By Ketan Kothari
It was a normal Tuesday and a rush to catch the flight to Vizag from Chennai Airport. I was worried since I was late and was fighting time to reach the airport.
Nonetheless, all was well and I boarded the flight looking forward to a nice nap for an hour and more exciting visit to Chodavaram. We were all boarded on the Jet light flight (quite shocked to find that all was going well and the flight was about to leave on time).
Alas! I was under some illusion as I heard an announcement informing us that there was some technical snag and the flight may be delayed for some time. I phoned Mr. Prasad Rao to inform him of the delay in my arrival and relaxed thinking that it will be a short delay. After half an hour we were asked to deplane and were promised that the aircraft would be repaired in an hour. We all went to the departure lounge and the nightmare began.
Hour turned into 2 and we learned from someone that flight was cancelled. There was no one from the company to allay our fears or talk to us. I was left on the lurch.
In the meantime, I started the phone and realized that my colleague Shweta (at Chennai) and our Vizag partners were worried and trying to get in touch with me. I phoned her and told that I was safe and the flight has been cancelled and I was trying for some alternate arrangement. The news also reached Mumbai and of course all were worried.
After a lot of haggling the jet representative informed me that now there was no way that I could be sent to Vizag and that in any case they were not responsible to make any alternate arrangements as we had booked cheaper flight. What kind of customer care!
After some calls I came to know that there was a Jet flight to Hyderabad and from there one could go to Vizag by a Spicejet flight.
I was not to give up and informed the Jet officials that either they were to send me to Vizag at their cost or I will have to go to consumer court for their behaviour. After a lot of arguments, pleading and cajoling they somehow put me on a Jet flight to Hyderabad and from there to Vizag via a Spicejet flight.
The story of our jettison by the Jet airways was very heavy so Jet light turned out to be a heavily tense, hungry journey were one was required to be patient but firm and of course focused at reaching the destination and alert as to their false information. In fact, they were so disorganized that they were avoiding everyone and could not care less if there was a blind person.
Inclusion in reality!
