When Minaz Bagasrawala and Vinit Sawant, two private company executives, boarded an Air India flight from Mumbai to Indore on Thursday, airport procedures around the world were much the same.
Only, at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, things were slightly different. The two arrived at the airport, unaware that they had forgotten one of the most basic travel etiquettes.
Upon arrival at airport, their e-tickets were checked by the CISF personnel manning the gates. They then proceeded to the Air India counter where the tickets were re-checked and boarding passes issued.
AI-635 left Mumbai at 6:30 am. What Bagasrawala (32) and Sawant (28) forgot to do was to check the travel dates. Both were flying on tickets booked for the next day (Friday, June 27).
The CISF men who first checked the tickets at the entrance and the Air India staffers at the counter, too, missed the date, and the two had a smooth journey to Indore.
Bagasrawala later told dna what had happened. “I had sent an email to my administrative department to book tickets from Mumbai to Indore on June 26 and two return tickets the same day. Instead of June 26, I inadvertently mentioned June 27,” he said.
Accordingly, the administrative staff booked two tickets for Friday, June 27. “I received my e-ticket, and without verifying the details, took a print-out and reached the airport on Thursday morning,” Bagasrawala said.
“Me and my colleague went to the airport entrance. The CISF personnel checked our e-tickets and allowed us in. Then, we went to the AI boarding counter. There also, AI officials checked our e-tickets and issued boarding passes,” Bagasrawala said.
AI-635 reached Indore at 7:15 am. Meaning, both Bagasrawala and Sawant had completed their journey – on wrong tickets.
No one noticed the faux pas the entire day. The lapse was noticed only in the evening by the CISF personnel at the Indore airport when the two were returning to Mumbai – all work done.
“When we reached Indore airport in the evening to catch a return flight, the CISF personnel refused to allow us in as the date on the e-ticket was June 27 (the next day),” Bagasrawala said. “That's when we realised we were travelling on wrong tickets,” he added.
They then rescheduled their tickets and returned to Mumbai.
CISF spokesperson Hemendra Singh said there was no security breach or laxity on their part as the passengers had advanced their tickets to June 26.
Bagarswala said the tickets were neither advanced nor rescheduled.
An Air India spokesperson asked for a day to respond, but said it's a high possibility that the passengers might have advanced the day of journey. “Such incidents are highly unlikely to have happened as we are very diligent in our ticketing system,” he said.
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