Many of those who tried to buy the tickets online claimed they either met with a 'frozen screen' or 'server timed out' message before learning the tickets were sold out.
Highlights:
- Air India has announced flights between India and Australia under Vande Bharat Mission.
- Vande Bharat Mission is India's initiative to bring back Indians stranded abroad.
- Several Australians are stranded in India.
“I wasn’t able to book the tickets. Only (got) a frozen screen and then server timed out message,” Priya Nair told SBS Hindi.
Ms Nair has been trying to return to Australia for several weeks but to no avail.
Air India on Tuesday announced flights between India and Australia under the Phase five of the Vande Bharat Mission.
Source: Supplied
Bookings for the Delhi-Adelaide flight opened on 29th July 1000 hrs IST through their website but when they were sold out in minutes, it left many outraged.
“It is unfair to allocate all 300 tickets to agents for 03rd & 06th Aug #VBM ph5 flights to Adelaide. Not even one ticket was available for normal booking. Shame on this scam,” Surendra Babu Yerra tweeted tagging the Indian authorities on Twitter.
Neetu on twitter said, “Booking for Delhi to Adelaide was supposed to be opened at 10 am. Thousands of people trying much before 10 am! And no one was able to book via app/website? All chunk went to one travel agent? How? Can you explain it? Is VBM now a Scam?”
SBS Hindi have sought a response from Air India. We will update the story when they respond to our message.
