fanofflying

For all this talk about "ON TIME", Indigo sucks. Worst part...their customer service agents are incredibly rude. Here is what happened.

I had booked a chennai-delhi flight for 6th of July on Indigo airlines. I made the reservation through makemytrip. On the day of journey, I get a call from Indigo at 5 AM (just 2 hours prior to the departure time) saying that the flight was cancelled.
They gave me two alternatives:

1. rebook me on the 11 AM flight to Delhi. This did not work for me because I had an important meeting at 12:30.

2. Refund the amount.

I asked them if they could put me on another airline. They refused.
I had to choose the 2nd alternative. So i asked them how they will refund. They said I would have to call makemytrip to arrange for refund. I argued that they should be calling makemytrip to arrange for it because it was their mistake. But they rudely responded saying "We cant call makemytrip for you sir. If you want the refund, you should call them".

What I would like to know is:
1. is this the way other Indian airlines handle cancellations as well?
2. I am so pissed with the situation that I want to take some action:
a. What can i expect if i file a consumer court case?
b. Would it have an impact if I write to their CEO.
c. Any other online forums where i can publish this incident?

Keyser

you booked through a third party site so unfortunately you will have to call them to get the refund....if you had booked directly on their website then they would have been able to issue the refund....

this is the risk you take when you fly with a lcc....none of the airlines will put you on another flight....doesn't matter if its in india or anywhere else....if they cancel a flight then they will either put you on another one of their flights or refund the amount....

you can file a case in consumer court but i really wouldn't expect too much from that....

you can do that as well....you may get an apology....

there are tons of forums but i would advice you not to do so....indigo is not a bad airline....you can have a bad experience with even the best airlines of the world....

aniruddh77

Very true...

fanofflying

i dont know about Indian airlines, but i know for a fact that airlines in the US have the ability to put you in other airlines. Both US airways & american airlines were able to put me on another flight when their flights were cancelled. They had the appropriate mechanism to do it.

i understand that I booked on makemytrip. But, makemytrip did not cancel my ticket. It was Indigo who cancelled it. I shouldnt have to waste more time in trying to get my funds back when it was indigo's mistake.

My point is that they should have the appropriate mechanisms & partnerships created to deal with such situations.

I have been in tons of situations where airlines have put me in a bad position. But I've never come across any agents who were rude and unapologetic for their mistakes.
they maybe one of the better airlines. But they cannot use that as an excuse to treat customers badly. Besides, no customer has to put up with bad treatment just because it was a stellar airline. After all, smart airlines should be able to learn from such complaints and improve.

Keyser

i am not talking about all airlines....read my post again....i said that no lcc will put you on another airline....i'm not talking about regular full service airlines....

i have been in a couple of situations myself with jet blue & air tran where they flat out refused to put me on another airline when they cancelled their flight....both times i was told that the only option i had was to either take a later flight on their own airline or to ask for a refund....

same thing happened to me with jet blue....i had booked & paid through my travel agent....they did not give me the refund but told me i had to go through my travel agent....

if you buy a ticket to see a concert & then it gets cancelled because the artist cannot make it for some reason then you won't ask the artist for a refund, you will go back to the place where you bought the ticket....

no lcc in the world has partnerships to deal with such situations....like i said before, that is the risk you take with a lcc....

if the agents were rude & unapologetic for their mistakes then they were definitely wrong....

indigo is definitely not one of the better airlines but it is not bad either....they don't have mechanisms in place that the regular full service carriers do....

abhilife2001

+1.. this is the general rule IMO.. If booked thru an intermediary/ agent, they will give the refund..

+1.. this advice comes from a lawyer and hence they know their stuff and I would follow his advise

good example .. and to the OP -- all airlines T&C'c clearly say that refund needs to be arranged thru the agent if booked thru a TA..

oliver2002

Indigo is an LCC like Southwest(WN) in the US. WN will not rebook you onto other carriers like mainline carriers would. Like indigo, they will say: the next available flight or your money back.

sbrower

The OP, through his understandable upset, still made an accurate statement. Other airlines *can* (and *sometimes* will) put you on another airline. But, to the best of my knowledge, the CoC never actually require such result. It is a customer service decision.

Keyser

regular full service airlines will....but no lcc will put you on another airline if they cancel their flight....

i have been in situations were my ba flight was cancelled & they put me on a sn flight at the same time....another time my aa flight was cancelled & they put me on a ua flight....

i have also been in situations where my southwest or jet blue or air asia or spice jet flights have been cancelled & they only gave me 2 options, either take a later flight on their airline or to ask for a refund....they just would not put me on another airline....

fanofflying

again, you are missing my point here. ofcourse I booked through makemytrip and the refund has to come from their bank acct. But the least I expect is for them to inform makemytrip that the flight was canceled and this passenger wants his money back. That way makemytrip would arrange for refund without me having to call them and wait on line for 15 mins.

