A passenger on board a recent Air India flight from Chicago to Delhi has alleged that the cabin crew asked her to vacate her business class seat, citing a technical snag, and hours later, the same crew members were spotted sleeping in the vacant business class rows.

The passenger, who spoke to the aviation blog View from the Wing, said she was approached at the boarding gate and told her seat would not recline.

The airline offered her two economy seats as a replacement, but she refused. When she boarded the aircraft, she found her seat had only a broken tray table, reported Wion.

Midway through the flight, the passenger says, she saw members of the crew settling into several empty business class seats and going to sleep. They allegedly pulled out blankets, cleared out rows before takeoff.

“This is the same seat they were pushing me to vacate. Now they’re using it to sleep,” she was quoted as saying.

She also noted that the reassignment form given to her had a glaring typo – it read “that thee is a technical issue” – and had the flight number pre-filled, suggesting that this might not have been a one-off occurrence.

On her return flight to the United States, she claimed to have witnessed the same routine again. A woman ahead of her in the queue was asked to give up her business class seat with the same form and the same reasoning.

According to the Wion report, another passenger on the flight had accepted a downgrade from first class to business class because of a broken seat.

At least two rows of business class seats remained unused by passengers and were later occupied by the crew.

Air India has not responded to the allegations, but the episode adds to the scrutiny the airline faces over the state of its aircraft and inflight service.

The Chicago–Delhi route is one of Air India’s longest and uses older aircraft that are yet to be refurbished.

While the Tata-owned carrier has placed a record aircraft order and is in the middle of a fleet and brand overhaul, reports like these highlight the gap between promise and passenger experience.