Returns trips, from vacations usually are the times when people are in trance. While they reminisce the wonderful time that they had in the last few days the mind also broods about the “back to mundane life” state.
Last week (12th Mar 2010 to be precise) was one such day in our life. Returning from a fantastic vacation of over 7 days we took a big decision to board Air India Express from Chennai to Mumbai. Precursor calls to the airport office of the airline, off ten calls one was answered, a hurry voice affirmed that the flight was on time as always.
The regular check-in & other formalities went on very well and we were all aboard at 09:45. While people were settling down there were the usual whispers among the chirpy airhostess. Just then one of the hostess girls took her bag and walked out, making me think that she would be one of the those crew from the connecting flight which just over slept and forgot to disembark.
My 4 year old son changed his question from “when will we get into the plane?” to “when will the plane takeoff?” My answer changed from “10 minutes” to “whenever the ladder moves away from the plane”. And he morphed his question to “When would the ladder move away?” and I said “10 minutes”. Every minute he would ask me the same question over and over again. While I kept answering him one of the passenger in the row ahead of us got up and started speaking loudly to the crew, “You can’t make 200 passengers wait for one of you colleague. What if she is late let’s get going”
I saw the watch and the time was 10:15 & scheduled departure was 09:50 & during this time the pilot announced that the flight would be delayed by 15 minutes for operational reasons. When prodded a little more the air hostess confessed that her colleague was in somewhere near Guindy (approximately 8 kms away). By then few others had also assembled at the plane door way and asking the glum ladies 100 questions. On hearing that their colleague was in Guindy everyone was exasperated. The crew said Guindy as if it was the name of a sofa within the airport complex.
Time zipped past and more passengers joined others to make a crowd near the plane door.
The boy kept asking “When would the ladder move away?” and this time I said “Whenever the plane door closed.” and then he began to ask “When would the plane door close?”... This time on, I just saw towards the crowd and smirked at him. Good way to end the vacation on, I thought. In between speaking to co passengers & crew, I kept updating my wifey & mom about the delay and didn’t have an answer when they asked by when we would reach Mumbai. Guess they were more concerned about the domestic arrangement (maid scheduled synchronized to our landing time and food arrangements for the kids). Priorities, to each his own.
The crowd swelled and every one spilled over to the jet bridge and the terminal building, cursing the Plane Company, flight and crew. Interestingly other than 2 ground staff there was no one else in and around our areas. Guess they knew all this long before and had vanished. Everyone asked for the airport manager & was curtly told that he comes in only at 10am, but then it was 11am now. Someone said “Why do we need that air hostess, ask her to continue sleeping & we can serve food ourselves. So let’s just go.”
Some other said “Get us the airport manager or we all are going to walk and lie down on the runway”
Yet another said “We need compensation from the airline & we need it in writing about this”
A duty manager came nearby and was appalled on seeing the crowd. But he played like a pro, kept his mouth shut only saying that the replacement crew would be there soon. Not a word of apology, no true status update and no sight of the crew member yet – That’s Air India Express for you.
Someone wise said “What apology or truth are you guys expecting; they gobbled up 4500 crores of the tax payers’ money and not a word was said. The ticket prices we have paid are not even worth peanuts for them, so don’t expect anything”
A lady added “If we were 5 minutes late then the airline would never allow us in & in addition to that they would be so rude to you.”
Few guys chose to offload as they would not reach in time for a scheduled meeting in Mumbai.
While all this chaos reigned, we saw a crew member waiting quietly and briskly towards the jet bridge. Her head hung low she kept walking not waiting to see anyone in their eyes or stopping any moment. She rushed into the plane and went to the tail end of it as soon as possible. The passengers still stood there appalled, with no authorities from the airlines or airport to hear the grievances.
Slowly everyone realised that no one is going to come to compensate, apologize or even to speak a word or two to us customers. Guess with assured tax payers money supply for the airlines, customer need not be the king.
With the passengers slowly settling down, the co pilot came out (dunno how they managed to sit inside the cockpit for such a long time doing nothing) and said, “Lets’ all get in and leave as we don’t want the flight to be delayed further. There are old people and children in the flight.” Some passenger smirked “As if you care”.
The flight finally left at around 1145 with the pilot announcing his apology saying that the flight was delayed for operational reasons, as a crew reported sick and they had to find a replacement at the last moment. Huh!! As if we didn’t know the reason.
End Note: Once settled the passengers got speaking to each other again about the incident and few co passengers who were in the front rows said, the crew member who left with her bag baggage wanted to attend a wedding and was feeling bad that she could not attend it (cos of the duty). But with support from fellow crew members she reported sick and walked to the wedding while the airline hunted for a replacement, at the cost of the customer’s time & money – Customer Service at its best.