I am sure most passengers who are being told that their flight is cancelled just 2 hrs prior to departure would expect this. If you did not expect this in case of jet blue, IMHO, you were being too nice.

your argument is:
1. The LCC I flew on treated me badly.
2. All LCCs treat people badly
3. So I will put up with it.

sorry I dont buy this argument (especially in this case where it would have cost Indigo almost nothing to have treated me with a little more courtesy and made that call).
Look at the big picture here. consumers complaining about such issues, even if they are rare occurances, will only benefit the airlines and the consumers over the long run. That is one of the points for having such forums. I only wish Indigo guys would get to see this thread. Are you the Indigo CEO by any chance?...Just kidding

and guess what..when I called makemytrip the next day, they didnt even know that the flight was cancelled. They asked me if my journey was good and didnt know why I was calling. again just to be clear, they were able to pull up my reservation records and it did not indicate that the flight was cancelled. Once I explained, they put me on hold, spoke to Indigo folks and then started working on my refund. If I hadnt called makemytrip, im pretty sure I wouldnt have received my refund.

Keyser

in an ideal world that would be the case & the airline should inform the travel agent or 3rd party website that the flight has been cancelled....but this is not the practice worldwide....they just feel informing the passenger is enough....i don't agree with this but it is the way it is....

its not a question of being nice....i had an international flight to catch from jfk & when jet blue cancelled my iad-jfk flight, they gave me 2 options....either take a later jet blue flight (which would make me miss my international connection) or ask for a refund through my travel agent (which would now require me to get in touch with my travel agent)....i could have stood there & argued with jet blue till the cows came home or i could just look for another airline to make it to jfk....i picked the later....

i also want to point out that i was never informed in advance that the flight had been cancelled....i found out when i reached the airport....so again, its not a question of being nice....with my little conversation with them i could see that they cared less whether i would make it in time for my connecting flight....so i simply moved on....

that is not my argument at all....

1. the lcc you flew on definitely treated you badly & they could have done things better....
2. not all lccs treat people badly but you get what you pay for....if you pay $10 for a service then its unfair to expect service worth $100....
3. you don't have to put up with it....just don't fly with a lcc anymore....this is one of my main reasons why i stopped flying with lcc airlines....

i completely agree....but its not their policy to do so....lccs feel that informing the customer is enough....am i ok with this policy????hell no....but it doesn't change the fact that this is the policy followed world wide....

again, i completely agree....

unfortunately (or fortunately) i am not the ceo of indigo, but i can possibly forward this thread on to someone at the airline....

the way i believe these things work is that the airlines inform the 3rd party website on a particular day of the week whether a flight was cancelled or delayed or anothing else during the past week....so i'm pretty sure you would have still recieved your refund....it would just have been delayed....

aktchi

Sorry to hear about OP's bad experience. FWIW, my limited experience with IndiGo has been okay.

This also confirms my general feeling that when possible it is best to buy your tickets directly from the airline. It is extremely rare that I have seen a TA add enough of a value to justify a 3rd party purchase.

abhilife2001

+1..
Unless its a complicated intl travel itinerary TA's are just not worth it.. Even for intl travel rqsts, I just go thru the TA as I am mandated by my company and there too, I give the flight details and they just mostly issue the same 90% of the time

oliver2002

TAs can waitlist you for cheaper fares and otherwise maximise your experience if they know what you want and you know what to demand. Sadly the TAs have dumbed so far that they offer a no better service than a plain website.

Two examples:

- We had a decent Z corporate fare and no availability on the flight I wanted. Had to argue with the agent to WL me for the cheap fare class. She insisted on booking me in D and only reluctant agreed to list me. No surprise the Z cleared overnight based on my LH*G status.

- Friend of mine has to book thru a corporate TA who always suggests the lowest business fare on the route regardless of carrier. My friend wanted to fly direct on LH and not via another city. Told him to ask his TA to request a competitive private pricing from LH. He had to beg and plead for 30 mins (their response: 'LH doesn' do this') and they finally relented. Surprise surprise LH gave them a private pricing which was a litte higher than the competition but within the acceptable tolerance of his company.

Keyser

a good travel agent will definitely improve your whole travel experience....the travel agency i use is fantastic....they give me special treatment (i do book a lot with them)....i never have to ask them to get me the cheapest fare, they waitlist me on the cheapest ticket & almost always get it confirmed....they have great relations with all the airlines & often get me upgraded from business to first....thanks to these guys, i have almost always (except for one occasion) managed to use my vouchers to get upgrades on jet & kingfisher....

even if i have to pay a little extra (which is normally not the case), i still book with them because all the extra perks make it worth it....