Court to Air India: Refund ₹44k cancellation fee, incidental charges of ₹5k

 

A Bengalurean from whom a cancellation fee of Rs 44,029 was collected by Air India after a flight from Bengaluru to London was cancelled due to Covid lockdown approached a city consumer court & won a refund of the amount.

The court heard a petition from Hebbal resident Milin Jagdishbhai Parekh, 35, & ruled that the airline must refund the full ticket amount & also incidental charges as the flight cancellation was because of no fault of the passenger.

 

Parekh spent Rs 1,35,143 to book the flight ticket on Air India in Jan 2020 through the MakeMyTrip ticketing portal to fly from Bengaluru to London in April 2020. However, due to the lockdown that came into effect from the end of March 2020, Air India cancelled the flight due to the international flight ban & refunded Parekh the fare after deducting Rs 44,029 towards cancellation charges. The incidental charges of Rs 5,000 had not been refunded.

The infuriated customer questioned the airline as to how the cancellation fee can be deducted when the airline cancelled the flight & insisted that his full ticket sum must be refunded. The customer care of MakeMyTrip told Parekh that he had to take up the matter with the airline as they are helpless.

Despite reaching out to Air India repeatedly, he didn't receive a favourable response. Fed up, Parekh approached the Bangalore Urban 2nd Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Shantinagar on July 2020 & pursued a case against Air India for service deficiency. 

'Can't keep balance amount of ticket fare'

The airline representatives, despite being served a legal notice, failed to appear before the consumer forum. The airline's lawyer appeared after the given time & the same was not accepted by the court which declared the opposite party as ex-parte.

The judges examined the evidence presented by the complainant, mainly the email sent to him by the Air India declaring him as a no-show for the flight & offering to reschedule the flight before any day till Sept 30, 2020.

 

Air India was well aware that the international flight ban due to the Covid situation continued even to 2021 & in this case, it cancelled the flight due to unavoidable situation, the court noted, adding that declaring passenger as no-show, they can't keep the balance amount of the ticket fare paid by the customer.

On Sept 28, 2022, the Court ruled that Air India must refund the residual amount of Rs 44,029 & incidental charges of Rs 5,000 to the man within 45 days.

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(With input from news agency language)

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