Indian Airlines, Air Sahara, Spicejet, Alliance Air, GoAir and Air Deccan have been served notices by India's anti-monopoly watchdog MRTPC for their refund schemes. Two of these airlines - Indian Airlines and Alliance Air - are owned by the government of India. MRTPC has issued notices on the basis of an investigation carried out by its investigative wing Director General of Investigation and registration. The MRTPC was to start hearing the matter early this month, but has since deferred the hearings after some of the airlines asked for more time to file their replies.
Many of these airlines have anti-customer refund policies. Many airlines do not give any refund in cases of flight cancellations, but merely offer a ticket on another flight which may or may not be convenient for the passenger.
Some airlines impose huge charges on travellers if they are allowed to cancel the flight ticket. MRTPC feels that such refund policies were attempts by these airlines to enrich themselves at the cost of the gullible traveller. Many airlines offer deep dsocunt tickets but slap heavy penalties for cancelling them.
India's aviation boom has triggered its own set of attendant problems. Recently, there was a controversy about low-cost airlines Air Deccan "overbooking" flights and then quietly dropping some passengers. Air Deccan vigorously denied the charges, but CNN-IBN channel which made the allegation in an "expose" stood its ground. Air Deccan claimed that the overbookings had happened due to a software glitch, while the channel claimed that it was a deliberate ploy by Air Deccan to keep all the seats occupied.
Earlier, there was a ticket booking scam where fraudsters got hold of stolen credit card numbers and booked flight tickets on the internet. The tickets were then sold to unsuspecting passengers as genuine. Once the scam came to light, Kingfisher filed a police case and several people were arrested. Following this, airlines in India started insisting that travellers produce a copy of the credit card used to book the ticket if the booking was made online.
The initiative by the MRTPC to crack the whip on the erring airlines comes a whiff of fresh air to passengers harried by the whimsical ticket cancellation policies of airlines in India.
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Many of these airlines have anti-customer refund policies. Many airlines do not give any refund in cases of flight cancellations, but merely offer a ticket on another flight which may or may not be convenient for the passenger.
Some airlines impose huge charges on travellers if they are allowed to cancel the flight ticket. MRTPC feels that such refund policies were attempts by these airlines to enrich themselves at the cost of the gullible traveller. Many airlines offer deep dsocunt tickets but slap heavy penalties for cancelling them.
India's aviation boom has triggered its own set of attendant problems. Recently, there was a controversy about low-cost airlines Air Deccan "overbooking" flights and then quietly dropping some passengers. Air Deccan vigorously denied the charges, but CNN-IBN channel which made the allegation in an "expose" stood its ground. Air Deccan claimed that the overbookings had happened due to a software glitch, while the channel claimed that it was a deliberate ploy by Air Deccan to keep all the seats occupied.
Earlier, there was a ticket booking scam where fraudsters got hold of stolen credit card numbers and booked flight tickets on the internet. The tickets were then sold to unsuspecting passengers as genuine. Once the scam came to light, Kingfisher filed a police case and several people were arrested. Following this, airlines in India started insisting that travellers produce a copy of the credit card used to book the ticket if the booking was made online.
The initiative by the MRTPC to crack the whip on the erring airlines comes a whiff of fresh air to passengers harried by the whimsical ticket cancellation policies of airlines in India.
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Bury
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A much awaited step towards unhealthy trade practices.