Recalcitrant Air Traveler

Yesterday, I was witness to a very interesting incident at Delhi domestic terminal while checking in for my Jet Airways flight to Mumbai. I was waiting in queue along with my colleague for checking in, when I noticed a Sardarji (age 60+ along with his wife) in animated conversation with the executive at the counter. All counters were getting cleared fast, but the Sardarji refused to budge.

The lady at the counter was agitated as the Sardarji had already taken a boarding pass for himself and his wife by saying that they only had hand baggage. Apparently the argument was over whether the bag the Sardarji was carrying was hand baggage or not – bag size 24”x48”x12” - this was obviously not hand baggage! The executive had noticed the bag size after issuing the boarding pass and very politely told him that he cannot take that size bag into the seating area as it would not be allowed. The Sardarji was insisting that he would take it as he had done so before (personal jet maybe!). The lady was telling him to return the boarding pass and that she would book him on to the early morning flight the next day – apparently the couple were off to Goa for the weekend. The Sardarji said that the holiday was booked only for Saturday and Sunday night, hence he had to leave the same day else it was pointless. I wonder why he would travel in the evening if it was a weekend vacation, one would travel either on a Friday evening or Saturday early morning, but anyways that was not the case here.

The subsequent ideas given by the Sardarji would have been funny, if it had not been so tragic. He tried pleading, then force, then belligerence but the young lady would not give up, and not once did she lose her temper. She was very small and pretty maybe just four feet eight inches tall, but firm and polite – she should be given an award for tough customer handling! The Sardarji walked off with the bag saying what is the worst that will happen, they won’t let me get on the flight right, he said he will take that chance; then he told her she can take the bag in get the security check done after checking in and load the bag onto the aircraft (if that had happened it would prove that security at Indian airports is lax!), then he asked for a large plastic bag, in which he would unload the luggage from the big bag and carry as hand baggage – it did not strike him that he would have to leave his bag behind, when that was pointed out he ruled out the plastic bag.

This ping pong battle went on for quite some time, and the flight was getting delayed because this couple had checked in and not yet boarded! The Jet Air executive was getting really upset but still maintaining her cool – ultimately a supervisor landed up and told them that they could not carry that size bag into the cabin. The Sardarji actually with folded hands pleaded with the executives to let them go saying “if you want to help a customer, you can, but if you want to be difficult and have this attitude, there is nothing I can do”, he also mentioned to her that she should get the most customer friendly award and would ensure she got it by writing to Jet Airways about this incident.

The situation was salvaged by his wife, who was watching from the sidelines, she came and said that after all this headache she did not want to go to Goa, and please cancel the ticket. The Sardarji told the staff to cancel the ticket, I left my observer status and walked off for my flight. This was my dose of pre-flight entertainment, I did not think that someone could be so mule headed – you come late for your flight for check-in luggage, check in with only hand baggage, try to bluff and bluster your way through, create a scene, delay hundreds of other passengers and call the staff unhelpful!