Amid a spurt in consumer grievances against airlines, the government has called a meeting of these companies and online travel aggregators on November 8.
The national consumer helpline managed by the department of consumer affairs (DoCA) received thousands of complaints on several issues including delay in refund settlement after cancellation of tickets, denial of boarding despite having valid tickets and practise of misleading claims such as showing seats as ‘paid’ despite offering free mandatory web check-in services.
According to the official data, out of the more than 10,000 complaints received in the last one year against various airlines and travel facilitation portals, 41% were relating to ‘tickets being cancelled, but no refunds received from airlines.”
“Some of the practices by airlines fall under unfair trade practices norms,” Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, DoCA said. He said that the meeting with the airlines and travel portals will seek to get responses from them a host of complaints raised by the consumers.
Singh, however, clarified that the DoCA does not intervene in the pricing of services by airlines.
Grievances such as deficiency in services and delayed compensation because of lost and damaged luggage had a share of around 15% each in the total complaints received. Some major grievances also involve airlines displaying all seats as paid, even with mandatory free web check-in.
While stating that the ministry has nothing to do with the business model of airlines or travel companies, Singh said “we are saying that when a consumer has a confirmed ticket then he should not put to further inconvenience in the form of these things (paid seat) which are making life difficult for air travellers”.
However, selling goods or services is a package deal. Adding costs without upfront disclosure after a service has been purchased is unfair,” the official noted.
DoCA will not initiate any action on the grievances raised by the consumers against the airlines and travel portal till they get to hear from them in the meeting next month.
“Airlines advertise ‘free web check-in’ but charge for seats. Once a traveler has paid the fare and the airline has issued a confirmed ticket, all services must be fair and advantageous to consumers. Exploiting consumers is not acceptable,” Singh said.
He also stated that following the meeting next month, airlines and travel companies will refrain from unfair practices.
Drawing a parallel between unfair charges imposed by airlines for booking window or aisle seats and service charges levied by restaurants, he noted “any misleading or deceptive charges revealed only at the end of a transaction are unfair. The same applies to restaurants adding service charges to the bill.”