Inconsumercomplaints.com » Cars & Transport » Review / complaint: Air India - Efund due to cancellation of AI9819 | News #51570

Air India
Efund due to cancellation of AI9819

SUB: REFUND OF TICKETS FOR MR. ASHOK KUMAR AND MRS. ANJANA KUMAR, PNR JE1L9 AND H6LVN (SPLIT PNR ISSUED BY AIR INDIA) FOR 18 Jan travel from Delhi to DehraDun and 19 Jan travel from DehraDun to Delhi.

I booked the tickets thru Air India phone IVR facility no 18001801407. E-ticket number 098210247901 (Ashok Kumar) 098210247900 (Anjana kumar) on 11 Jan. The tickets for both Ashok Kumar and Anjana Kumar were as follows:

1. 18 Jan Flight AI806 Dep: Mumbai Arrivl: Delhi

2. 18 Jan Flight AI9819 Dep: Delhi Arrivl: DehraDun

3. 19 Jan Flight AI9820 Dep: DehraDun Arrivl: Delhi

4. 26 Jan Flight AI659 Dep: Delhi Arrivl: Mumbai

On 18th Jan Passengers Ashok Kumar and Anjana Kumar travelled by Flight AI806 from Mumbai to Delhi.

On reaching Delhi, we went to get the boarding passes for travel to Dehradun by flight AI9819. We were issued boarding passes at 11.00AM and we did the security check and reached Gate 42C at Delhi IGI Airport. There we were told that the flight AI9819 to Dehradun had been cancelled and were surprised to be told that the cancellation decision had been taken before 10.00AM by Air India. So the question is, why were we issued boarding passes when the flight had already been cancelled? Anyway, we were told that we should contact the manager at AI board pass issue desk.

We contacted the manager there who directed us to contact Customer Care of Air India at IGI Airport. We contacted customer care, there the staff told us that we could be accommodated in Kingfisher flight to Dehradun. There we found a number of passengers awaiting similar accommodation in Kingfisher airline to Dehradun. So we waited to be accommodated and were told that Kingfisher would do our boarding passes in the end after finishing their own passenger boarding.

At around 3.00 to 3.30 PM we were then told that Kingfisher was not in a position to accommodate any passengers and we could take the refund. The staff at Air India customer care at IGI airport told Ashok Kumar and Anjana Kumar (that’s us) that since we had journey left to complete with Air India and that we had booked the ticket thru IVR, we would get our refund upon completion of the other sectors of our journey and reporting again to the call centre number 18001801407 with the printout of the refund order. We were given a duly stamped refund order printout for the Delhi DehraDun flight.

The refund order gives status of all the booked sectors. For Ashok Kumar,

i) it states ‘SSR VGML AI XX1 DELDED 9819T18JAN’ at s.no 14,

ii) it states ‘AI9819 DEL/DED XXLD DT 18JAN’ at s.no 24,

iii) it states ‘FULL REFUND FOR DEL/DED DT 18JAN’ at s.no 25.

For Anjana Kumar

i) it states ‘SSR VGML AI XX1 DELDED 9819T18JAN’ at s.no 12,

ii) it states ‘AI9819 DEL/DED XXLD DT 18JAN’ at s.no 23,

iii) it states ‘FULL REFUND FOR DEL/DED SECTOR ONLY’ at s.no 24.

(scanned copy of the refund orders attached with this mail)

Since we could not travel to Dehradun as scheduled on the 18 Jan I requested cancellation of Dehradun to Delhi travel by Flight 9820 on 19 JAN and asked for the cancellation number, by calling on 18001801407. They told me that the cancellation for 19 JAN by flight AI9820 had been recorded but they could not give me a cancellation number because the journey from Delhi to Mumbai was still pending. They also said that the status of DEL/DED on 18JAN was not showing ‘open’, but it would become open after completion of all the remaining sectors of our journey and that the refund for DEL/DED and DED/DEL would be given after completion of journey to Mumbai on the 26th Jan.

So, both of us i.e Ashok Kumar and Anjana Kumar completed the journey on 26 JAN by flight AI659.

