Comedian-actor Vir Das on Tuesday took to X (formerly Twitter) to recount his frustrating experience of flying Air India recently with his wife. In his post, the comedian-actor asked the airline to reclaim its wheelchair.

Das said that he had pre-booked a wheelchair for his wife, who had a fracture in her foot. Even though Das had pre-booked the wheelchair, the airline did not coordinate properly or deliver on it. 

“Dear Air India please reclaim your wheelchair. I’m a lifetime loyalist. I believe you’ve got the nicest cabin crew in the sky, this post pains me to write. My wife and I booked Pranaam and a wheelchair because she’s got a foot fracture that’s still healing,” he wrote in his post. 

He further said that they paid ₹50,000 per seat and got a broken seat and broken leg rests in return.

“We’re flying to Delhi. 50 grand a seat. Broken table, broken leg rests, her seat is stuck reclined, won’t straighten fully. We’re told the flight is ‘newly refurbished’. Two hours late, we get off in Delhi and we’re told it’s a stepladder. Again wheelchair and encalm pre-booked,” he said. 

Encalm is a private company that offers wheelchair assistance at several Indian airports through its Atithya service. He said that the air hostesses and the ground staff were totally clueless on how to tackle the situation. 

“I ask the air hostesses at the front of the plane to assist my wife while I carry four bags. Silence and a clueless look at each other. We step off the plane to the top of the ladder. I ask an Air India male ground staff member to help us, looks at me, shrugs, and ignores me.”

He further wrote that he informed another airline staffer about what happened, to which the latter replied: “Sir kya karein… sorry”. According to his post, Das had to go through quite the ordeal even after all this. 

“We get to the terminal, encalm people inform wheelchair staff that we had pre-booked a chair. He’s clueless. There’s wheelchairs everywhere. No staff because the flight is late. I grab a chair and wheel her to baggage claim, then out of the airport to the parking.”