With the entire CoronaVirus related situation, a lot of travellers are stuck. And a lot of the money of travellers is stuck as well. While we are trying our best to help as many people as we can personally, information is coming from all sorts of places and we are hardly being able to keep track now. I literally have my Twitter and Instagram overflowing with requests to advise people.
I know this is a hard time to be in, and this is a tough situation for all affected parties. Customers could use their money elsewhere right now in more essential requirements. Airlines, including those with cash, have stopped refunds. They are using some of the money to pay their employees during the times of grounding. Online Travel Agents, which in India are one of the biggest sources of travel bookings, are crushed in the middle as they don’t have staff like a usual day at work, and their own money is stuck with the airlines as deposits. So, when airlines don’t approve a refund or send it to an OTA, they are unable to send it to the customer.
Hotels have been in a slightly better position, offering refunds even on non-refundable bookings, at least the chains have.
My own situation
Personally, I had a situation where I was just coming off a busy bout of travel in February and March 2020 when the pandemic struck. We had not booked any travel April 2020 onwards, given we were still awaiting holiday notifications for the year ahead and how Shipra and my own availability would look like. So much so that we did not even have any award bookings. The only thing booked was a trip on the Good Friday weekend to Jaipur, which we had confirmed in January 2020.
The ticket was booked on GoAir. Vistara does not fly out of Mumbai to Jaipur, and GoAir was an early morning departure giving us more time on the ground in Jaipur. When the grounding of air travel was announced till April 14, 2020, our flights were cancelled. Even though the tickets were booked on Yatra (Smartbuy), I obviously first had to convince GoAir. I reached out to GoAir on their website, and the only way to connect with them was on a chat. I managed to convince the agent somehow that I would need a refund and not a credit voucher. Trust me, there was the same conversation going on for 30 minutes until the agent approved a refund.
Anyhow, the ticket was booked for an amount of INR 7154, and Yatra approved a refund of INR 6984. Further, a slightly lower amount to the tune of INR 6,700 or so showed up on the credit card. I am not sure what exactly happened, but Yatra informed me a full refund was processed. I may or may not chase them further to understand where the rest of the money vanished depending on the time at hand.
Tell us your situation
The intent of this post is to crowdsource the entire approach. Last year April (unfortunately, April again), we were sitting here, putting the pieces together on how to get refunds from an airline or another travel brand such as a hotel. I’d request you to make your post here with as much detail, but don’t include your PNR or unique booking IDs at all. I would trust the combined brains of the entire LFAL community to come together to help you and give suggestions as well as to how to help people who could do with some help.
Put out your details in the comments section below.
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I had booked on Yatra for travel during April May 2020 period ,now Yatra is refunding partially and there is no on i can call for support . I paid 57000 they are refunding Rs 9400 .
My money is also stuck as I have booked flight from Mumbai to Zurich on 16 May 2020 on Emirates airlines and from Rome to Mumbai on 27 May 2020 on Turkish airlines. Now both airlines are offering only open tickets and no refund. I booked the Emirates ticket through make my trip which says they are trying to get refund and will intimate me accordingly. But the Yatra.com through which I booked turkish airlines flight are not helping in any way.
Hi Ajay,
Thank you for helping all the fellow travellers.
I had quite a few bookings that are stuck now.
International Flight – Booked on Etihad through Intermiles in January 2020 for travel on 16 June/23 June from Ahmedabad to Frankfurt. The booking was for 2 passengers. Etihad proactively announced they were offering free date change or credit shell option for a year for all bookings till 30th June (now 31st July). Since the event I was scheduled to attend had already cancelled and rescheduled for April 2021, I wanted to cancel my ticket. Approached Etihad over twitter, they told me about both options but had to be routed through Intermiles as the booking was through them. Lot of emails back and forth with Intermiles, twitter messages and calls later they just told me the booking was non refundable and they could just reschedule to another date. April 2021 bookings havent been started by the airline as yet. So rescheduling was not possible and I requested for a credit shell, which they say they will check and let me know later. A total communication of about 6 weeks but still no refund/credit shell.
International Hotel – Courtyard Cologne hotel booked for June 2020. It was a refundable booking. Although the hotel charged me for 1 night of the stay on my card somewhere in February. I called up Marriott support number and requested for refund. Couple of days later hotel emailed that they had processed the refund. Its been a month now but still refund doesnt reflect on my card. I even sent followup emails for refund transaction confirmations but got an automated email response saying hotel is under operational restrictions due to government directions and they would respond as soon as they are functional again.
