Members of rock band Parikrama

New Delhi, Dec. 23: Your flight may be one of the lucky ones to take off from a fogged-out Delhi airport, and you may have reached the check-in counter well in time, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be on the flight.

Ask Pritam Kaur.

The 58-year-old may not be able to make it to Guwahati in time to sing Jingle bells with her granddaughter on Christmas Eve.

Her arthritis is to blame, as it slowed her down to the extent that she couldn’t be at the top of the check-in queue for the Air Sahara flight S21-11 from Delhi to Guwahati.

At least that’s what airline officials initially claimed. “If she had reached the check-in counter in time, she would not have had any problem,” said Harry Raj, an Air Sahara official.

Except that Pritam reached two hours before take-off.

With excuses running out, the truth started spilling out.

Uneasy airline officials today confirmed that 18 passengers — including three members of rock band Parikrama — were denied entry into flight S21-11 yesterday despite arriving at the check-in counter well in time.

The reason: the flight on the same route two days ago had been cancelled, and irate passengers from that flight had to be accommodated today.

“When the flight a couple of days back got cancelled, many of the passengers accepted a refund, but some were adamant they wanted us to fly them. We had no option but to accommodate them over the next two days,” admitted another senior airline official at the Sahara departure terminal at the airport, after initially denying the event.

Offloading passengers to accommodate those of cancelled flights is reasonably routine at international airports, but they usually compensate the passengers, fly them by a flight soon after and alert them hours in advance so that they can arrange their itinerary.

“Par yaar, yeh hai India (But buddy, this is India),” quipped a Parikrama member, requesting not to be named.

“When I called Air Sahara subsequently, they told me I had not shown up. I was crying with my friends. What else could we do?” said a 26-year-old project manager with an advertising firm.

Parikrama didn’t get rock star treatment either, but managed to get accommodated on a morning flight to Guwahati today. The ad executive and some others are clinging to the hope of a “promised” seat on tomorrow’s flight.

“We are trying our best to make sure all these passengers can go tomorrow,” Raj said, adding the airline was apologetic to all passengers.