being treated the same way flashvarsquotmutedtrueampautoPlaytruequotgt S Mishra S Mishra a 27yearold PhD student in robotic engineering from Washington said ldquoOn October 8 my father passed away in a road accident in Bhubaneshwar Odisha I had to attend his funeral and was worried I would miss the last chance to say goodbye to my father owing to the flight delay I informed the airline staff about the situation and requested them to arrange for an alternate flight as they had done for a passenger who was flying business class with us but my plea went unheardrdquo He added ldquoAt that moment all I wanted to do was see my dad for the last time I was sad and emotionally drenched Finally after 30 hours I reached my hometown on October 11 a day before Cyclone Phailin hit and laid my father to rest amid heavy rainrdquo Mishra has now decided to voice his concern with the Air France headquarters and will write to them about the entire episode though he is sure that he will not see any action ldquoI want people to know the incident but I am not expecting any sympathyrdquo Shruti Kore A resident of Pune who was in Pennsylvania in USA Kore was returning to Mumbai after six months She said ldquoI have decided not to fly Air France after the incident We can understand that a flight can develop a technical snag but the manner in which the airline staff behaved with us is just unacceptable They have no sympathy for the old and sick They were only worried about business class and foreigners and treated us like secondclass citizensrdquo She added ldquoI have filed a complaint and have demanded a refundrdquo Ridhima Sarai Sarai who originally hails from India was returning from London after working there for a few years She was offered 200 euro as compensation by the airlines However Ridhima did not accept the same Joandi Hartendorp A resident of Amsterdam Joandi was on her way to attend a wedding in Pune In an attempt to save 50 euros she preferred to take the flight from Paris a decision she is now regretting Joandi said she was given a compensation of 800 euro in travel credit as per the EU Airline Act 2612004 Highlights of the blog Day 1 1050 am Scheduled flight was delayed due to technical problem The flight was scheduled to take off at 1220 pm but finally at 100 pm the airlines staff informs us that the flight is cancelled indefinitely and did not even announce when it would leave the next day 600 pm The staff finally arrives with our passports after three hours To my utter disbelief only six or seven people are given the Transit Visa whereas the rest of us are denied Ironically the passengers who received the visa are only senior citizens Their guardians were not granted visas 620 pm We ask them for directions to their lounge At first they seem perplexed and then comes another one of those cold illogical and insensitive replies Air France Lounge is only for Business Class passengers and they canrsquot allow us to stay there We are asked to take an airport shuttle to the other terminal and fend for ourselves at the upper deck resting area A French gentleman probably my fatherrsquos age flying Business Class apologetically said ldquoIrsquove been flying for the past 35 years and Irsquom sorry but Irsquove only seen this happen to certain people Irsquom really sorryrdquo Day 2 830 am We meet the rest of the passengers who had gone to the hotels for the stay and wait for our flight u00a0Thatrsquos where I meet one elderly gentleman who is going to Baroda Irsquom amazed at what he has to say His flight from Newark to Paris on the 7th was delayed and therefore he missed his connecting flight to Bombay from Paris So they put him on our flight I canrsquot believe it He looks like hersquos preparing himself for the role of Mr Viktor Navrovski from the movie Terminal Imagine spending two whole nights at an airport What the rule saysu00a0 Regulation EC No 2612004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 says gtgt In the event of long delays two hours or more depending on the distance of the flight passengers must in every case be offered free meals and refreshments plus two free telephone calls telex or fax messages or emails gtgtu00a0If the time of departure is deferred until the next day passengers must also be offered hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and the place of accommodation gtgtu00a0When the delay is five hours or longer passengers may opt for reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket together with when relevant a return flight to the first point of departure The other side When MiD DAY tried contacting the Air France headquarters in Paris did not yield any result However an official from the airlinersquos Bangalore office said ldquoSince the incident happened in Paris the grievances should be made to the headquarter directlyrdquo