Passenger On IndiGo Flight Denied Food As He Paid In Indian Currency

Recently an animal activist travelling by Jet Airways was denied vegan food and now India Today has reported that a man on board an international IndiGo flight was denied a meal completely. The reason? He was only carrying Indian currency with which he was trying to pay for his meal.

Denied Rupee In Exchange For Food

A passenger named Pramod Jain was reported on board the IndiGo flight 6E95 flying from Bengaluru to Dubai where he was not allowed to buy food with the Indian currency. He has filed a complaint with the Delhi police stating that the airlines did not give him food even on humanitarian ground even after repeated requests. On one hand crew members of an airline take away the unused packaged foods, here’s one who denies food even out of courtesy.

“I ordered for a sandwich which was costing me Rs 300 and I offered to pay them in the Indian currency but the crew refused to accept the money,” said Jain to India Today. “They wanted US Dollars. I requested them to offer me food as I hadn’t eaten anything since morning and even then they denied me food on board,” he added.

The Airline Policy

According to the airlines, their policy mentions that they only accept US dollars and mentioned it in a statement that reads, “IndiGo does not accept INR for on-board sales on its international flights in accordance to the prevailing regulation 3 of FEMA Regulations. And this clearly is mentioned in our on-board sales menu. We have filed a request for carrying on-board sales in INR (above Rs 25,000) with Reserve Bank of India on February 26 2014 and June 05, 2014. We are in active discussions with the concerned authorities in this regard.”

Commenting on the matter the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that there is no standard policy on this particular matter and that every airline can decide their own policies. On the other hand the former Director General of Civil Aviation, Kanu Goain told the publication that an Indian airline while flying in Indian airspace has to accept the Indian currency. While this whole issue comes to rest here’s what an airhostess says about not eating on a flight.