Learnings from Chennai

Stranded in Chennai, as Cyclone Michaung played its part, was all about rescheduling travel plans, coping with long hours of power cuts, and struggling to send WhatsApp messages and emails as internet connectivity turned patchy.

- NIVEDITA MOOKERJI

For this writer, it was also an opportunity to observe how the many key players responded and reacted to the crisis.

Most airlines took time to inform passengers about flight cancellations on December 4, the day Chennai was knee-deep in water, even though the airport had already been announced as closed till 9 pm and then extended to 11 am the following day. The delay in the response time of the airlines was in sharp contrast with the speed with which they hiked tariffs for passengers booking the next day's flights.

While it may not be desirable to regulate tariffs in ordinary times, airlines would have earned customer goodwill if they had refrained from making a quick buck in the face of a crisis of this magnitude. A recorded call is what one got from the airlines, leaving every passenger high and dry in the rain-soaked city. Passengers had the option of refund (in most cases not fully) or plan B of rescheduling the flight. In both scenarios, passengers lost out while trying to secure a way out of Chennai, irrespective of whether it was a budget airline or a full-service one.