As the government-imposed fare limits are in place since domestic flights resumed operation on May 25, the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday asked SpiceJet to stop its five-day discounted sale of tickets, PTI quoted senior officials as saying.
The DGCA referred to the government-imposed fare limits, and asked SpiceJet to stop the sale, the report said.
This came after SpiceJet announced ‘1+1’ offers with sale fares starting at Rs 899 early on Monday. The airline was also offering a complimentary flight voucher of up to Rs 2,000 along with other add-on offers. Bookings had opened and the offer was on a first-come-first-served basis. SpiceJet had said in a statement that the booking period was between August 3 and August 7 for the travel period till March 31, 2021.
What Spicejet was offering in its 2020 sale:
As part of the sale, SpiceJet was offering one-way base fares starting Rs 899, excluding taxes, for travel on the airline’s vast network across India. Several routes such as Hyderabad–Belgaum, Belgaum – Hyderabad, Ahmedabad–Ajmer (Kishangarh), Ajmer (Kishangarh)-Ahmedabad were available under the Rs 899 sale.
Flyers booking a flight ticket under the sale would get a complimentary flight voucher with a maximum value of Rs 2,000 per booking. The voucher was to be used for future ticket bookings. The tickets were to be e-delivered to the customer within 48-hours of booking. These vouchers were to have a validity of travel period until October 15, 2020. Flyers could also purchase add-on services like preferred seats, priority check-in, preferred boarding and bag out service for just Rs 149. Flyers were provided with an option to upgrade to SpiceMax at a special price of Rs 499.
The sales fares were not applicable to group bookings and the offer could not be combined with any other offer. SpiceJet had said that flight fares vary from one route to another, as the travel distance and flight schedules and timings were subject to change. As per SpiceJet’s flight tickets refund policy, under this sale only statutory taxes were refundable. The free flight voucher could be redeemed only by the person in whose name the ticket was booked during the sale and applicable on bookings made on the SpiceJet website only. Vouchers were valid for a single transaction and could be redeemed 7-days in advance. These were non-refundable and could not be exchanged for cash, the airline had said. Flyers could book tickets on http://www.spicejet.com, on online travel portals, SpiceJet mobile app, through travel agents, SpiceJet Call Centre, and at the airport ticket offices.