Domestic Flight – Booked Spicejet on 6th March for AMD-JAI for travel 27th April for 3 passengers. This was booked through smart buy using points. Credit shell will not be helpful as all 3 of them travelling together again with the same airline may or may not be possible.
Hi ,
I need to appreciate your efforts in bringing up important issues like this as there are many travellers who had to forcefully cancel their trip due to the lockdown.This disappointment they could digest given the extraordinary situation which we are all facing. But having got blocked so much money with the travel agents/OTA or Airlines is like sprinkling salt on the wound. So I am having similar bad experience as most of my friend who have raised to you.
I booked two tickets from Hyd to Chicago in Etihad in the last week of Jan’20 for a scheduled travel on 09th Apr’20. I have booked through HDFC Diners concierge which had booked the tickets via Cleartrip. Due to prevailing Covid 19 situation as the lockdown had started in Mar’20 and is still continuing, we were not able to travel. Post cancellation of tickets by the Airline, primarily Etihad wanted to route it through the travel agent and as we all understand everyone is so worked up that there are expected delays from banks etc. Post writing multiple emails, I finally got the tickets cancelled and I told HDFC Diners to place a full refund request for which the Airline had reverted to them(as responded by HDFC Smartbuy Team) is that they will not give full refund and it will be governed by the rules.But I insisted for full refund as I am no more expecting to travel in the near future due to Covid 19. Therefore I approached Etihad on Twitter and I had explained the situation to them as well but they were very diplomatic in their answer and had routed me to the travel agent only and told me that the whatever were are the refund rules it would be prevailed. Though they told me that the amount will be retained for future use and i was surprised to know when the Airline executive told me that the refunds are controlled by the travel agent only. So I dont have a solution for this since around 93K INR got blocked which could otherwise have been used by me.
I had also raised a request to our Civil Aviation Minister Mr.Singh to bring about a circular as they have brought a similar one for Full Refund for all the bookings done during Covid 19 period. I dont understand in what way our situation is different wherein the travellers irrespective of their booking date couldnt travel due to complete lockdown. I dont know why DGCA had not issued any circular for people like us. I dont know why Etihad is behaving in such a way where its clearly understood that we couldnt travel due to unforeseen situation and a Govt of India lockdown.
Kindly advise on my situation. Also I was going through another article of yours wherein raising credit card dispute was also discussed. How do I go about it.Thank you.
Hi Ajay! Thank you for doing this!
I had booked a Mumbai-Dubai- Paris flight for 14 Apr 20 with Emirates Airlines via GoIbibo in Dec 19. The return was via the same leg Paris- Dubai- Mumbai on 23 Apr again via Emirates. All tickets were on a single PNR and were refundable. I paid ~ ₹46k for the complete ticket. In mid March I got an email from Emirates that my flights had been cancelled by the airline. I waited for two weeks but the status on goibibo did not chow any change and in the first week of April, I had to manually cancel the ticket on the app citing ‘Flight canceled by the airline’ Since then I haven’t got any refund inspite of my ticket being refundable. Get goibibo app says ‘refund in progress’ and they even sent an email to not contact them as they are handling the refund but it’s been over 3 weeks and I haven’t been apprised in any movement on this front. Please help. Thank you very much. Regards.
Hi Ajay,
Booked with Emirates through their website BOM-JFK and return MCO-BOM, Emirates cancelled both the flights on the 25 March applied for a refund through their online form, till now only reply is under process ” delays Due to the current Covid-19 situation.” So still waiting. USA Domestic booked through smartbuy paid 70% on points ( I follow LFAL),on Delta ( EWR-DTW & DTW-MEM) in my hurry did not wait for them to cancel the flight, which did happen, by then i had already been issued a voucher which is now extended for use till September 2022 so no refund. 3rd Was MEM-MCO on Southwest ( Booked directly on Southwest Website) they cancelled the flight and put me on a alternate flight, on making a call and not accepting the alternate flight was issued a full refund which came in 3 days. No fuss.
Knowing the difficult situation airlines are in would have accepted vouchers but past experiences with an Indian airline,made me prefer a refund.
