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."
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.
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!”
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.”
Vistara's website did not discriminate between genders for selecting the title Professor, when Moneycontrol tested it.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
