Jet Airways

My last trip with Jet Airways was my Brussels visit from Delhi. Behaviour of air-hostesses was pathetic and carefree. In fact they were considering as if they were doing some favour to us and other foreign travellers. I felt the airlines as Black Spot on the country while operating international flights. Web management for changing the schedule was great disappointing experience. On the revised date seat was available but we failed to select that being cheaper fare.

I would always ignore Jet Airways.

Tapan Sinha's grievance.

The most fraudulent practice that goes on unchecked is the policy of refund on cancellation by Airlines. Recently I had puchased 2 tickets each, one for a trip from Kolkata to Mumbai & a second from Chennai to Mumbai both for travel by the carrier Jet Airlines. In the first instance I wanted to reschedule the journey by 2 days and in the second case I wanted to cancel one of the 2 tickets that I had booked. In both the instances -with regard to rescheduling I was told that I needed to cancel the existing tickets and re-book again, the second however was a case of simple cancellation-I was told both by the Airline Jet Airways & Make My Trip through whom I had done the booking for one of the journeys, that there would be ZERO REFUND on cancellations even though I was planning to do the alterations/cancellation 30/ 45 days before my journey ( my journeys are yet to take place and is far off as of date) and hence there was NO WAY AN AIRLINE WOULD INCUR ANY LOSS, THAT I WAS EXPECTED TO COMPENSATE, DUE TO POSSIBILITY OF NON FILLING UP OF ANY OF THE SEATS THAT I WOULD VACATE BY WAY OF CANCELLATION. In fact by this procedure the Airlines would be collecting two times the legitimate fare for a single seat. And if you assume conservatively that even 0.5 % of the sales clocked in a year are either cancelled or rescheduled Jet Airways alone would be looting the hapless consumers more than Rs.100 crores a year without any sweat. To my mind this is downright cheating, grossly unethical and totally anti-consumer.
What is more scandalous is that Make My trip the Travel Agent Company in their official site was openly peddling an offer that for an extra Rs.399/- per ticket towards some curious insurance policy, the Agency guarantees full refund of fare paid on cancellation!
I am aware of puerile explanations the Airlines will probably offer, if confronted. That some tickets are sold cheap and hence there should not be any expectation of a refund Selling cheap is no excuse to loot a genuine passenger. Airlines sell cheap simply because market forces drive them to do so, because this is the only way for their survival in a competitive environment. Selling cheap cannot piggy bank on creating a right to rob a customer. Where in the world would anybody be allowed to frame self-appeasing rules that will allow them to plunder a customer’s money without offering any service at all?
The incidents I refer to took place during post demonetization period. Would it be fair to conjecture that such rules were framed, in collusion with the potential beneficiaries, to help the big cheats and money launderers to take this route-similar to reported escape routes of parking ill –gotten wealth in jewelry or real estate sectors- and try to convert dirty money to white? And shrug off as just bad luck in case of those inconsequential ordinary citizens like me should they get waylaid in the process?
Expectedly letters addressed to the Chairman/ CEO of both the Companies as well as to their respective Board Members met with no response but what appalls a senior citizen like me is that the Aviation Minister, who is supposed to be the guardian to prevent such unethical practices from taking place and to whom the same letter, citing the instances and evidences, was sent have also chosen to remain silent.
Is this the way to move forward to realize Hon`ble Prime Minister`s vision to make India a corruption free society? Are we expected to keep our eyes closed and watch this naked greed go unchecked?
Tapash Kumar Sinha