This summer vacation, travelling will be cooler. Now, if you fail to get a confirmed train berth on train, you can upgrade yourself for an air travel. Now that’s what we are talking about.
Under a new arrangement introduced by Railway Ministry, passengers with unconfirmed Rajdhani train tickets can upgrade to an Air India flight, provided the airline has the same service route on the allotted day. Air India and IRCTC have made this arrangement which is expected to be in place within a two to three days.
As per the understanding wait-listed train passengers will be provided with the option to fly by Air India. However, they will have to pay a little extra.
First class train passengers will not have to pay anything for the upgrade but AC 2-tier passengers will have to pay upto Rs 2,000 for the upgrade.
It will also depend on the flight route (there should be flight route on the train destination) and availability of seats on the airline.
The service is expected to go live in under a week with additional flight plans being added to Air India’s roster for intra-state city-to-city connections.
Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani said, “Several state governments have asked Air India to look at launching virgin routes connecting different cities in their respective states. The details are being worked out and we hope to have this in place within a week.” Up until now, 16 state representatives have come forward for the deal and Air India is planning to add more planes to its fleet.
This new development might help turn around the fortunes of Air India as well as Rajdhani passengers in one masterful stroke.
