Air India allegedly tells AAP's Goa president: 'Take full refund or fly on broken seat'

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Amit Palekar has publicly called out Air India on social media, alleging that the Tata-owned airline informed him just before takeoff that his seat on a Delhi-Seoul flight was broken and unusable—leaving him with a stark choice: fly anyway or accept a refund. The airline has since responded, saying it is "reviewing his concern."

In a post on X, Palekar said, "Welcome to @airindia. This is common feature for those flying on Air India to face this ordeal of being told that your sit is not reclining or broken after paying full fare. This is my third time. I didn’t complain earlier. Why is @DGCAIndia allowing @TataCompanies to fly these aircraft’s which should have been grounded as it concerns passenger safety also as sometimes reclined seats don’t come up."



"While my and my wife were at the counter waiting to take flight from Delhi to Seoul, I met another passenger who flew from Vancouver to India on nearly 18 hours flight after paying full business fare. Why is DGCA allowing this? They were asking us to take full refund else fly on broken seat by giving an undertaking. I have meeting scheduled tomorrow and my onward journey and hotel is booked plus how would we get another flight unless we are willing to pay higher last minute fares! So now we are blackmailed to travel on broken sit putting our life in danger. @RamMNK your intervention in such fleecing by Air India under Tata’s is needed."

Palekar called for intervention from Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu.

In response to his post on X, Air India wrote, "Dear Mr. Palekar, we hear you and empathise with your experience. We are reviewing your concern on priority. Please allow us some time to get back to you with an update."

To this Palekar responded, saying, "Totally 5 seats which are booked and sold are not reclining. And you say you hear us? You should be grounded."