BHPian vigsom recently shared this with other enthusiasts:My experiences amidst the Indigo disruptionI’d booked myself on the Chennai – Pune Indigo flight on Sunday viz. 7th Dec morning; plan was to take the Tejas Exp from Trichy to Chennai, reach on Sat night, and after overnight rest take the flight the next morning. This was for work.Until about 4pm on Saturday, the 6th Dec, the flight was shown as on time on the Indigo flight tracker. Feeling reassured, I even did a web-checkin and the pass was issued.Just after I boarded the Tejas Exp at 5:25pm, I got a message from Indigo regretting to state that the flight had been cancelled. It just said, “Your Indigo PNR for your upcoming flight has been cancelled due to recent disruptions”. PNR no. not explicitly mentioned.I got onto Indigo’s flight tracker and found that the flight was indeed cancelled. What to do now?While on the train, I scanned options – other flights from Chennai to Pune, both by Indigo (with layover at other airports), plus by other carriers were showing INR 25k plus; same with other carriers on Chennai – MumbaiRail options exercisedI immediately examined rail options, considering that I would at least reach Pune on Monday morning to mid-day.Chennai to Mumbai – all three trains on a huge WL; no chance of confirmation.Special train available from Bengaluru to Pune on 7th eve but the headache of again looking for transport to Bengaluru.Took a gamble and booked myself on train 16352 NCJ-CSMT from Virudhunagar to Mumbai, boarding at Chengalpattu. This was GNWL 23/WL7 with a 50:50 chance of confirmation.At approx. 10:15pm, when I got home, the chart for this train had been prepared and my ticket had only moved to WL4; the ticket got auto-cancelled.I again started checking for flight options. Interesting observation – my cancelled Chennai-Pune flight was shown as sold out, along with multiple other Chennai – Pune options, but some options were shown open. I used a logic – maybe the open ones are still scheduled.Booked myself on the 09:05am departure to Mumbai for a mere 6400 bucks, did a web check in, and then slept off. It was almost 11:15pm.Yesterday morning, the first message I got was a message from Indigo: “Dear Flyer, We look forward to welcoming you on board”.I proceeded to the airport T1 and reached there approx 1.5hrs before departure – the crowd inside was just 20-30% of what one would normally see. Was done with entry and Security in about 7 minutes.The departure board showed a lot of cancellations, but this flight was indeed on time and a huge relief; the flight took off on time.I made my way from Mumbai to Pune, and onward to my final destination on the outskirts of Pune.LearningsTake every challenge head on and don’t give up till the endDon’t hesitate to examine other modes of travel; they come in handy in crises.Flight cancellation as seen on Indigo’s flight tracker Departures Board at Chennai T1 Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
