Just a day after cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle slammed IndiGo Airline for troubling an elderly couple over blocked seats during a flight, Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has come out all guns blazing against the same airline. Ashwin, narrating his own experience of booking a flight on the airline recently, claimed that blocking seats in the plane doesn't help much as the management can still decide to allot your blocked seat to someone else.
"This is becoming a regular menace @IndiGo6E, my recent experience with them through a third-party booking platform was terrible, they make you pay and then end up doing whatever they choose to do.
"Not sure if it's a scam !! heyyy who is ever going to pull them up ??? All we can do is to not trust them. Even if you pay, they won't give your blocked seats, Don't waste your time or energy," Ashwin wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Earlier, Harsha Bhogle narrated the story off an elderly passenger who was made to run around the inside the plane despite blocking the desired seat in advance. The commentator posted on X: "Another example of #IndigoFirstPassengerLast. An elderly couple on my flight had paid for seats in row 4 so they wouldn't have to walk much. Without an explanation, #Indigo changed it to seat 19. The gentleman was going to struggle to walk till row 19 in a narrow passage. But who cares. A few people had to make a noise, point out the immorality and only then, thanks to the pleasant cabin crew were the original seats restored. But, and this is the point, they had to make a noise otherwise Indigo was going to get them to walk till 19, and check after boarding was complete, if they could be assigned 4, which meant they would have to walk back.
"The elderly lady was meekly complaining about how this is a common occurrence and how it is stressful for people their age to travel #Indigo. "I wish they didn't have a monopoly" she said. Such a pity. I am sure @IndiGo6E, you can sensitise your ground staff to put the passenger first occasionally. It was so disappointing to see how casually they were moving elderly passengers. With success comes responsibility. As someone who is proud of a successful Indian enterprise, I hope you can be more sensitive and not institutionalise this uncaring attitude."
After Harsha Bhogle's outburst on social media, the airline also took to X and responded to the cricket commentator's complaint.
"Mr Bhogle, thank you for bringing this to our attention and taking the time to speak with us. We sincerely regret the confusion that caused inconvenience to the customers. Our crew quickly intervened, ensuring they travelled comfortably in their originally assigned seats.
"We've also reached out to the customers to address this personally. We truly appreciate your understanding and look forward to serving you again soon," the airline said in response.