This article co-produced with CNBCTV18.com. Check out my column, Business of Travel, every Friday.
Jet Airways has been cancelling flights left, right and centre. As per many estimates, and our own tracking, their current operational fleet is down to less than 40 aircraft at the moment. Many stations have been badly hit, including Delhi, which is seeing an extreme drop of capacity, and flights as well.
With the severe financial situation at Jet Airways, customers have been at the receiving end. Many customers have been getting odd-timed messages, sometimes the night before their flights about cancellations. What has gone on after is long calls to the airline. Passengers are being left on hold for 30 minutes or more many times to get to an agent.
It is not like Jet Airways does not want to fly those passengers and just shrugged their arms and said they couldn’t do anything. Jet Airways staff has been trying their best to accommodate passengers on other flights of their airline. In many cases, they don’t care if you had a very cheap ticket booked much in advance, because they are willing to pluck a seat from whatever remaining last-minute inventory they have as well. Reading through our coverage of the issue over the months, you will see ample comments from readers who were accommodated.
Jet Airways frontline staff on their aircraft is also, still serving with a smile, even though they don’t have the money rolling into their bank account themselves.
Passengers continue to compliment Jet Airways pilots and cabin crew for their professionalism in this difficult time. @jetairways #paxex pic.twitter.com/uuwiEwFS65
— aneesh phadnis (@aneeshp) March 22, 2019
If your flight is cancelled within 72 hours of departure, you should ideally call the airline, or if you can, visit the airline’s ticketing office, usually at the airport. But, if you get a cancellation for travel more than three days out, Jet Airways has opened up a separate website to get you accommodated on another flight if possible. Check here.
If you use the disruption website, you can pick a date change, or you can ask for a refund.
Domestic Jet Airways Flight Cancellation
Till a few days ago, Jet Airways was accommodating displaced passengers, those whose flights were cancelled, on the flights of their peers such as Air India and Vistara. However, for various reasons, Vistara and Air India have stopped accepting the displaced passengers of Jet Airways at the moment, which means, if the airline is not able to get passengers a replacement ticket on their plane, they are now issuing refunds to the passengers.
When booked directly, these refunds should hit your payment mode directly within a week to ten days. I had certain tickets booked for February 2019, which got cancelled. I got a refund on the third or fourth day on my Amex. However, if you booked with a travel agent, the travel agent will issue you a refund. I’ve heard sometimes you don’t get the convenience fee, but one email to info at jetairways dot com will help that.
International Jet Airways Flight Cancellation
However, Jet Airways is now facing incessant cancellations on their international routes, including the Manchester route altogether, mainly the regional operations which were flown on the Boeing 737s, but also some widebodies. This is potentially more costly to replace when Jet Airways cancels a sector. However, there are many potential ways to reduce the damage.
In many cases, when a domestic flight was cancelled, there was either an alternate routing available. But on international routes, there are not too many replacement flights. Sometimes, they reroute passengers and even gave them compensation.
— Arpit Jain (@appyjain) March 18, 2019
In other cases, they have been re-accommodating passengers on their partner airlines where possible.
For instance, flights from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai were cancelled overnight. However, Jet Airways would still be able to accommodate those passengers on their Dubai to Mumbai flight schedule. And just as an example, if a flight between Delhi and London is cancelled, they can also put passengers on their partner airline Virgin Atlantic. Here is a list of the partner airlines of Jet Airways.
The best way to get accommodated is to do some of the heavy lifting yourself. You can look at the partner airline list, and see if there is a flight available on the partner carriers. If that flight is available, you could write back using the disruption form (use the comments section) or call back Jet Airways with the exact information, and they could try and rebook you on that flight. For instance, if you are booked for Delhi-Hong Kong on Jet Airways which is now cancelled, Jet Airways could book you on Hong Kong Airlines to bring you to Bangkok and then take you on a Jet Airways plane from there to Delhi.
And if you don’t seem to wait for a while on the phone to rebook yourself, you could always send a message to their Twitter team, who should be able to organise a call-back to get you re-accommodated. This is what I did when we recently had a situation with a Jet Airways flight.
It is only after exhausting all their possibilities will the airline cancel your ticket and offer you a full refund. To cover that risk, it is best that you buy travel insurance to cover the situation at the earliest.
