Gauri & Hiten had problem to fly Bangkok

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Posted: 20 years ago

Despite confirmed seats, 'Kutumb' honeymoon

Gauri Pradhan and Hiten Tejwani
in a still from Kutumb

It wasn't the best of beginnings for honeymoon couple, Gauri Pradhan and Hiten Tejwani, lead pair from the teleserial, Kutumb. They were stranded at Sahar airport for nearly eight hours on Saturday night, in spite of having confirmed tickets to Bangkok, as their names failed to turn up on the computerised chart of Thai Airways.

The couple who had tied the knot on April 29 in Pune, had planned a week-long honeymoon at an island city near Bangkok, and had booked their air tickets on Air-India flight no AI-6318, a week ago on a code sharing basis with Thai Airlines flight no DG-318.

However at the Thai Airlines check-in counter at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, the couple were stunned to learn that their names did not reflect on the airlines' booking system.

Apart from them, around 10 other passengers faced a similar problem. The Thai flight was scheduled to leave at 10.30 pm and airline officials assured them that if there were vacant seats, they would be allowed to board the flight. "The Thai Airline officials also told us that the error might be on the Air-India booking system and advised us to approach Air-India instead," Gauri added. Of the other passengers, some had to reach Bangkok for important business meetings, one on a funeral, while others were tourists. "The officials at Air-India weren't of much help either. Both the airlines kept blaming each other for the error, instead of sorting out the problem and we were made to run from one airline office to another," said a furious Hiten. The couple finally left by a Cathay Pacific flight at 4.50 am.

When contacted, Jitendra Bhargava Director (Public Relation) Air-India said, "We will have to look into the case and find out why it happened." Thai Airlines officials were unavailable for comments.

What is airline code-sharing?

Airlines like Air-India tie-up with foreign airlines for sectors where it doesn't have direct flights. In this case, Thai Airways had a direct flight to Thailand.