Another feather in the cap for Air India, first class passengers complain about bedbugs on international flight

• Passengers flying first class from Newark-Mumbai on Thursday were greeted with the nasty bedbug bites on their 8-month-old infant.
• Earlier this week, a father complained to the airlines that his daughters were also bitten by bedbugs on the same AI-144 flight but the planes were different.
  
• The bedbug problem is not limited to Air India alone. In October 2017, a similar incident occurred on a British Airways plane that was headed from Vancouver to London.
  

Looks like India’s national air carrier, Air India, is vying to beat the country’s national rail network with regards to which one is filthier.

Passengers flying first class - tickets costing upwards of ₹2,00,000 per person - from Newark-Mumbai on Thursday were greeted with the nasty bedbug bites on their 8-month-old infant. The distressed child was crying uncontrollably and when the mother checked under the baby’s clothes she discovered she was covered with bug bites and was also bleeding.

According to a Times of India source, the baby and her mother were occupying seat numbers 12 and 14 that are adjacent since the plane does not have a seat numbered 13 as it is considered unlucky. However, it is highly unlikely the problem is limited to only these two seats since bedbugs, unlike other passengers, are not contained to one spot.

But things don’t end there, the bedbug problem is not limited to only one Air India plane. Earlier this week, a father complained to the airlines that his daughters were also bitten by bedbugs on the same AI-144 flight but the planes were different.




This particular incident lead to an almost four-hour delay in the last leg of the flight, from Mumbai to Delhi, thanks to appalled passengers, obviously.

But before you go on to write-off Air India forever, perhaps it's worth noting that this problem is not limited to this carrier alone. In October 2017, a similar incident occurred on a British Airways plane that was headed from Vancouver to London. A Canadian man alerted the flight attendants about the presence of bedbugs where he, his fiance and child were seated, but because there was no other seat available, they were forced to stay where they were. And sure enough, the next day the little girl was covered with bites.

British Airways acknowledged the problem and apologised to the family two days after they posted their grievance in social media and also ‘upgraded’ their return flight to business class. However, in Air India’s case, an airline spokesperson simply responded with a measly “will investigate and revert”.

It also looks like this is a perennial problem with complaints of bedbugs dating back to 2015 on Twitter.







If Air India wants people to still fly on its planes, maybe it is time they got a few exterminators on board beforehand.