What has been your experience with the Jet Airways frontline staff in the past few days? And did I miss anything here in terms of getting passengers accommodated? Do share your tips below.
I have not even received a single penny as refund yet! Still waiting.. Anyone else still waiting for theirs?
Me. I have around 40K as a refund and I booked on Jet airways website
Hi.. we booked flight new delhi – chennai – paris operatee by jet and return naples – paris – new delhi through jet airways website.. operated by Air France.. the new delhi-chennai-paris flight got cancelled and we booked air india flight new delhi – paris assuming our return flight won’t be affected.. but now since jet airways has fully suspended operations will we be allowed to board on air france flight for our return trip.. we’ve contacted both air france and jet and haven’t got clear answer from either.. plz help
I got my refund today. But make my trip charged me INR 849 for ticket cancellation. Why should I pay when an airline cancel the flight? Is there any way to get back that money.
Hi Shri Ram Kumar, Pls share with me your Jet fight tickets date and your ticket cancellation request date and also pls share the procedure you followed for ticket cancellations through makemytrip. It will be helpful for me as I am also going to cancel my Jet flight tickets on makemytrip – booked on makemytrip in Feb 2019.Thanks.
Ashish Dengre, Vadodara
Cell : +919558801123
I have jet airways round trip tickets for my family of four, booked through makemytrip as follows :
1. Vadodara to Delhi – 11th May 2019
2. Delhi to Vadodara – 26th May 2019
I have received SMS from Jet Airways for canacellation of both above flights and makemytrip has confirmed that Jet airways will not be operating these flights under present situation of Jet Airways being grounded now.
My query is – How to get 100% refund from Jet Airways (through makemytrip)
So, pls help me know which is the best option for 100% refund out of following:
Option 1 : I cancel all tickets right away online on makemytrip
Option 2 : I do not cancel the tickets and wait for refund on its own
Option 3 : I wait cancel the tickets on date of flight after the scheduled flight departure time (though it’s already know that flight is already cancelled) to make sure that cancellation was due to non availability of flight and onus is on makemytrip and Jet and it’s not on me.
Pls advise as only thing I want is 100% refund for my tickets and I am making train reservations for my travel instead of waiting for revival of Jet Airways.
Ashish Dengre, Vadodara
Cell : +91 9558801123
@Ashish, these tickets need to be validated by Jet Airways for refund by May 20. Ask MMT on the phone for that. Once they do that, your refund should come in.
Hi Ajay,
As I understand from your reply, you want me to go for “Option 1” that is – I cancel all my tickets right away online on makemytrip (MMT) – so that my tickets can be validated by Jet within 45 days for 100% refund. Or you advising me cancel all my tickets through makemytrip (MMT) over phone ? I recall that makemytrip asks for cancelling tickets only online and they probably do not take ticket cancellation instructions over phone. Pls clarify and correct me if I am wrong. Look forward to your advise on this.
Ashish Dengre, Vadodara
Cell : +91 9558801123
I initially booked a round ticket from the December 25th from Toronto to Lyon and April 29th back from Amsterdam to Toronto.
I initially thought it was an 100% full refund for the round ticket, since there is a reason to purchase round tickets for reasons to buy cheaper flight. However the refund they have given was only the payment for the flight back the Toronto (around $300). Unbelievable since I had to reroute the way myself since they have cancelled my flight two weeks before the departure and the straight ticket back to Toronto was $1,150. Therefore I had to purchase new ticket flying out on the May 10th instead from the London UK. I still cannot believe they have only reimbursed the cost for the half of the ticket. Unbelievable….
I and my wife; senior citizens, first time flyers, from India have no idea that how we can get back from Oklahoma, U.S. to Mumbai, India on July 25, 2019. Our return tickets from BOM to OKC is purchased from American Airlines, Record Locator: TNIEAE. Ticket Numbers 0019511269330 & 0019511269332. In return flight Paris (CDG) to Mumbai (BOM) our flight is by Jet Airways. Our Visas are expiring on 30 July, 2019. At this juncture arrangement of alternate return journey is expected from American Airlines. We had no choice in selection of airlines then why we should suffer the adversity of flight cancellations. Cancellation of Jet Airways flights has put us in dire straits. Please help us. Thanks and regards.
At this stage I would be happy if American Airlines makes alternative arrangements for your return.
