The civil aviation ministry has been urged by the consumer affairs department to investigate the practice of some airlines charging for each seat during online check-in and to ensure that passengers are charged the correct fare at the time of booking without any additional fees.
Typically, when a passenger checks in online, the airlines charge for seats that fall under the “paid” category, and the passenger must pay extra fees.
Additionally, the department ordered the online travel aggregators to pay all outstanding balances for tickets that were canceled during the Covid-19 pandemic by this month’s third week. If they don’t, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) will file a contempt petition against the platforms that are in default with the Supreme Court and begin legal proceedings.
There are still about Rs 30–40 crore in unpaid refunds for customers from online travel agencies and airlines.
According to sources, concerns about hidden fees and faster complaint resolution were discussed during the meeting between officials from the civil aviation ministry and representatives from online travel aggregators. The proposal put forth by Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh calls for the appointment of an aviation industry ombudsman to expeditiously address consumer complaints.
Regarding the unresolved refund cases, the department pointed out that many complaints about non-refund of ticket amounts were filed on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) despite the Supreme Court’s clear directives in its October 1, 2020 ruling, which required immediate full refunds for tickets purchased during the lockdown period for travel within that same period. Over 60% of these complaints were filed with NCH.
Last year, the CCPA took suo moto notice of this problem and sent notices to five travel agencies—Thomas Cook, Kesari Tours, Veena World, Neem Holidays, and Mango Holidays.The notice was also sent to six online travel platforms—EaseMyTrip, Yatra, MakeMyTrip, HappyEasyGo, ClearTrip, and Ixigo— asking them to promptly reimburse customers for any outstanding amounts.
“Ixigo and Thomas Cook, two companies, have refunded the entire amount to the consumers with the prompt intervention and diligent efforts of CCPA,” an official statement read. The airlines and online travel agencies have reimbursed about Rs 1,437 crore so far.
Court petitions against CCPA orders to reimburse customers have been filed by Kesari Tours, Mango Holidays, and Veena World. At present, the consumer authority is looking into the Neem Holiday-related issues.
In order to effectively resolve customer complaints, the representatives discussed integrating NCH with the Air Sewa portal, according to the consumer affairs department.
Comments
0 comment