My tweet “Jet airways food is going from bad to worse. Had excruciating stomach pain with in ten minutes of “snack” consumption.Will carry tiffin next” got a lot of responses on twitter. Here is the rest of my experience for those who care to know.
Jet Airways food had stopped being appetizing a long time ago. But one assumed it was healthy and hygienic. My immunity was in for a rude shock upon consumption of the snack served on board 9w 362. I was healthy and happy as I boarded at 1715 and was warmly welcomed by Varhsa the IFE. I looked forward to a pleasant flight and relaxing experience. ( In recent times food is often the downer in a Jet experience, you either don’t get your choice, if you get it the portion is too small and if the portion is ok it’s tasteless. On every occasion I have had to ask for “eco overflows” as I am still hungry after the consumption of my meal. I used to send out regular communication on mail to Jet Airways but have since given up).
I requested for the non veg continental snack and was served the Chicken tikka sand-which with waldrof salad at 1800hrs. Prior to that I had some diet coke. The food tasted ok, I felt the bread was a little stale so only consumed the filling(leaving out the bread) and the salad( the dressing was tasting funny). By 1830 my stomach was hurting so much that I woke from the nap I’d taken. The pain was excruciating. I don’t know how I lasted the remaining 40 minutes of the flight . Fortunately the flight was on time( another rarity) and I retrieved my luggage and Dog( who travels everywhere with me) and barely walked to my car before collapsing in the seat. The journey home was unbearable. I stopped at a chemist and picked up a painkiller. Upon reaching home I spent the rest of my night making trips to the loo . As I write this, I have started antibiotics and am still in a considerable degree of pain.
I am waiting for yet another indifferent and apathetic reply from Jet’s end saying “the concerned department will look in to it”. My endeavor from now on is to warn all and sundry against consumption of food on Jet at all public forums including but not limited to Face-book, twitter, my blog here ,etc. Better still advise them to carry a tiffin! I see this as such a sad decline of what was once my favourite airline. NEVER before has any airline food( Jet was out of the question) made me sick and you can imagine the mental and physical anguish I am feeling as i write this.
Some may feel I am making a big deal out of this bad food thing, the point is I paid a lot of money to fly Jet and if I can’t get value for it, I shouldn’t at least be falling sick.
subahu
always fly kingfisher
pushpinder
lol will not annoy me if they start giving a fikka sand-witch… kingfisher is the best in this case…
pushpinder
even after mental and physical anguish if you wrote all this… seems like the diet coke is working lol
Rajeev
Hey..
In case we were in America.. by this time you would have Sued Jet for this incident.. 😉
Joshua
The pinch of the recession and the end result is an upset stomach and a doubly upset customer.
Pratis
Agreed!!!
Its getting lower & lower each day !!!
Cutting costs is so damn important to these people thye will do it at any ANY cost!!!!
Corporate Slimeballs … grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Pratish
Rohan Mahadik
Thats how I feel too, if I pay for something but don’t get its value and on top of that causing something worse( like health problem here), I feel terribly angry. At such point when emerged, I feel like doing something about it or may be change to another option available if there exists.
I am sure Jet airways guys won’t like this blog or may be their eyes should just fall upon this somehow. A possible public stain on name results in a lot of change which might not happen due to regular communication on mail.
Rohan.
Amit
I have had my best and my worst experiences on Jet.. but yes, lately, esp. on domestic sectors, their service levels have gone down drastically!
Take rest
Faisal Khan
Gul Panag, I have an interesting idea for you. Since you are one of the most charming celebreity, you should request to visit the cockpit, and then perhaps have food with the cockpit crew. 🙂 The captain and co-pilot, each get separate food selection, for safety reasons. And the food for the cockpit crew is one of the best on board. I myself am an airline pilot. If I ever get to know that you are flying in my plane, I will gladly exchange food with you. 🙂
prasun kulshrestha
Why are you making an issue out of it?
