Air India refunds Indian-American Founder’s first-class ticket money as ‘gross’ cabin video goes viral on Instagram

The Tata-owned airline operator Air India has refunded full amount to Anip Patel, the founder of CaPatel Investments, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, after his video of the first-class cabin from Chicago to Delhi went viral on Instagram. 

The brand refunded the entire airfare even though Patel did not register a formal complaint with the brand, according to Patel's comment on his post on Instagram. 

“I did not file any complaint with @airindia but through social media they saw this video - they called me today and refunded my entire flight,” said Patel on September 18, adding to the comment section of the post. “They did make it right and it's worth noting,” said the executive after the airline took action for the unpleasant experience of a traveller.

What was the video about?

On Wednesday, Anip Patel posted a video on his Instagram profile showing how his recent trip from Chicago to Delhi was impacted by the “worst first-class cabin,” the executive said in the post on his account, MondayswithMohan.

“I recently endured a 15-hour non-stop flight from Chicago to Delhi, and it was far from pleasant. I had heard negative things about Air India in the past, but I was hoping the recent changes under new management would improve the experience—unfortunately, that wasn’t the case,” said Patel captioning his post on Instagram.

The video received 6.9 million views from the platform users, 97.1 thousand likes, and 8,749 comments since it was posted.

Patel's post highlighted the situation of the first-class cabin of the Air India aircraft travelling from Chicago to Delhi. According to his post, the cost of the first-class one-way ticket was $6,300 per person.

“Everything was ripped, ruined, or had mildew on it. I understand it was wear and tear, but this was next level,” said Patel in the post.

Patel also stated that as a part of the first-class experience, the food menu did not have 30 per cent of the items. The flight only had one of each item on the menu available, and four people were travelling in first class that day, according to the post.

“It was basically a first come, first serve,” said Patel.

Patel also noted that the entertainment systems in the flight did not work, even though the cabin crew tried to make it work by resetting it four to five times, which resulted in no success. The items in the cabin were taped to the walls, and the flight did not have a Wifi system, according to the executive.