A couple of days ago, I covered how an Air India first class passenger reported having an absolutely awful experience, on one of the carrier’s longest routes, the 18-hour journey from Delhi (DEL) to Toronto (YYZ), with a refueling stop in Vienna (VIE). I’d like to provide an update, as Air India has apologized and has offered compensation, but it leaves something to be desired.
Air India offers $116 apology for awful 18-hour flight
As a reminder, an Air India first class passenger took to social media, to share what no doubt sounds like an unacceptable experience on a very long flight:
- The seat malfunctioned repeatedly, and had to be manually fixed by the crew
- An overhead light fell on the passenger’s head
- A broken USB port with a sharp edge cut the passenger’s fingers
- Bed bugs on the seat and blanket gave the passenger multiple rashes from bites
- Torn upholstery and cracked panels were visible, with zero maintenance
He reached out to Air India about this incident. What was the carrier’s response?
We have taken note of the serious concerns raised regarding flight AI187 on 12 October 2025, including the condition of the seat, lighting issues, and other distressing experiences. Your feedback has been forwarded to the concerned team for thorough review and future improvement. While these experiences cannot be undone, a goodwill gesture of INR 10,174 is being offered in recognition of this situation. Kindly provide the following bank details along with a copy of a void cheque to facilitate processing.
Just to convert that amount, Air India is offering a total of $116 in compensation.
My take on Air India’s insufficient compensation offer
Suffice it to say that the $116 offered is a long ways from the “full refund and compensation for physical injury, discomfort and health risk” that the traveler was requesting.
For what it’s worth, I reached out to the traveler to ask how he booked his ticket and how much he paid. It’s useful context — no matter what, $116 is way too little compensation for what was described, but obviously the amount you should receive depends on whether you paid $10,000 for your ticket, or redeemed partner miles.
The traveler explained to me that he had upgraded his ticket to first class for $1,500. So I have to say, offering what essentially amounts to a 10% refund on the upgrade cost seems rather unreasonable.
Even years after being privatized, it’s simply embarrassing that Air India is offering such an experience. Worst of all, this wasn’t even an isolated incident, and what this traveler experienced seems closer to the norm than being an exception (maybe not the bug part, but the general issue with cabin maintenance).
Of course all airlines take some liberties with their marketing, but I can’t help but point out how incredibly deceiving Air India is with how it describes its first class experience:
Experience true luxury in the sky with our best in class first class cabin. A single step on board Air India’s first class will exemplify the true meaning of luxury.
Sorry, best in what class, exactly? Among Indian airlines offering a long haul first class product? Well, yes, I guess by that definition, Air India is best/only “in class.”
I totally get that Air India can’t be fully rebuilt overnight. However, the airline simply has to do a better job with maintaining cabins, even if they’re otherwise outdated. The issues experienced come down to basic maintenance, and can’t be blamed on delays with new seats, etc.
What’s also worth mentioning — and it’s not surprising — is that the kind of compensation airlines offer depends entirely on how viral something goes. For example, just over a year ago, a video went viral after someone had a “nightmare” flight in Air India first class.
The experience actually seemed less bad than this one (at least there were no bugs crawling in the sheets), but the traveler ended up being offered a full refund. Presumably that was simply because the video was viewed many millions of times.
Bottom line
An Air India first class passenger had a truly awful flight, with everything from a reading light falling on his head, to bugs being present in the sheets and causing rashes. While the traveler requested a full refund and additional compensation (unlikely), the airline went to the other extreme, and offered a total of $116 in compensation. That doesn’t seem to cut it, if you ask me…
What do you make of Air India’s compensation offer?
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