- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
How can you downgrade a premium economy passenger at check-in counter on false pretext of overbooking, Ashwini Bhide asked on X. She was supported by netizens.
By: Shubham Ghosh
AN Indian administrative officer has lashed out at British Airways (BA) saying she was downgraded from premium ecomomy during check-in on the pretext of overbooking which she called false.
Ashwini Bhide, an Indian Administrative Service officer in the western state of Maharashtra, took to social media platform X to write, “Are you cheating or following discriminatory/racist policies @British_Airways? How come u downgrade a premium economy passenger at check-in counter on false pretext of overbooking without even paying price difference forget about compensation? I’m told this is a common practice by BA @CSMIA Mumbai.”
She tagged in her post, besides BA, the Mumbai airport, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and India’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Read: British Airways CEO wants more liberal India-UK air services agreements
Are you cheating or following discriminatory/racist policies @British_Airways ? How come u downgrade a premium economy passenger at check-in counter on false pretext of overbooking without even paying price difference forget about compensation? I’m told this is a common…
— Ashwini Bhide (@AshwiniBhide) January 12, 2024
Several users responded to Bhide’s post, expressing solidarity with her over her experience and disapproving of the airline’s practices.
One user, for example, called the BA’s customer service “by far the worst” when compared to other carriers. “We had the similar experience of downgrading just before the checkin from business to premium economy. BA Staff was rude and impatient,” the post read.
Another wrote, “Please don’t fly British Airways. You pay for getting discriminated when you do that.”
Another said, “Taking money from premium class and not paying back after downgrade is cheating. BA should be fined.”
“Nice to find Indians asserting n calling spade a spade. Hope many passengers would like to be reassured or refuse to take this airline,” said another.
This is not the first time that the BA has faced flak from an Indian administrative official. In August 2018, a senior bureaucrat of the India government accused BA officials of racial discrimination and rude behaviour and de-planing him and his family from a flight to Berlin from London in July that year, minutes before take-off because his three-year-old son was crying onboard.
The bureaucrat wrote to former civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu claiming that another Indian family, sitting behind them, was also offloaded as they offered biscuits to the child to console him.
(With PTI inputs)