Lot of People including myself are still waiting to get money back from Jet for our cancelled flights not keeping my hopes high
I booked from cleartrip on 16 march 2019 from riyadh to vadodara return but unfortunatel;y flights cancelled and i booked an another flight without getting a refund .I called many times to cleartrip for refund but they told me that once airlines will give us refund we will issue and they are uncertain when will the jetairways refund?Still hoping for the refund but i dont know what to do now?
Not too much you can do- I am in the same boat with expedia. My flight from europe to bangalore via jet in May is cancelled. spent over 3k for 4 tickets.
No refund yet
Jet Airways says will validate refund claims in 45 days
https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/jet-airways-says-will-validate-refund-claims-in-45-days-1556140388244.html
I have booked return flight thru Delta Airlines from AMS to BLR by Jet Airways for the month of AUG 2019 Mid., three months earlier, please suggest what I need next.
You should contact delta- and they will make alternate arrangements
International tickets from Canada to Delhi were cancelled by travel agent if segment of flight involved Jet Airways flight e.g. AMS to Delhi.
Travel agent is doing the process of obtaining refund from Jet Airways…we have been told process could take 6-8 weeks!!
Not sure how they will obtain the refund from an airline that is insolvent cannot pay employees, fuel, EMI, etc.
In the meantime I have filed a dispute with credit card transaction as no services were received.
Had to rebook two tickets on a short notice and it costed approx 20% extra.
I purchased Tickets Toronto – Amsterdam for April 24th. I did purchase them from expedia. Tickets were cancelled and Jet Airways telling I need to contact Expedia to get refund. Expedia same time not processing refund (as on April 20th), telling that Jet Airways has no money for refunding tickets anymore. What a jokers.
I booked my flight Delhi-London-Boston through Jet Airways. Flight from London to Boston is operated by Virgin Atlantic (26 April 2019).
Return flight Boston-Paris-Delhi is by Air France booked through Jet Airways for 26 May.
I have asked Jet Airways to cancel Delhi-London-Boston ticket.
What is future of my return flight.
Will Air France honour commitment?
i am also stuck in same condition they cancelled my parents flight from Delhi to Toronto. Am pregnant and going to deliver baby in few days and need my parent for help. I confirmed flight with them on 14 and they cancelled on 15 of April when my parents were outside of airport. No alternative flight booked. bad luck i booked ticket from online website now they are saying we will get half ticket refund because it was round trip and they are suppose to come back to Canada on 16 April. But my parents did not find any reasonable ticket on time and they paid double amount for one way ticket. Still they are coming 2 weeks late from mu due date and am stuck calling jet airline and flight network customer service. No solution, no help don”t know what to do this trip cost my parents more than $5500 Canadian dollar. Also they paid extra for cab from Punjab to Delhi and came back Delhi to Punjab because of cancellation.
I have my tickets booked for May from mumbai toronto and vice versa through Air France and KLM through Goibibo. but air france refuses to assist me any ways for either refund or alternative flight, they are asking me to contact goibibo . Even Goibibo is not resolving the issues… any one in the same boat and facing the issues ?
I have a similar situation. Booked for flights for my parents. Unable to get a conclusive response from goibibo. Have you found a solution?
Just want to give information to all who are affected. We had tickets booked via Air France (booked via airfrance.com and paid to air france) with all three airlines Air France, KLM and Jet airways involved. US to India to US. Dates are may june and july (multiple tickets) Yesterday Airfrance canceled Jet Airways flights from all tickets and sent a message that alternative option is offered, call and confirm. Basically, they removed Jet flights and added air france own flights, also removed klm on one leg and converted that into air france flights. At the end same dates same one stop but all air france flights instead of three airlines originally. process was seamless and quick. I assume if tickets are booked with Delta and KLM then they will also do same.
how did you contact air france as none of the numbers are working when i called them. if you can you share the same as i have same issues.
either try 1 (800) 237-2747 if you are in USA or try facebook.com/airfrance and there is messenger on fb
Seems a case like the airlines was clearly aware of the shortcomings and its inability to fly passengers, yet continued to take advance bookings with a clear intent of cheating passengers. How can this be allowed, inspite of all the vigilant committees that have been formed? Please ensure that customers who have made plans well in the future and had made their bookings in good faith are offered a full refund or a guarantee of alternate flight arrangement. Seems people become dependant on the government’s ability to bail them out of any business, no matter what the loss and continue being dependent on the government. On the other hand, if the fares were so non viable and loss making, why reduce fares to such an extent, that you have to dip into your pockets as well as others to run a business ? How long will such a situation be viable? We need to take a serious look at the way we run business and also on whose money?