Hello gul, i am surprised you being so strong in what to speak & what not to, you made such comment on your blog. You are saying:-” he point is I paid a lot of money to fly Jet and if I can’t get value for it, I shouldn’t at least be falling sick.” why?????????
Does cinema theater CEO stick a banner against someone for releasing films like 13B or DASHAVATAR or EMI or etc etc???? These & many more films make the cinema theater business in loss even when they pay a lot of money? If its business, how about public giving the money to see those rubbish movies?
the point is, If you got STOMACH problem, don’t you think you were not alone in the flight? how about others? Did they got any problem? No na, to GUL my point is to accept that these things happen in life but it does not signify to go after it in this way!!!
This is something my view on this, i dnt knw what rest of these guys think!
One question, Dint you ever ever had stomach problem with homely cooked food????
Gul, you are the prettiest women with brain, you are among those who have a blog which does not talk about startdom, films or money, it talks about life & natural living that GUL likes!
If you felt bad that i crossed ur words then m always sorry for it i want to b always there in ur hearts as friend being a super fan of urs. I have an honor of writing in ur blog since two years, so i hope u will take my above statements in positive way…u rock gul…And yes! please take medicine & get well soon. My best wishes for u!!!
Ruchi
Well, its because of the recession. Jet has landed up cutting customers instead of cutting costs! Mailing them about your exprience or even talking about it in social networks will not make them notice it or make them take any actions. They are a traditional company and consume traditional media (newpapers). Talk to a Bt or a midday and you will get an apology letter the very next day.
romeobagga
use some other
midhun
Dear Gul,
Shocked to read this! You had to have painkilllers and antibiotics? And I am all the more shocked because I have two flights on board Jet, for next week! Yikes!
Midhun
Ghost Rider
Well, I guess they should then stop providing food, like the US flight, where even a small pack of snacks have ceased since the recession! And coffee and water have become a distant dream!
Rahul Deodhar
Airline food – what can we say about it.
I have found over years Indian Airlines (now Air India) have the best food. Note this is averaged over time – so sometimes they do wild goof-ups but nothing that made me sick so far!
KF quality is steadily declining – am a little wary of them.
Sandip
In 1st place they will never acknowledge that. If they acknowledge they will say they are looking in to it. If you follow up too much they will say there was technical snag 🙂 oven was not fine, package got open / contaminated while on the way to plane which is way beyond our control and bla..bla.. and bla…
Biotechnologist2020.com
Nice to know …
Vaibhav
Hey Gul,
Wishing you a speedy recovery.
The food at airlines is always an issue. For me personally having flown quite a few times on Jet, I have had a similar experience on a flight enroute to Bombay wherein I had a spoilt office day. I have never found Jet food tasty, infact after reading your experience I would prefer to travel by Spice Jet etc. where at least you are safe with the cookies they serve.
The situation is not only with airlines, it seems to have started with Rajdhani Train food as well. I read somewhere that people lodged complaint with the once high quality food on the train. These days the quantity and quality standards have dropped considerably as well.
The consumer forum court in India takes a long time to handle such cases. Your stand on the value for money part is correct, that if satisfaction is not guaranteed, then it should not be a cause for dissent as well.
Hope the Jet management realizes this and incorporates the required measures as one of the many required. It is already struggling trying to maintain costs and staffers..
Regards,
Vaibhav
Manoj
S the quantity also small in Jet and so the quality.
For everything Recession is not the answer. If jet is so interested in hiking the fare with respect to fuel and taxes, it should concentrate in food also.
I think KF is better.
But for coming month i have 2 jet tickets.
Regards,
S Manoj
http://manojsrikanth.blogspot.com/
midhun
I remember reading a news report some months ago, about some survey on the quality of commercial food. They found that 5-star and 7-star hotels were serving non-veg food using meat which was four days stale! And roadside eateries were serving fresh food, at a miniscule fraction of the price. Of course, one doesn’t get roadside food in airlines! But some serious change in priorities seem called for. For instance. going vegetarian, as far as outside food goes, might help in this matter. I’ve been doing this since years and have encountered no problems, so far.
