Mr.X FROM LONDON

I have been flying as a cabin crew with Air India for a long long time... I may say for the last 31 years and sure that's a long time to be in this profession and to have experienced the various passengers from various countries and with innumerable behavioral patterns. Passengers traveling through the globe come with varied cultures, varied cognitive orientation, varied educational background, and with a varying degree of the EGO....

On my flight from Delhi to London on the 21st of August, I had some passengers who thought that the cabin crew is the stupidest and the most illiterate workforce that Air India has and that they are very wrongly paid such a high salary....ha...

The passenger I will name him Mr X came on board and refused to show me the boarding card, ok fair enough, they have an inflated EGO. Passengers from Delhi mostly do not like to show their boarding card to the crew, for reasons we all know. OK, so this passenger came up to me and said that " I am seating at 43 D but you have seats in the executive class so I would like to sit in the executive class. I said OK if you are ready to pay the difference then why not and I offered to go and talk to the commercial staff about the same. To my answer, the passenger said " actually I spoke to your ground staff and they told me that the crew onboard will do the needful and so now I will sit in the executive class. I said No as we do not have the powers to do the needful, you have to pay the difference as you have paid for one product and this executive class is a different product with a higher price tag. Mr X was livid, he said, " I know your MD and so I shall complain to him about you, how dare you speak to me like this" You know most of the passengers that travel by Air India from Delhi either know the aviation minister or they know the MD funny isn't it?

I told him then that if he knows our MD so well then he can just call him up and get an upgrade ASAP no need to talk to me. I am a very small person in this airline. Mr X went back to his seat 43 D.

The Indian Government insignia, the lion with three heads, sometimes does wonders for the travelers, especially the ones connected with the Govt of India. most of them have visiting cards with their name printed on it and the department they work, their rank and the insignia at the top. So from Mumbai on a flight to Hong Kong a passenger came with his economy boarding card and I ushered him to his seat which was 11A. He had three friends with him all were seated around that seat number. He did put his bag in the overhead bin and then came to me and asked the name of the commander. I knew now that he wanted to be upgraded to business class just free of cost using his connection. I told him that my commander was Capt Collah. He acted as though he is searching his memory disc about this Captain and said, " Oh he must a new guy because every other Captain knows him well". I just shrugged. Next, he took out his visiting card and gave it to me to give to the commander.I read that he is some Mr. Abhishek Sharma , Member of the Rajya Sabha, Govt of India. I took the card to the commander he saw it and asked me should we upgrade him? I told him that sir it is your call but he has three other friends with him. Commander told me that upgrade only him. I came back to him and told him that he can take seat 3J in the business class. Immediately he motioned to his friends to move to the business class. I told him that the upgrade is only for him and no one else. He acted as though he was surprised and asked why? I told him that you have the visiting card with your name on it but your friends names are not there and therefore the commander has only allowed you to be seated in 3J. His ego was hurt. Here he was in the precarious situation, either he moves to 3J and loses the confidence of his friends or he sacrifices the offer in order to maintain his friendship with his friends. He chose the later. Midway through the flight, he asked the crew to get him a bottle of champagne. The crew came to me and informed me that this is what he demands. That's when I decided to go him and talk to him.

"Mr Sharma , I believe that you asked for a bottle of champaign?" I asked. He said, "yes at least this much you can do for me isn't it," I said, very politely, that I won't be able to comply to his wishes as the business class product entails passengers certain premium services for which the passengers have paid for. If I give him a bottle of champaign then why should I not give a bottle of champagne to every other economy class passenger? Just because you have a govt. Of India, Visiting card does not mean that you are entitled to the business class services. "I am extremely sorry Mr. Sharma I won't be able to comply with that demand of yours.

He was upset and very angry and started abusing AIRINDIA saying that it is they who are paying for Air India and that it is taxpayers money which the airline is guzzling and all that. I kept quiet and went about my duties on board.. Later when he got off and I was clearing my pocket of the various now useless papers and slips I saw his card again. To my surprise, he was not a Rajya Sabha member but a Rajya bhasha member. Only thing I could do then was to laugh at myself.

Bhasha means language and Rajya bhasha means national language and that is Hindi for India. No government official is allowed any upgradation other than their entitlement. This is exactly how the government official misuses their status on board Air India particularly by flaunting their credentials that could be anything, from just a simple visiting card to name dropping.