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The Chandigarh District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered airlines and a tour company to pay Rs 99,625 to a UT resident for not refunding the rescheduled flight ticket amount.
According to the details, the complainant Onkarjot Singh stated that he had booked a ticket with Spicejet Limited from Grand Tarvel Planners, to travel from Delhi to Canada on September 11, 2020. He paid a total of Rs 89,625 and it was mentioned in the ticket that the amount paid was non-refundable.
According to Singh, on 11 September 2020, when the complainant along with his father went to Delhi to board the flight, they received a message from the travel company that the flight had been rescheduled and would now depart on 12 September 2020. The company said the same ticket will be effective. But contrary to that, the complainant received a copy of the ticket showing the flight date as 13 September 2020. Singh stated that when the complainant did not get a satisfactory response or confirmation from the airlines and the travel agency about the departure date of his flight, he decided to buy a new ticket from Air Canada for September 14, by paying Rs.1,05,000. The accused said that he then informed the travel company about the same and asked for his money to be returned. On September 12, the complainant received another ticket via email from the travel company for September 14 from Delhi to Toronto on EuroAtlantic Airways.
Spicejet Limited in its reply said that due to Covid, the said flight has been delayed by one day and all the passengers on the said flight including the complainant have been informed about the scheduled change through SMS message and email address. All but two passengers boarded the rescheduled flight. Subsequently, the two passengers were declared “not attached” to the said brawl and their ticket was cancelled. The travel company Grand Travel Planners denied claims that the complainant informed them about the purchase of the Air Canada ticket.
The Commission, after hearing the matter, concluded that in the specific case the airlines and the travel company desperately failed to take timely action by placing the complainant on an alternative flight. Instead, it kept the petitioner in a quandary regarding the confirmed date of the flight, which is quite evident from the tickets placed on record by the petitioner, where the opposite parties have time and again intimated different travel times of the flight to the complainant, which forced the appellant to take the services of another airline, so that he could reach his destination on time. Hence, there is a clear deficiency on the part of the opposite parties and they are bound to refund the ticket price to the appellant.
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