Refund air passengers who booked tickets before March 25:Consumer groups

A consumer protection forum, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, has requested the government to bring modifications in their order dated April 16, that laid out rules for

A consumer protection forum, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, has requested the government to bring modifications in their order dated April 16, that laid out rules for refund to passengers booked for travel during the lockdown period.

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The advisory issued by the aviation ministry, states that the airline will refund the full amount collected without cancellation charges to the passenger, if a passenger has booked a ticket during the first lockdown (from March 25, 2020 to April 14, 2020) and the airline has received payment for booking of the air ticket during the lockdown period for travel during the same period.

The forum said that since thousands of passengers would have booked tickets much prior to March 25, 2020, it is unfair to restrict the benefit of full refund only to those who booked the travel for the first lockdown period during that period itself.

The forum asked the government to focus on the date of travel which is more important than the date of booking.

The first travel advisory that was issued by the health ministry on March 11 restricted non-essential travel. The forum, therefore urged full refund be granted to such passengers too- who cancelled their tickets due to such government advisory and necessary instructions.

Shirish V Deshpande, chairman of the forum said that the advisory (issued on April 16) directed only the airlines to give full refund without cancellation charge. However, as most of the passengers book air travel through a travel agent or through travel web portal/ aggregator, concerned air lines might not have received money which the passengers paid to these agents or web portals.

‘It is therefore not enough to only direct the airlines to give full refund to passengers. The advisory must also specifically direct the travel agents, web portals and aggregators to grant full refund in such cases without any conditions or offer of utilising the said money for future travel,’ stated the letter.

The advisory also mentioned that refunds will be given to passengers who booked tickets during the first lockdown period and the airline too has received the payment for the booking of air ticket during the first lockdown period for travel period during the second lockdown period (April 15 to May 3, 2020) for both domestic and international air travel.

Mumbai Grahak Forum said that passengers who have booked their tickets well in advance cannot be denied full refund under any circumstances. ‘Their money has remained with the airlines or travel agents for a longer period which should, in fact, entitle them for refund with interest,’ the forum said.

It thus insisted that the rule needs to be amended and it should be stated that; if a passenger has booked a ticket for travel during the second lockdown period (from April 15 to May 3, 2020) for both domestic or international air travel and the passenger seeks refund on cancellation of the tickets, the airline, travel agent or web portal as the case may be, shall refund the full amount collected without levy of cancellation charge.