Air India Passengers Forced To Sit Through A Fifteen-Hour Bed Bug Infested Flight To Newark After Paying Up To $10,000 Per Ticket

Source - Bed bugs on board Air India planes have allegedly resulted in flights being temporarily grounded on the Mumbai-Newark (US) route. Business class passengers flying from Newark Liberty Airport to Mumbai last week reportedly complained about the biting critters.

Kashmira Tonsekar made the grisly discovery after her younger daughter complained of a rash when travelling back to India after a family trip in the US. After a short while, more bugs began to emerge from the seat in question and adjacent seats, claimed Tonsekar.

Tonsekar’s husband, Pravin Tonsekar, tweeted Air India to express his grievance: 

Air India responded to Tonsekar’s tweet to apologise for the incident: “Sharing the details with our maintenance team for corrective measures in this regard.”

A second traveller also tweeted about a similar experience on 19 July:

You know what’s grosser than India? Newark. Facts are facts; both places are absolutely disgusting. One is the home to hordes of impoverished, glue-addicted children and the other is home to people who live in New Jersey. So, I can’t say I’m surprised that an Air India flight between the two places had issues. That said, I would’ve never expected BED BUGS to be the issue. Bed bugs are for poor people, not for people who casually pay ten-THOUSAND dollars on airfare. Which is a ridiculous amount of money to pay for anything, let alone a first-class cloth seat.

I did a little research on Air India and it turns out it’s the worst airline ever. The first thing that popped up in my Google search was an article titled, “20 Things I Hated About My Air India Business-Class Flight To NYC.” Here are some of the highlights:

1. Air India made me sick. The food actually tasted pretty good, so I didn’t hold back. Big mistake.
2. There wasn’t any healthy food. 

3. No menus until the end of the flight. 

4. There was no drink list. 

5. The entertainment system was at least a decade old. 

6. My IFE kept freezing. I frequently ended up with a blank white screen, and needed the system to be reset — it took at least 20 minutes to come back online.

7. The remote was broken, too. 

8. The air show didn’t work. 

9. My power outlet was broken. 

10. I had a middle seat. Yes, in business class. 

11. My seat was very uncomfortable.  

12. There wasn’t any storage. 

13. This is how Air India repairs broken seats. Yeah, with tape. 

14. The controls weren’t clearly labeled. 

15. And some didn’t work. 

16. The seat was filthy. 

17. The seat divider was even dirtier. 

18. The bathroom was a mess, too. 

19. Award redemptions are a “cluster.” 

20. My mom and sister were flying with me. I loved having them on the flight, but I really felt like I let them down.  *pics of bites

I imagine she didn’t list the duration of the flight because she was so distracted with how terrible every other aspect of her travel was, but flights from India to NY/NJ are fifteen hours long. In other words, those passengers had to endure an entire days worth of bug bites with no relief whatsoever. They couldn’t even distract themselves because all the entertainment options on the flight were broken.

I’ve always thought that the worst part about a trip to India would be being in India, but it turns out the travel is much worse. Hopefully the airline provides some sort of refund to the passengers but I doubt they will. Air India doesn’t seem concerned enough with passenger well-being to give a shit.