An elderly couple's Puja vacation started badly on Sunday when their flight to China was delayed by six hours at Calcutta airport. At Kunmin airport in China, they missed their connecting flight to Shanghai — where their son Naresh lives — and the airline made them wait till night before accommodating them on another flight.

Prakash Narayan Das Subnani, a 58-year-old businessman from the city and wife Nisha Subnani, 50, took the China Eastern Airline flight from Calcutta, which leaves at 12.40am and reaches Kunmin at 5.55am (local time). They were scheduled to take the connecting flight to Shanghai at 8.20am, but reached Kunmin at 2.30pm.

"At Kunmin, there was no airline official we could explain our plight to. Language was a major problem. We had to spend the entire day at the airport," said Subnani.

The duo were refused seats in the next couple of flights, too, and finally, after a lot of persuasion, were put on the 9pm flight. They reached their son’s home on Monday morning.

"My father is a cardiac patient and is in a state of shock," said Naresh over the phone. They were not given any food or a place to rest, he alleged.

An airline spokesperson, however, claimed that all passengers were accommodated on connecting flights.