Scenario 1 :MumbaiChatrapathiShivajiAirport: 2004After a nice holiday, shopping and dining experience at Taj Mumbai, my brother-in-law and family of 5 members were to take off to Paris on a reputed international flight next day early morning. I was surprised to receive a call from my sister stating that they are staying back in Mumbai and they invited us to join for Lunch at Juhu Centaur. We were surprised that the airline had been overbooked by 20 odd seats. I believe during holiday season cancellations too are high. The airline offered free boarding and lodging and next day their tickets were confirmed on priority, lest the airline incurs expense on boarding on lodging again.
Scenario 2 :BangaloreOldAirport: 2007:Once again my brother in law and family were on a vacation to home town, in between he receives an emergency call from the office that there is a crisis because of client default. He had to cut short his holiday and return to Paris. There was no refund of ticket and instead he was charged double the price of the ticket for using the same airline under code sharing arrangement. He ended up paying 55 K for a fresh ticket and lost 18 K in unutilized ticket.
Scenario 3 :MumbaiDomesticAirport: 1996 :We receive an emergency call from my mother at 6 am, that my father was no more. We did not carry sufficient cash, nor could we disturb anybody from borrowing money early morning. In those there were limited ATMs for drawing cash from the bank. Ultimately we reached airport and flashed the credit card for booking ticket. The employee at the booking counter rudely told us to come back later. We were crestfallen whether we will get the ticket, whether the credit card will be approved, and filled with tension. Suddenly a Jewish executive of the airline comes and enquires, on knowing our plight, he issues an order to release the ticket and offers us a complimentary breakfast in their lounge. We were relieved from travel tension and delighted at the response of a foreigner.
Scenario 4 :GauhatiAirport: 2009 :We were literally on a last leg of our holiday trip to North East Trip. When we checked in at the airport we found that the airport was bustling with passengers. Suddenly we realized all flights are delayed due to pollution from the river bed of Bramhaputra. There was no ILFS landing system, I doubt with the simulator too flights would have been able to land. There was enmass cancellation of flights announced as the day progressed. I was watching the plight of the passengers some were on emergency trip, some were on personal trip and some were on official trip. Suddenly in the evening it was announced that probably 4 flights will be able to land and take off instead of 12 flights. Being an off season ( exam season ) I was sure that only 30% to 40% occupancy of flights. Suddenly the ticket price shot up to 18 K for a business classs instead of regular 5 K.
Scenario 5 :PortBlairAirport: 2005 :We were surprised to find that our co-travellers returning back to Hotel at YMCA Port Blair. They had to return because their flight was over booked .and the airline concerned did not offer them an accommodation nor conveyance. They had paid 13 k and whereas had paid only 5 k by the same airline. The same airline was supposed to be reporting Red in their balance sheet. Next day both our families took off in the same flight on time without much hassles of cancellation due to overbooking.
Due to word constraint pl read rest of my post from my blogspot link
https://de-guide.blogspot.com/2011/11/flying-black-blue.html