Gul Panag
Ok . Jet has replied. Twice. Once the customary generic ” we will look into it matter” mail and one today apologising profusely, and offering me two upgrade vouchers as a token of their apology!!
midhun
Sounds good! That’s some hope for me, too.
NiMaL
Its nice that they have gone beyond a generic response and offered you “upgrade vouchers”…
But I think its not because they want to apologize for what has happened, but for to whom it has happened… 🙂 and I won’t think they would be giving a similar reply for others too…!
prasun
@manoj, nicee blog budy
do visit mine http://www.loveprasun.blogspot.com
Singh
You are right when you mention that you are making a big deal out of it. It was a 100 min flight. May be the reason of stomach being upset was something else (Delhi’s heat, earlier meal, et). The other thing, I am a frequent flier with Jet and my experience is that no other airline gives you better ontime arrival performance, so it’s not rare.
I believe that Jet should not have given any upgrades for this; they are a customer friendly airline, so they did it. Take care of your health, get well soon.
What is the next ad you are doing (Tata Sky is good, haven’t heard of any new movie). Tell us about that, if any.
Spike
lol… if high rollers like thyself get such treatment, there is no hope for the general populace!
feel better.
Aditya
Hi Gul,
I was following this post and was expecting a reply for what others wrote. Now that you have ‘replied’, I would like to know whether Jet giving you upgrade vouchers and apologies makes a difference to you. Also, if you feel that you dont get value for money, try some other airline. I don’t think Jet is even going to “look into the matter”, as something similar happened to my colleague couple of months back on a flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Surprisingly, I ate the same ‘food'(if thats what you would like to call it) and was fine. Being practical, we Indians don’t even care about such little things. It keeps happening. Hope that you get well soon and avoid Jet next time.
Bk
Hey,
So now you can try the same chicken tikka sandwhich (upgraded version) with your apology voucher…..
Gul Panag
Firstly I’d like to thank you all for enquiring about my health. And for your inputs. Most of you feel that Jet was rather nice to have offered me the upgarde vouchers. A few said they too had a or knew of similar food related incidents. A lot of people on Twiitter said I should not accept the vouchers and demand better food!
Singh,
I paid a lot of money for that ticket, and having done so, expected a certain standard . I am completely justified in demanding my money’s worth. Why JET offered me the upgrade?? May be because I am a frequent flier, doing up to 12 round trips a month and may be because they feel keeping me happy is in their interst. Who knows? I have seen other frequent fliers pampered a lot more for littler issues.
Midhun,
I think I must attempt more roadside food!!!
Aditya,
How I wish I had a desk job with a computer staring me in the face and I could instantly reply to all and sundry messages! But alas, my work day involves 12-13 hours of usually standing in the heat not always letting me rise to people’s expectations on the “reply” front. I do have 6 simultaneous discussions going on in gulspace.
Does Jet giving me a sop make a diference to me? Yes it does. It means that the 9 emails I sent them had some effect and that an airline I have been loyal to for 10 years , at least pretends to give a damn.
Singh, Aditya,
You guys are obviously Jet loyalists. I can see why. I don’t only fly Jet for its food. Its for the connectivity and what was once the best on time performer, among other host of factors. No I would not like to try another airline( if jet is available) for the same reasons i have listed above. But its important to understand the reason I pay alomost 3-4 times an economy fare is just not the extra l legroom, but for the overall experience. And because having travelled for so many years I am used to a certain standard that they have got me accustomed to I am justified in pointing out to them the fall in the standards they are known for.