Gautam
Cleartrip is not responding about refund and indigo also saying credit shell can only be used through cleartrip agent I will go legal if my amount is not refunded as per government announcement
Same happened here also. I had booked tickets on IndiGo Airlines for 21 Apr 20 from Visakhapatnam to Lucknow. However, flight got cancelled view ongoing lockdown and now they are telling that money is in credit shell. However, balance in credit shell is shown as Zero. On enquiry on live chat they are telling that money has gone to my booking agent ‘Clear trip’.
As a matter of fact that I had booked tickets using my own and on my own mobile Indigo app.
Refund is not clear and biggest question is that where is the money. Who is ‘Clear trip’. Some fake id created by Airline itself.
I had booked a Go Air flight ticket from Hyderabad to Lucknow for 18 Mar 2020. The flight was cancelled by Go air and I was told that my air fare will be refunded in total. Point to note is that this happened even before the lockdown has started.
The refund of the ticket has not been given by Go Air even after more than a month of cancelling the flight. All Go Air numbers starting from their headquarters at Mumbai to all other numbers are not answering.
After cancellation of flight at eleventh hour by Go Air, I had to book another ticket through different airline paying exhorbitant rates.
Now there must be some mechanism through which I firstly should be refunded my air fare with intrest earliest and secondly Go Air must also compensate me for the exorbitant rates I had to pay to book another flight.
Go Air by not refunding is resorting to cheating and malpractices for which it should be held responsible. If the airline is looking because of pandemic and lockdown, so are the other innocent customers. Moreover this case is of the period before the lockdown for which airline is responsible.
Hi,
We had booked our 6*6 tickets for Mum-Bangalore-Mum tickets through spicejet for Mum-Bangalore for 09April2020 and returned flight through AirAsia Bangalore-Mumbai for 14April2020 and voluntarily cancelled our booking before lockdown announcement on 20March due to coronavirus pandemic. However as we have cancelled our tickets before lockdown airlines refused and are not ready to give us refunds or facility of credit shell.
Please help us as we have spent our 29,000 rupees.
Hello,
I had an AirAsia flight (I5 543, BLR- CCU) with journey date on April 21stApril 2020, Booked through Make my trip. Their mobile app says only a message that Air Asia will give credit account for 365 days, due to covid-19 lock down. But not get any point or message on AirAsia app directly, though i became their big member.
AirAsia’s automated chatbot said we can’t help for those booked from travel agents. I was ok with a credit account also, but even that was refused by the bot.
I finally found a Google Form on AirAsia’s site that needed to be filled for refunds. I filled that, and it has been almost 7 days now, and have got no response
I have 3 tickets of myself and family on Malindo airways.Flights booked DEL-KUL-DEL. The DEL-KUL flight was for 17th May 2020 and KUL-DEL flight was for 27th May 2020. I booked with smartly-cleartrip. But currently no reply coming from smartbuy or cleartrip about these cancellation or refund.
I got email that these flights currently stand cancelled. I emailed the airline for refund. And this is what i got :
With reference to your mail we would like to inform you that refund is permitted in terms of voucher only. Kindly check below terms and conditions of the voucher.
Kindly give us Go Ahead accordingly.
a.) Redemption of Voucher must be within 06 months of the voucher date.
b.) Travel date is based on seat inventory range of 11 months ahead of redemption date.
Terms & Conditions of Voucher
1. The voucher is valid only on the name said as above and is non-transferable.
2. The Voucher is valid for Six (06) months as stated above date and if the full amount is not utilized within the period, the amount is forfeited.
3. Passengers must use the voucher within 06 months, however passengers may book advance flight.
4. The voucher can be availed to purchase any of the flights operated by MALINDO Air Network.
5. If the value of the new ticket is higher than the value of the voucher, the difference shall be paid by the passenger
6. If the value of the new ticket is lower than the value of the voucher, the balance shall be transferred to a new voucher.
7. This voucher cannot be used to redeem cash or exchange to other currencies.
Now i am not interested in the voucher. Can you suggest what can be done.
Hi guys,
I have two bookings that i need help with:
1) First booking is a return flight booking from Bombay to Chandigarh and back for my wife and i dated 24th and 30th April respectively using MakeMyTrip on Vistara. Total cost was approximately 30k. This booking was made in end January of this year.
I have got an email from Vistara stating “we are saving your seat”. Does this imply that i can reuse this credit shell only for the same sector and/or for the same passangers.
2) Second booking is a one way ticket from Chandigarh to Kullu for my wife and i dated 25th April using MakeMyTrip on Air India. Total cost approximately 15k. This booking too was made in end January of this year.