HI,
YOU FUCKING JET AIRWAYS, YOU GUYS BETTER RESCHEDULE MY FLIGHT FROM DELHI TO KATHMANDU. YOU BETTER GIVE A FUCKING COMPENSATION FOR THE CHAOS AND MAYHEM THAT YOU HAVE CAUSED FOR WHOLE LOTTA PEOPLE.!!!!!!!
@Rhuthu, language dude!
We have tickets booked from Amsterdam to Mumbai on 1st July, 2019. We have booked the said Tickets thru KLM and, as of now it appears that the Alliance between KLM and Jet Airways is uncertain.
How do we manage our flights and how do we obtain assurance from KLM that the flight will operate ?
I am in a similar situation. Our tickets are for the end of May. I tried calling Air France and didn’t get any straightforward answers. I booked the tickets through Indian Eagle. They say flights are still scheduled for May. This is very stressful not knowing how the trip could get affected at the last minute.
Did you find out any additional information? Thanks.
If your ticket is issued on KLM stock 074, you are in the clear contact KL and they will sort it out for you. If your ticket is issued on 9W stock 589 ,your may be in for a rough ride getting a refund, unless you paid by a credit card which you can cancel as breach of contract. Sorry and good luck.
Well refund is hard to come by , my flight got cancelled from Delhi to Amsterdam on the 3rd of march and I am yet to hear anything from them regarding this.
I had booked the ticket about 2 months back and was not intimated either by easemytrip or jetairways regarding the flight cancellation which I came to know only after reaching the airport. Jet had no options for Delhi Chennai until next day afternoon and no other airlines was accepting Jet passengers. I had to spend around 3 times the original fare with another airline for a flight after 7 hours. What are my rights to claim the compensation as I was not intimated about the change in flight status until 2 hours before the flight time.
Hi,
I got a mail from makemytrip that my flight 9W66 has been cancelled for 11 April Delhi-Bangkok. But airlines didn’t send me any message or mail. when i talked to makemytrip customer care no. they told me its an automated mail, ignore it. I tried to call Jet Airways customer care no. several times but didn’t work.
Hi,
I got a message that my flight 9W16 has been cancelled for 25 April Delhi-Singapore. I am not sure whether it is a fake message or not because when i talked to Jet-Airways customer care, I was told that there is no such cancellation and also I didnt received any cancellation mail as well.
I do not know what to do, should I apply for Visa or not.
Can somebody help me to get right information !!
please tell me . I have same flight but not in April. 9w 16 is cancelled till 31st March
My Parents are planning to travel on 10th April via Jet Airways. Their flight is form Mumbai to Paris. Are they at a risk of cancellation of flight? What can we do to safeguard our trip?
What ultimately happened to your parents’ trip ?
Were they refunded ? Accommodated to any other flight ?
I am in the same boat for later May, not sure what are my options.
Yes, please reply. We also have tickets booked in May.
will travel insurance cover the alternate tickets higher rate on Jet air cancellation
I have had 3 flights cancelled with group tickets on each PNR. Multiple calls have hone unanswered, same with mails sent. How do I get my refund processed? All tickets were booked through the JetMobile App
I am in the same position as you. I have requested a refund from Travel Trolley as advised by Jet Airways but they do not reply. Have you had any success?
The jet airways web site has a form to submit reimbursement if you booked on their web site. If you booked through a travel agent/web site you need to contact them for refund. https://www.jetairways.com/en/in/disruption-assistance.aspx
I have travel on Jet in late April … Premier, from AMS to DEL. The Paris, London and Amsterdam flights so far seem unaffected, but it’s such an uncertain and fluid situation … Mine is a Delta issued ticket. I think that means that if the flight is cancelled it’s Delta’s responsibility to find an alternative. I should just call DL and see what they say, though I suspect they can’t say much about a future uncertain possibility!