P.S Landing into Bombay( or Delhi) on time( last 6 months) , during peak traffic( between 9AM and 11AM) and between 9.30PM and 11.30 PM) is indeed a rarity. 5 out of 7 flights are delayed between 15 to 20 minutes. Often its ATC congestion or late arrival of A/C from previous sector(also due to ATC at times) There are also delays on account of AirForce priority over certain air spaces. How do I know this? I just got off the phone with some one (on condition of anonymity) from their operations. Agreed that Jet is not technically responsible for these delays but as a passenger going from point A to B the reasons for a delay are usually immaterial.
feroz_77
hi Gul
sorry 4 delayed enquiry abt your health, hope u be cautious next time when you board jet airways. If you are really serious then i recommend you to discontinue your relationship with Jet else you can opt for other services. Hope you take this advice little bit serious, take care of your health and enjoy safe journey where ever you fly (’cause you are precious for somebody and somebody might be precious 4u), since Human’s existence is of 4 days hope you have lots of blessings from your admirers (they care, they love, they adore, they wait, they encourage and last but not the least they surely feel bad if something happens to the Person they Like)
Take care
God Bless
Hope u take care of your Health 4 your Fans
with lots of love
Feroz
Zersis
Gul,
I dont know why you fly Jet anymore, their flights are rarely on time, their experienced crew have moved over to KF, the whole experience of flying Jet has changed, atleast thats what I feel. I was a Jet loyalist earlier but now fly only KF. Relatively newer aircrafts, cleaner seats, live TV on all flights and more importantly the food is much better as well ….
As the website says …. “Flykingfisher”.com
Rgds
varungm
Can’t help it while there is still another 1000’s dream/requirement to fly by air. Competition = cheaper rates = compromised quality. Are they bothered about the bothered people?
nisheel
Going totally off the topic……
Noticed yesterday in the paper….how a newspaper commented on you cheeks getting nice and chubby and may soon hide your dimples :O
wasn’t it the same paper that few months ago prompted your….Me anorexic post ?
ahhh…the fickle fickle press 🙂 lol
rohit
just checking out blogs for the first time to see what value the famous bloggers are adding….. for a busy girl you say you are, you sure hv time to get into airline food , 15 years of the whole world cribbin abt it never made a difference so why are you wasting time which you dont seem to hv much off….. something more interesting would be nice gul.
Ekta khetan
Hi Gul…
Went through you post and must say that you must sack the airline with immediate effect. Flight food off late has become a big nuissance and Jet, unfortunately has fallen prey to this cheap syndrome.
Its a customer centric market where customer has emerged as the emperor from a king [post recession off course] so much that airlines cannot afford to take customers esp frequent fliers for granted. Giving an upgrade voucher is no solution. You must not succumb to it. You are an artist and cannot risk your health for a bad service. Go ahead and sur the comapny showing your mails sent. There is consumer forum and it is yearning to be sought by consumers like us…
We look forward to see a healthy you, delievering more powerful performances as in summer 07, Dor and many others.
PS: Would like to commend your approach towards your fans/ people writing in to your blogs. It is a very nice gesture to reply to people, no matter who they are. There is you and there is one me. Who despite threatening her friends to visit her blogs and write feedbacks couldn’t get more responses 🙁
Never mind, if you have time pl do visit: hhtp://ektakhetan.blogspot.com.
{Kindly excuse my seemingly marketing like response:-)]
Take care and be blessed
Gaurav
hopefully one of these days youll start flying private 🙂
Murali
Gute besserung(German).
Hey Gul..join the club.. I had really pathetic experience flying jet a month ago. I flew from brussels to chennai, I got my checked in luggage a day after my arrival. 12 kilos of my luggage was missing. I even lost the count of number of mails I wrote, the n calls I made from berlin. There is no response to my mails, If I could contact them ..I exactly got the same reply…”the concerned department is looking in to ur matter..we will let you know their desicion” . I am more annoyed by their response. At least I made sure that the indian community I know in berlin will never ever fly jet..
dneo
Hi Gul,
Hope you are in good health.