I have received no intimation whatsoever from Air india!
Any verified solutions would be of great help!
Thanks in advance
I had booked tickets in February for 4 pax with 3 different airlines for travel in April and May. All direct through the airline websites.
1) MAA-CMB-JED 19/04 in SriLankan
Sometime in last week of Feb UL contacted me saying their CMB-JED flight has been cancelled and I can apply for full refund through their website. I applied for the refund on 12/03. They replied on 24/03 that they have processed the refund and I should get it in 18 bank working days calculated from 12/03. Till today the refund is not received by my credit card issuing bank. I have spoken to their Indian call centre as well as SriLankan call centre reached out to them on Twitter and sent emails to their online refund department. All give same response that due to COVID19 refunds are delayed and I should get it by month end. I don’t mind waiting but I had not paid my credit card since I applied for refund well ahead of my due date hoping the refund will come. But since it did not come my credit card has levied finance charges.
2) JED-DXB 03/05 Flynas
I reached out to them by email in early March they replied saying not giving full refunds and the standard conditions apply where the tickets can be cancelled and the balance amount after charges will be in a credit shell to be used within a year. Though Umrah visa were suspended by then still this airline had not updated their policy. 2 days back they sent an email saying that all their flights are cancelled until further notice and I can cancel the booking online without penalties and create a credit shell. But when I checked their website the cancellation option still shows penalties. They do not have an Indian call centre. I am waiting as there is still about 10 days until day of original travel and they might update the error in their website and I can apply for full refund though only as a credit shell.
My issue is if they hold my money in a credit shell to be used within a year it is of no use to me as I do not have plans to travel in future.
Meanwhile I contacted Amex through which I had paid for these tickets, I requested them to dispute the charges as due to a Pandemic the airline should refund the money instead of holding in a credit shell. Amex wanted some documents which I have submitted they are disputing the charge and have given a temporary credit for the amount to my credit card until a resolution is achieved.
3) DXB-BOM-MAA 16/05 Air Vistara.
I contacted the call centre on 18/03. The helpful agent asked me whether I am cancelling my tickets due to COVID19!!! I replied Yes. She said they will process a full refund. I got the refund after 3 days to my credit card. Though they had deducted around 2k. I did not pursue to check why these charges were deducted. I was just happy that I got the money back.
I have booked GoAir flights Delhi>Leh, Leh>Delhi, and Delhi>Bangalore for a family vacation for 3 members.
Now Go Air is nit allowing any cancellations and only allowing rescheduling flights for the same sector till February 2021.
As the situation does not seem to be getting better any time soon and we can not visit Leh in winters, I am not left with any other option than to loose INR50000+ that I have paid for these bookings.
A couple of hotels in Leh have also refused refund.
Total loss of nearly INR70000.
Please help.
I had book two tickets bangalone to Mumbai through goibibo for 11th April n two tickets from ahmedabad to bangalore through make my trip for 15th April due to lock down I claimed for refund since it was business trip but no response from these companies nor airasia airlines people… I am worried abt my refund amt because we r not able to contact anyone of them
Hi Ajay,
Booked a round trip group booking from MAA to DED in indigo for 17 of our family members for a pilgrimage. Paid ₹62k as advance amount but thankfully not paid the remaining amount which is close to ₹180k. Checked with indigo on the possibility of refund but they offered me the credit shell with stringent T&C’s:
1. I can use the amount only for group booking and cannot use this for individual bookings
2. I have to use this credit shell before 30th September 2020.
We don’t have any plans with my family members. I am not sure what to do now;(
I was booked to Singapore at this place called Llyods Inn. When the SG govt announced a mandatory quarantine, i decided to cancel my trip. The airline wasn’t a concern as Cathay Pacific allowd for complete flexibility. But the hotel charged me the entire amount. Despite having spoken to them over phone, the one line response provided was-‘This is our policy’
I booked my flight via makemytrip. The airlines is etihad and the trip was from Hyderabad via Abu dhabi ti Toronto on 17th April 2020.
I had cancelled my booking on April 3rd and requested for a credit voucher.
It is April 23rd now and I had decided to claim refund and not avail any credit voucher.
I am only able to reach out to etihad who are telling me to contact makemytrip.
I have written many emails and called the customer care too many times. I just cannot reach out to them.
I have even marked deep kalra (CEO of make my trip) and dgca in the emails.
I am extremely concerned about the huge sum of money that I paid for the ticket.
