An Air India first class passenger shared on twitter that their Delhi to Toronto flight included a broken seat, a light than fell down on him, a broken USB port (he cut his fingers) and bed bugs on the seat and blanket (he wound up with rashes from the bites). And that forgives the terrible shape that the seat itself and the cabin were in.
@airindia my First Class experience on AI187 (Delhi–Toronto, Oct 12 | Seat 1K | PNR: EBWYYT) was shocking & unsafe.
• Seat malfunctioned repeatedly – had to be manually fixed by crew.
• Overhead light fell on my head while having a drink.
• Broken USB port with sharp edge –… pic.twitter.com/YtDpTXvUkq— DriveIn EV (@drvieinev) October 12, 2025
@airindia Broken USB port with sharp edges cut my finger, rusted panels, bed bug bites, and torn seats this is not what First Class should ever look like.#AirIndia #AI187 #FirstClassFail #UnsafeFlight pic.twitter.com/JRm5BBTchj
— DriveIn EV (@drvieinev) October 13, 2025
He tagged me, highlighting that he’d written in asking Air India to make it right. They agreed – offering $120.
airindia offered ₹10,174 (≈ $165 CAD / $120 USD) for a First Class flight with seat failure, falling lights, broken ports & bed bugs.
Less than $200 that’s how they value a First Class customer.
This isn’t about money it’s about safety, hygiene & accountability.No airline… pic.twitter.com/ZwLQKgSp1D
— DriveIn EV (@drvieinev) October 15, 2025
Admittedly he’d upgraded from business to first class for $1,500. Still! This would have been unacceptable for coach. And Air India didn’t earn a premium price for the journey. So it seems like they should refund everything he’d paid above the cost of economy, with Air India only keeping that much if it believes bed bugs are a feature of its base product.
Unfortunately, this is pretty much what to expect from Air India first class these days. A year ago I covered the viral video that summed up the experience:
Before the pandemic Air India was on the verge of collapse as a state-owned enterprise. Cabin interiors had fallen into disrepair. Executives stole from the airline and crew upgraded their friends and failed to provide service. They had become a financial albatross for the government, and an airline for passengers to avoid.
The airline has been privatized. They’ve placed one of the largest aircraft orders in history to refresh their fleet and prepare for growth as flag carrier in a country destined to be larger than China. And they’re upgrading their cabins.
All this takes time – there’s much to do on the capital investment side, and on the corporate culture and employee expectations piece of the business. Still, it’s about time that this isn’t what Air India first class is like. And Air India shouldn’t be so numb to it at this point, either, that it’s only worth $120 compensation when it is.
I’d’ve asked for more… about ‘6 or 7’ times more…
Good luck on getting more. Take the money and never fly Air India again. This passenger probably had a good business class seat and then decided to splurge. Be careful what you wish for. It was on Air India, after all. A better strategy would have been to pay for at least two coach class seats so there was a choice of which one to seat in if there were problems. An even better strategy would be to fly a different airline in the first place, even with a longer trip.
Friends don’t let friends fly Air India.
Instead of buying all these new planes and get them into disrepair just a few months later, Air India needs to invest in Delta like Tech Ops to keep the existing planes in good shape, both mechanically as well as the cabin.
@jns — The actual solution is air passenger rights legislation that protects against such deficiencies and preserves baseline standards for us when traveling on commercial airlines, especially if those flights involve our countries. Canada (the destination in this incident) at least had the APPR (an EU-261, equivalent). Meanwhile, we in the USA have next to nothing. Significantly delayed or cancelled by the airline on a whim? Too bad, deal with it. And, if it was an international flight, maybe try out the Montreal Convention remedies, but, unless someone’s literally died in an airplane crash, it’s not a typical route for settling these disputes. We need something better, in general, not just Air India.
Problems with this airline started years ago. Of course, Boeing isn’t going to stop sales to them. So, considering India’s AAIB’s willingness to share accident information with other countries, the Air India’s proven stellar safety record, and the numerous awards received for customer service… oh, wait…wrong country…wrong airline. Why doesn’t the FAA and EASA pull their ability to fly in their respective airspace? Kinda makes one wonder what kind of money is going under the table to allow them to continue flying!
This person shouldn’t settle for peanuts but seek legal advice as to whether the cut finger or bed-bug bites constitute an “accident” within the scope of the Montreal Convention, and if so Air India will be strictly liable for the injuries – worth much more than the value of the fare. In Canada the passenger might also be entitled to legal fees depending upon the Province.
Vistara should have been the new Air India. Tata made a mistake by buying Air India as a whole operating asset and should have insisted on a bankruptcy, liquidation, and starting fresh by letting Vistara become the new rebranded Air India instead of the opposite. They are really in an impossible situation with a small but growing fleet of state of the art planes and a massive fleet of equipment which is obsolete and uncared for that is going to poison the whole operation before they can save the brand. These planes are hopeless and should be parted out as there isn’t enough overhaul capacity in the world to upgrade them to acceptable standards in any reasonable amount of time. I’ve spoken to many people unwilling to fly on AI’s brand new A350 (which is the best aircraft on the route travelled) in favor of inferior competition because of stuff like this (and the crash earlier this year didn’t help either).
Very sad. I flew them a few times in the late 1990s without any issues. I wouldn’t today.
@Mak — Well said. Finally, someone else has ‘heard’ of the Montreal Convention and of Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, finalized by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) in 2019. When are passengers going to ‘wake up’ and actually ‘defend’ their own rights when harmed? We each individually and collectively should be enforcing these rules when violated. In the aggregate, we’d receive better care because the airlines would know that failure to maintain minimum standards results in liability for them. These are each ‘incentives’ for better service and a more reliable, safe operation.