I went through your blog and i have had no experience in jet airways; so I wouldn’t ask you to change your ten year old loyalty for one incident; instead i would say it was better that you at least raised your voice against them and u let them know about their degrading standards…hell at least you were honest, most of the times people just crib for the sake of cribbing.
I have been traveling with Emirates and for me it has been the best.. so my suggestion would be Emirates if at all you feel like changing your favourite airline.
regards,
Dinu
Gita
Excellent post! I really enjoyed reading it. I will be back for more!
Sincerely,
Gita
http://diutourism.blogspot.com
thinkingbig30
I guess ought to happen…Jet recently posted profits of 53cr in times of recession…looks like profits going up amidst poor service and food
vipul
good evening
shani
the thing is that if you don’t feel comfortable with the food which is obviously the case for every airlines, why should you eat that? come on, 100 minutes w/o food won’t hurt you.
btwn you are dayum sexy and cute. i wud say you look pretier than top actress including kareena, rani, dipika etc. it’s just pleasure to see u on big screen. plus your acting is very generous and worth praising. I am just waiting and hoping to see you more often in movies. best of luck!
lostcause
ditch the airline food – they *are* all unhealthy at some level…
Zeeshan
that’s why you need to fly your own plane. i suggest a f-18 super hornet.
amitsoni_us
Hey Gul this is for you for your incident….
Jo beet gayi woh baat gayi,
Jeewan main eak sitara tuta,
Mana wo BAhut Payara Tha,
Wo Tut gaya so Tut Gaya,
Ambar ke aangan ko dekho,
Kitne iske tare tute,
Kitne iske pyare chute,
Jo Chut gaya woh kaha mile,
Par bolo tute taro par,
Kab ambar shor machata hai,
Jo beet gayi woh baat gayi,
Panghat ke aangan ko dekho,
Kitne matke hil jate hai,
Gir mitti mein mil jate hai,
Par bolo tute matko ko,
Kiya panghat shor machata hai,
Jo beet gayi so baat gayi,
Madhusale ke angan ko dekho,
Kitne pyale hil jate hai,
gir mitti mein mil jate hai,
jo girte hai woh kab uthte hai,
Par bolo tute pyalo par,
kabhi madhusala shor machata hai,
Jo beet gayi woh baat gayi…..
written by : Harivans Rai Bacchan
Just Change…and make it official…
jamshaid.iqbal
just forget about whatever has happend , as i know and u know that they didnot did this intentionaly . some time things like this happen, what i will suggest u that next time dont take any food on board.. u can eat before ur flight or after the flight whichever is suitable… and i think now u should accept their apology 🙂
Mathewsoft
It’s recession yar!!!!!I hope they will improve in coming days………….
Shreya Rai
i tell u the best is kingfisher food
fagun
Two points.
One – I wonder if food has such an immediate effect. My understanding is that if you have an upset stomach you need to look at the food you ate between 3 – 12 hours prior to the symptoms.
Two – did you manage to use those upgrade vouchers?? I have six unused and expired vouchers lying around because business class was always full
Vikranth P.M
If rising costs is the reason for decline in food quality, Jet should consider un-bundling the food price from the ticket price and charging for food inflight. This way food will not be treated as a potential cost cutting area, so there would be no reason to have cheap food servd inflight and at the same time it will also benefit the tiffin carrying passenger who has not paid for the inflight food 🙂
MITESH
hmm
u could have travelled in TRAIN
Ranjeet Singh
Hiello Gul,
I’d once saw you shoot in Symbiosis IT, Pune. You’re a lovely woman and your performance in Dor was very fit. Anyways, your concern for good food is justified. I love food as much as I love women, if not more. I suggest you try indigo. I have travelled with it on the Bombay-Delhi and Pune-Delhi sector and it’s good.
Ranjeet – Pune
P.S. Just in case, I’m not an Indigo employee/representative 🙂
karan
gul u r superb.i m ur fan