This is earth shattering. I just do not understand how to resolve this issue.
I initially booked a Go Airlines Ticket (though Makemytrip) from Delhi to Patna on traveling date 23rd march 2020 flight Depatrure time 17:55 , due to announcement of lockdown of Delhi I reached airport at 1:00 AM on 23rd , There I was informed that the flight was cancelled by airlines, So i contacted Go Air ticket counter for the same and i was informed that the amount will be refunded to merchant, as being informed that I Inquired for operational flights and availability according to that I asked one of my friend to book the ticket online for the informed flight of Go air from Their website , while booking my friend also tried to redeem the above mentioned PNR(as option available on goair site) but was not found to be available ,
next ticked was booked in Go airlines Delhi – Patna 23rd march 2020 departs at 11:30 A.M
but now the merchant(Makemytrip) informed that go air has not provided refund and will have to contact goair customer care for same
At that time i was informed for refund and even on contacting customer care i would get refund but no refund is processed till date. Even go air customer care disconnects call over enquiring the same
Dear sir,
At least the GoAir could send me a line of confirmation that the refund money because of cancellation of flight G8-110, on 27 April from Lucknow to Ahmedabad will remain in a credit shell for one year.
Their silence is perplexing. All my efforts to reach them through their call centre, help line, email, facebook page went futile.
Sharad Verma
Booked MAA-KUL-MNL and MNL-KUL on AirAsia website for travel dates 16 February & 30 February respectively. Tried cancelling on AirAsia, the only option to communicate is their chatbot AVA which offered a refund of airport tax only. Been over 2 months and I’m still waiting for that refund to be processed.
Booked BLR-KUL and KUL-DEL-AMD on Indigo through Ixigo for travel dates 15 March and 30 March respectively. Ixigo offered a full refund for both the bookings and the refund was processed by Indigo within 2-3 working days. However, ixigo took about 20 days to process the refund, they didn’t refund the convenience fee of INR 649 per ticket and I had to call them over 100 times and email about 8 times to get the refund processed. Pathetic service from ixigo, never expected this.
Never booking with Ixigo again.
1st March instead of 30th Feb.
This stay home and work from home has got my brain screwed up with calendar lol
I booked a ticket for international flight from Mumbai to Istanbul and back via Delhi. The flights were booked somewhere in Jan on Make My Trip and Covid wasn’t much of an issue in rest of the world. The tickets consists of 11 passengers so had to book two seperately. One ticket consists of a family of four and another has two families of 4+3. The flights are Mum-del-Istanbul flight change from Indigo to Turkish at Delhi (code share). Return flights Istanbul-Del-Mumbai operated by Indigo fully but flight change at Delhi.
The travel was in May, flights partially refundable ( airline deducting 24000 per ticket per passenger) surprisingly indigo was deducting 12000 for same flights as we later found out.
We were too late in deciding to cancel because the ban was only til mid April. Now that the ban is extended, we can’t get our visas. Also if we go to Istanbul,which is a hot spot, we will be quarantined when we are back and may be when we land at Istanbul. So the trip is of no use. But most interestingly, Turkish airline is not flying international till 20th May . Our Turkish flight was on 16 th may . So as per standard refund rules, we should be able to cancel the entire ticket and get full refund.
If we get credit shell , we will not be able to plan a perfect period to come together to undertake same journey/or any journey together ,in near future or even 2-3 years. So we cannot afford credit shell .
We stand to lose about 4.25 lacs in this deal.
What should we do. The flight dates are 16th May and return 26th May.
I booked a flight of Go air
And the airline cancelled itself
After i came to know airline cancelled the flight without any information.
So i choose to cancel the flight .
So that some money will come and again i will book some other flights but no refund not even a single rupee
Goair flight from BLR to CCU date of journey 23/03/2020
I cancelled my Airindia ticket PNR N5C3SS at their call centre on 18 January which was booked on 01 January at same call centre. My various calls and emails were not cared.
Hi..
I’m Pranisha Thakuri ,I am a 1st year nursing student studying in Bangalore .I have booked 4 tickets for me and my friends from Bangalore to bagdogra for 28th March on Indigo airlines and suddenly because worldwide pandemic the transportation got stopped so ,we haven’t received refund of money instead they gave us a refund for next flight booking .We are the students and we are stucked here in Bangalore due to lockdown and we need money.so if airlines could refund our money back then it will help us ..
Always buy Airlines ticket directly from there website.
