Indian chess star Arjun Erigaisi has lashed out at British Airways in an angry set of tweets after he was reportedly downgraded without an excuse before they delayed his bags by 48 hours. Arjun will soon be in action at the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in USA, which starts this week.
Arjun is not the only one who experienced airline turbulence on their way to the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour. Vidit Gujrathi and his wife Nidhi had to book another flight out of Mumbai after spending nearly three hours on a KLM flight before being told that the airplane could not take off because of a deflated tyre. Vidit had to return home and then took a different flight out of India.
“Terrible experience flying with you,” Arjun posted in a tweet tagging British Airways. “Got involuntarily downgraded at the last moment with no explanation. After speaking with your rude staff I was told that I’m eligible for reimbursement. No explanation on why I was downgraded. Oh and getting my bags a day later is the cherry on top! Unfortunately I’ve to fly back to India with you this time but you’ve lost a customer.”
A day later, on Monday morning, Arjun posted another tweet making the same complaints.
“Worst experience flying with the British Airways. Involuntarily downgrade, rude employees, no communication, bags delayed for over 48 hours. This is frustrating. Messages, emails, forms everything done & submitted. It’s been over 2 days and still no word. I don’t know how an airline can afford to treat its customer in this way. Even worse part is I’ve to fly back with you,” wrote Arjun.
The Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour will be played in a 16-player format with a double elimination structure. This means that after an initial group stage with rapid time control (10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move), the players enter a championship or placement bracket depending on their results. All knockout rounds will be played with a 30+30 classical time control, counting toward the official Freestyle rating.
Besides Vidit and Arjun, Praggnanandhaa will also be in the Las Vegas Freestyle event, where players like Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana will take centre stage.