On 26 JAN we again contacted 18001801407 call centre to request the cancellation processing. We were then shocked to hear from them (mr. Siddharth) that the ticket from Del to Dehradun could not be processed for cancellation because of some “exchange”?? status on the tickets for DEL/DED sector. But DED/DEL cancellation could be refunded, since it had the correct status. I told them we were passengers and were not supposed to keep track of the status of the tickets inside air india computers, but he kept repeating that the status was “EA” (I fail to understand what on earth that has to do with us!).

We told them all that had happened at IGI airport and that we had the refund orders with us. So they told us to fax and email the refund orders so that they could get the faulty status rectified on the tickets and our refund would get processed soon after (within 10 minutes we were promised).

On 27JAN we sent the fax on the number given and also sent the scanned copy to email id [email protected] as directed by mr. Siddharth. We contacted the call centre a number of times after that and were told that they (mr. Subendu, mr. Ravi) had spoken to air india but the concerned person was on leave so the request could be processed the next day, i.e 28JAN.

On 28 JAN we contacted the call centre again and were told by them (mr. Rishikesh) that the air india person had come back from leave and the request would be completed within an hour.

We again phoned call centre after 4 hours and at that time we were shocked to be told by one superior at call centre (mr. Pankaj Bijekar) that all the details being asked by the call centre of us till then (fax/ email and their talking to air india) was a totally wrong process, that they do not work like this, and the correct process is that we should go via the grievance mechanism of air india, and that they cannot help us in getting the mistake rectified done by air india staff at delhi airport customer care.

When I confronted mr Pankaj as to¬ why have the call center staff been misleading us all this time, and why is he not honouring the refund order given to us, he said he checked with the call centre staff and they had denied telling us all the above facts. This is a total falsehood, we had been talking for several hours on the same details to the call center! Now this is like saying that we are insane/mad people and cooking up all the procedures told to us by the call centre staff! We are being denied a proper treatment and refund of the journey we could not perform because the air india flightAI9819 was cancelled on 18jan and to add insult to injury, we are being punished because some in-efficient staff at air india at IGI airport did not update the proper status on the tickets. My question to you is:

1. Is it our fault that we thought of booking thru Air India? Being in govt service I thought it would be good to go by the national carrier, at least I could do my bit in helping the air line in its passenger business. So, is it our fault? Answer is no, unless I blame my ill fate for the same.

2. Is it our fault that the AI9819 on 18 JAN was cancelled by Air India? Answer is no.

3. Is it our fault to accept the offer if Air India customer care asked all passengers if they would like to get accommodated on Kingfisher? Answer is No.

4. Is it our fault that Air India was unable to get the passengers including us, to get accommodated on kingfisher flight that day? Answer is no.

5. Is it our fault that we had booked through phone on IVR that Air India at IGI airport gave us the printed and stamped refund order instead of cash? Answer is No.

6. Is it our fault or are the passengers even supposed to know that the ticket status has to be changed by the air india staff in their computers which they operate? How is the passenger supposed to know what status SHOULD be updated in the computer and WHAT HAS BEEN updated? Answer is a RESOUNDING NO.

7. Call centre staff have also told us that we should go personally to Nariman point office of air india and then only mistake done by air india can be rectified. Is it justified by air india that I should be penalized of my time, lose a day’s leave from office, spend money and effor¬¬ts to travel 2 hours from my residence to nariman point and 2 hours from nariman point to my residence, all because of the fault done by air india in-efficient staff at IGI airport, for which I cannot be blamed in the least. Answer is No.

8. So, in the end, why am I being punished and made to run from pillar to post for something which I am not responsible, why am I being denied the refund till now because of the mistake done by air india staff at IGI airport?

In the end, my request to you is this: please get the error rectified in air india computer system so that as a passenger I am not harassed any more and since Air India cancelled the flight the refund for Ashok Kumar and Anjana Kumar for flights from Delhi to Dehradun and from Dehradun to Delhi be re-imbursed in FULL and the amount is credited into the account or given in cash.

P.S I'm unable to attach the refund order file over here, please let me know how to do it


Company: Air India

Country: India   State: Maharashtra   City: Mumbai Suburban

Category: Cars & Transport

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