The CoronaVirus pandemic is here upon us, and clearly airlines are seeing a dip in demand due to the risk of spreading the outbreak and coming in close contact with someone who may already be a carrier of the virus. Having said that, while we are seeing pictures from around the globe of empty aircraft, I am not seeing the situation in real life, as I’ve flown three times over the last eight days and I continue to see full aircraft on my domestic travels.
Some people may be travelling because they could not get an airline waiver, some people may be travelling because it is Holi, and for some others, it is Business as Usual. As the outbreak spreads even further, airlines across India are now forced to get ahead of the situation. They have already done a good job at cancelling their flights into North Asia and South East Asia, and will perhaps now see cuts to their Middle-East capacity as well.
Over the weekend, Indian airlines have been starting to issue waivers. Here is a roundup.
IndiGo & SpiceJet
On March 7, 2020, IndiGo notified a waiver for those booked to travel on IndiGo between March 12, 2020, and March 31, 2020. There will be zero change fees on existing bookings for travel from March 12, 2020 – March 31, 2020. The airline also announced zero change fees on fresh bookings made between March 12, 2020 – March 31, 2020. Remember, fare difference, if any, is on you and has to be paid, and the changes to your bookings have to be made at least three days in advance. If you cancel, you pay.
SpiceJet has followed into the footsteps of IndiGo. Here is their word for word copy of the IndiGo travel waiver.
Both the airlines did not put the waiver in immediate effect which will force peak travel over Holi to happen, which could be a risk for the virus to spread.
GoAir
GoAir launched a new travel waiver on March 8, 2020. This one allows you to change or cancel flights up to September 30, 2020, when booked between March 8, 2020, and April 30, 2020. Does not apply to existing bookings and only has the sole purpose to ensure forward bookings don’t suffer.
Air Asia India
On March 8, 2020, Air Asia India notified a waiver for those booked to travel on their airline between March 8, 2020, and March 31, 2020. There will be zero change fees on existing bookings and fresh bookings. Remember, fare difference, if any, is on you and has to be paid, and the changes to your bookings have to be made at least three days in advance. If you cancel, you pay. Having said that, at least the airline was slightly better off than IndiGo and SpiceJet, having allowed people to change travels during the Holi travel period as well.
Bottomline
The airline travel waivers from Indian airlines are honestly all smoke and mirrors. Vistara and Air India have not even stepped up yet to announce what their policy will be with respect to the new waiver. It seems like everyone expects people to postpone travel but not cancel it.
What do you make of the current waivers of Indian carriers due to the CoronaVirus outbreak?
Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay.
(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. Even though the amount you enter has to be in INR, you may use an international card to process the transaction.)
We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.
I canceled my Vistara Mumbai – Goa return flight scheduled for next week. They offered full refund when I gave the Covid-19 as the reason for cancelation. The refund will take 12-14 days.
My booking from Cochin to Delhi is on 12th March 2020.by Air Asia
Due to the emergency situation prevailing in the country especially in Kerala, I postponed the booking to April on 10th March. But the airline has charged the full money for rescheduling.
Can I get a refund of the money.
Any suggestions.
We were to fly today on Vistara Jod-Mum. Since our baby was to fly with us, we decided to cancel.
The Vistara exec offered a full refund ‘as an exception’ after I (truthfully) mentioned Corona as the reason for cancelling.
Ymmv, but as today is Holi, it seems the most generous policy of all the airlines mentioned.
Note that I had booked via an OTA. So you may want to call the airline rather than OTA while cancelling.
Hi Ajay,
thanks for compiling all the info in one place. Do you know if we have to give the new travel dates upfront while raising request for change or its open for to decide at a later date?
@Tanmay I believe you will have to give the new dates upfront.
I asked AIR INDIA to waive change fees on my flight over the last weekend but the agents in DEL refused furiously. I told them it is unfair to ask passengers to pay more given the virus is spreading in India but the agent said “no mercy”. I almost laughed when he said that because it was so stupid to say such a thing and I confirmed this “so goverment of india and Air india have no mercy on us” and he said yes to this.
Thx for compiling Ajay. Does it apply to international travel too? What if one books through an OTA – is there some rider on that?
I cancelled two discount fare tickets booked on Air Vistara for March 6-15 on DEL SIN DEL SECTORS .
Full Refund was given.
I had another booking on SIA for the same sector , again discount fare ,but was told no refund on cancellation.
Singapore Airlines is still strictly going by fare restrictions of ticket whereas Indian carriers seem to be offering some refunds. I read somewhere ixigo is giving full refund till March end irrespective of fare restrictions of airline.