New low in Jet Airways Crisis: Air India & Vistara won’t accept stranded passengers

Jet Airways crisis seem to be growing for the moment before they get better. Over the months, Jet Airways has been curtailing their schedule, as we have extensively written about. They have, over the past couple of months, had to ground a lot of their fleet on the back of unpaid dues to lessors.

Now, airlines, for the longest time, have been friendly with each other in the times of disruptions. There are agreements in place, which allow airlines to put displaced passengers from their airlines on to other airlines, in exchange for a pre-agreed amount, not the usual last-minute fares that are offered to us as a passenger. This arrangement is called Flight Interruption Manifest, and is useful to a large extent, when airlines have, let’s say weather-related displacements.

Now, other airlines are cutting away from their agreement with Jet Airways on this part for the moment. For instance, Jet Airways could have earlier endorsed over a passenger to Air India on their international or domestic network. Now, as per a new notification sent out by Air India’s Commercial Department, Air India has temporarily suspended that arrangement.

Jet Airways Crisis

Business Standard reports that Air India and Jet Airways had a relationship where Jet Airways would have had to pay Air India every 15 days for the seats they bought for accommodated passengers.

On the other hand, Vistara seems to have also cancelled their basic interlining agreement with Jet Airways. This means 9W cannot now place their passengers on Vistara flights in the last minute flight disruption as well. In terms of no-frill carriers, as per Arindam Majmudar, who writes for the Business Standard, these agreements are cash-upfront, which means no money, no seat.

a screenshot of a social media post

This just spells bad news for Jet Airways customers at the moment, because their options in case of last minute cancellations are now limited, and the airline is shrinking at a rapid pace, till they are not able to find a way to recapitalise the airline in the next few days. Till then, cancelled flights would mean Jet Airways passengers on thin routes will face trouble.

Have your flight plans been disrupted in the past few days due to the spate of groundings of Jet Airways aircraft? What did Jet Airways do? Did they offer you a full refund against cancellation? A rescheduled flight? 

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. I’ve booked 2 tix in Premier Class for August travel BOM LHR for my folks

    Hoping the airline is around till then to use my redemption

    This is why I’m using my citiprestige card as my first choice now. The value of not being tied down to a single loyalty program is priceless.

  2. I was recently in India with friends. One of our friends was booked on Jet and they cancelled her flights. They didn’t proactively refund the money but when she asked, they did. However she had to rebook last minute on Vistara for three times the price.

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