Vistara website doesn't let woman choose professor as title, Twitter erupts

Air Vistara found itself in an embarrassing situation when a woman took to social media to complain of gender bias in the airline's website.

The woman, Shyama Rath, was filling out her personal details on Air Vistara’s official website, when she found that it would not allow her to select the prefix “professor” as she had chosen "female" as gender. Enraged, she took to Twitter immediately, sharing screenshots of the error message that was popping up: "Title PROFESSOR is not valid for this gender. Please change your Title option."

Common, #Air_Vistara pic.twitter.com/jqIJL1WiIa

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— shyama (@rath_shyama) July 25, 2019

The airlines took cognizance of her message within minutes, even though it had not been tagged in the Tweet, and the official handle of Air Vistara replied, apologizing for the glitch and thanking Shyama Rath for bringing it to their attention.

Dear Ms. Rath. Thank you for pointing this out. This certainly is not done correctly, we will have it fixed. Apologies for this, we are embarrassed to see this, Vishal.

— Vistara (@airvistara) July 25, 2019

In under half an hour, another senior Vistara executive joined in the thread and tweeted another apology. Sanjiv Kapoor, the chief strategy and commercial officer of Air Vistara, said: “I am mortified to see this. Apologies, and thanks for pointing this out. We will have it fixed!”

Shyama, I am mortified to see this. Apologies, and thanks for pointing 5his out. We will have it fixed!

— Sanjiv Kapoor (@TheSanjivKapoor) July 25, 2019

One Twitter user commended the prompt response of the airline's staff and appreciated how it had responded in no time despite not being tagged in the post by the disgruntled Shyama Nath.

The user wrote: “A horrible blunder, no doubt, from @airvistara but a very swift, effective comeback too (the choice of words by both Sanjiv, and the official handle, in particular) when you notice the brand wasn't tagged. Brands need to be on top of all kinds of brand mentions and hashtags.”

A horrible blunder, no doubt, from @airvistara but a very swift, effective comeback too (the choice of words by both Sanjiv, and the official handle, in particular), when you notice the brand wasn't tagged. Brands need to be on top of all kinds of brand mentions and hashtags. pic.twitter.com/zycWKroSta

— Karthik (@beastoftraal) July 25, 2019

Vistara's website did not discriminate between genders for selecting the title Professor, when Moneycontrol tested it.