@Gaurav, I don’t think there is a problem for you. there is KLM also on the same route and if your flight cancels, you get transferred to KLM, which is also a good product on the 787
Hi Gaurav , mine was the on the 3rd of march to Amsterdam from Delhi which got cancelled on the 13th hour wherein I had to buy a new ticket at a bomb at the last minute . And now both jetairways and makemytrip is not returning my money for the cancelled flight .
Sorry to hear that Ronjoy.
Ajay – that’s what I’m hoping. I’m going to see if DL will let me rebook without penalty right now …
@Gaurav S, they won’t change it now unless you are an elite. So, you have to wait till the flight is cancelled and then you would be reaccomodated.
Apparently not even if one is an elite! I’m a Platinum Medallion on DL and called the Elite line and was told they had no waivers or bulletins about the 9W situation, and to keep monitoring, and I’d be accommodated if the flight was cancelled.
However, the following message showed up on a FlyerTalk thread earlier today …
“i had a delta ticket for travel from india – us & back for next week, with a couple of flight being operated by 9w….i called delta last night to ask them if i could switch the 9w flights to another skyteam carrier….they said they were aware of the 9w situation & were no longer selling tickets on flights operated by 9w….they managed to switch over the 9w flights to af & az without any penalties….
i would suggest all those who are schedule to fly 9w on delta ticketed flights, to call delta & see if they can change your flights to another carrier….”
The poster is also a DL Elite (DM) …
Seems like everyone at DL customer service doesn’t have the same information … I’m going to be sending a message to their Twitter team.
Hi, which travel insurance will cover the flight cancellation by jet
I have booked return flight from Mumbai to London for 23 May and 12 June respectively. Now I am seriously worried. Please suggest forward path.
I have a MUMBAI Paris MUMBAI flight of jet airways managed by air France.
Now I m worried, will this route be functional?
If they cancel it, what are options available with me? Plz guide
I booked return flight from Dubai to Delhi for the month of May 2019 two weeks earlier, but now worries, please suggest what I need to do.
Hi Ajay, which travel insurance will cover the flight cancellation by jet?
Same query here. Is there a policy that will pay for my new ticket in case Jet stops flying?
I have provided the details for alternate flights // refunds on disruption portal a couple of times but haven’t heard back from them even a single time.
If this is an award ticket, I would recommend that you email jpredemptions@jetprivilege.com. It worked for me rather than being put on hold of 1.5+ hours. They refunded the miles & taxes and confirmed the same via email within 48 hours.
For revenue tickets, I guess you are left with no option but to either fill out the online form or call them or visit the ticketing office (if you can). I was receiving response on twitter until last week. Since a week the social media team has gone silent too (at least they are not responding to my DMs).
Hi Manish the email id you have written is not recognised , can you check the same and let me know ?
best
Ronjoy
Hi Ronjoy
The email ID was working fine until yesterday. Not sure if things have changed today.
Thanks Manish , will try to send in once more.
They are not re accommodating these stranded passengers on other flights they are not even providing full refunds.Ethically, They should take complete responsibility to get passenger to final destination, its not the customer who is going to look at the partner airline and tell them how to book.its the airlines job to do that and thats the best practise around the world with other airlines to deal with cancelled flights.
Doesn’t Jet Airways need to provide compensation to passengers as per DGCA norms? Do they provide compensation?
Please advise on what is to be done with all our remaining JP miles. It would be much appreciated.
Received a email from jetprevilage:
We thank you for being part of our growing JetPrivilege family which stands strong at 9.8 million members. As our airline partner, Jet Airways, navigates through these turbulent times, we understand that you may have concerns around the value and validity of your JPMiles.
We, at Jet Privilege Pvt. Ltd., as part of the Etihad Aviation Group, want to reassure you that your JPMiles are secure and their value remains intact. We know that you have earned and nurtured your JPMiles over the years and we consider it our foremost duty to safeguard the trust you and our partners have placed in us.
Its really sad to see all this happening. The staff however has been really accommodating despite the disruptions. I took a few flights in the week before 18th March on AMD-BOM-AMD route. And the ground staff always greeted with smile. Their flights were always overbooked and they would upgrade us most of the times. They really spoiled us as a reward for the loyalty over the years. Unfortunately they have come down to 1 flight a day from 5 flights a day on this route post 18th March, and so now we have to switch to other airlines. I really wish they overcome this distruptive period soon. I understand from what you have written earlier and other news articles that it sort of now needs a miracle. But I pray that this miracle really happens.