File this in the idiosycronacies cabinet. I’ve been flying a long long time, and one of the little things that automatically got taken care of was your coat/blazer/jacket. I remember back in the day you could be travelling all dressed up for a meeting, and all the full-service carriers would stow your coat for you in the closet on the plane. Even till recently, this would be true. The closet was for the plane, not for the business class really!

Last month, on travelling with Jet Airways, I had a lot of resistance from a cabin crew member who told me the closet was going to be full (since the J cabin was full), and hence she could not take my coat. I found that to be weird, and she came back herself a bit later to ask for my coat and put it in the closet. To this, someone told me about a new rule on Jet Airways where passengers in economy class would not have their coat stowed in the front.

New weird rule from @jetairways just heard. If you are not travelling in business, your coats wont go in the closet. Waah!

— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) February 21, 2017

Cue to yesterday, after a long day that started at 3 am (thanks Jet Airways for the Mumbai – Bangalore op-up but no thanks for delaying the flight!), I was on my way back on a flight which had creeping delays, and eventually took off 1 hour 10 minutes after the original pushback time. I understand Bangalore airport is shut and all, but there is literally chaos across the board at the airport these days. So, as the usual, I ask them to take my coat to the closet, and I hear’

Sir, we have a new rule where we are not allowed to bring the coats of economy class customers into the closet.

I found this weird. And I told the FA as much. She told me there was nothing she could do, and advised me to put my coat in the overhead bin. To which I did not accept since the bin was already running full and the coat be crushed if I put it in there. She told me that HR has given them this new memo, at least at the Mumbai station, to not take coats for Y class passengers.

I can understand that on busy routes there is a lot of people bringing coats, but I could not figure how the best way out was to just get these passengers not to put their coats in the closet. After all, one-third the business class cabin was empty and there were a lot of ladies, who did not stow their jackets.

So, I’ve posed these questions to the HR head of Jet Airways, and now I await his response…

@R_Taneja69 after all, jetprivilege equates these T fares to C/I fares.

— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) February 21, 2017

 

Bottomline

The curious case of one more thing being nickel and dimed. I’m not sure if Jet Airways has to invest in tonnes of new hangers to hang our jackets, but I’m awaiting to hear your theories on what could be at play here…