Hi I supposed to book ticket from Raipur to Ahmedabad but by mistake I booked ticket from Ahmedabad to Raipur for the date 22nd March from Indigo Airline, through Yatra.com.
Then I called Indigo and asked them to cancellation and rescheduling they agreed and asked me to book another ticket from Raipur to Ahmedabad and share them the PNR. I did the same thing and Indigo customer care guy insurured me that I would be getting full refund of 12220 INR.
Following are the details of the cancelled ticket
Details are as follows.
reference number- 160303953838
Yatra reference number YT39556732.
BOOKING DATE 16th march
Flight from Ahmedabad to Raipur Journey date 22 March 2020
PNR is ZEYB9L
Indigo team has already cancelled this and refunded the amount to Yatra.com now I am tired of following up with Yatra and they have not refunded the amount. It is already 30 days passed. Pls help
I had planned a vacation to Europe from last week of April 2020 to 1st week of May 2020 for my family of 5. The ticket was from Bangalore to Paris and return from Rome to Bangalore. The tickets cost me Rs 2 lakh in total. It is an AirIndia flight booked through easemytrip. Now for my onward journey which falls in the lockdown period the flight is cancelled. I first called AirIndia asking them for my refund, to my shock they told me that my PNR had already been cancelled by 3rd party that is easemytrip and I should contact them for details. When I chateed with easemytrip they told me that my ticket is still active and I could go to their website and reschedule without any reschedule charge or cancel with cancellation charge if airline allow. I then decided to cancel my ticket taking so I cancelled the ticket from easemytrip. To this I received a response saying that my cancellation request is rejected as airline refused to cancel and in the mail they sent me a link where I could reschedule along with a note that if the link does not work I should contact airline. When I clicked on the link nothing worked and when I call airline they tell me that my PNR is cancelled by easemytrip so nothing can be done. Now I am stuck in no man’s land with no idea of what happened to my ticket and money.
Hi I’m umarani
Pla help my tickets refund amount
18.03.2020 Ranchi to mumbai my pnr no: YEH5JX
G8-2503
Goair flight cancelled for covid
Airline inform fully amount REFUND but not my account
Hi,
I recently booked a flight with AirAsia Airlines but due to COVID-19 i changed my schedule flight from 22nd March 2020 to 29th March 2020.
The flight is schedule from Paytm app which is a third party travel partner. But rescheduling flight to 29th March is done directly on Airasia website. Before flight running day DGCA cancel all the flights due to COVID-19.
I post several tickets to Paytm and Air Asia about the same but there was no response.
Airasia customer care experience is wrost.
They took 40 minutes to pick our call and according to Telecom Authority of India, voice call will disconnect after exact 45minutes.
I don’t know what to do.
Paytm is also not taking any responsibly and they only give me a single revert that you might cancelled your flight or in case you didnt travel please claim your airline tax from airport in your next travel.
They are just sitting there to make fool of us.
Hey Travel partners or airlines, its my money and i know how to take my money back.
I will file a case against you.
Hi,
I have booked tkts for 25th April and return of 27th April, now they are providing of shell amount, why would I accept it if they raise the prices next time and it’s against the rule, if we had to cancel even because of severe reasons they will never refund the amount on cancellation and have almost deducted the money…if they are struggling so are we, I want my complete refund else they should change the rules both the ways.
I hope the Supreme Court will take some legal steps in this refund issues, because the Private Airlines are ignoring the Circular published by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and doing as their wish blocking the customers money. When the customers are asking for refund to Private Airlines they are sending e – mails saying they want be able to provide with the refund but only the credit shell which is just illegal as the terms and conditions of cancellation policy.I don’t think that the Private Airlines have the right to block the cash of the customers who were not able to travel due to Lockdown issue ordered by the Central Government. A strict action must be taken soon by the Supreme court in this case.
Hii
My name is Atul chib n booked my ticket from Chennai to Delhi for 15th April 2020 and flight was cancelled. They gave that whole 7032 as a shell amount which is of no use as i’m not a frequent flyer. I’m a student and 7k is really a lots of money. I tried to contact to spicejet twice but they refused to refused to refund the amount, even though govt has ordered the airlines to refund.
Flight from Delhi to Mumbai on Air Asia for the 25th March 2020 have been following up with Air Asia as well as Ease my Trip but to no avail. Please connect on 9820940096
Message to GoAir With all due RESPECT this is a request to u to help me & my family at this critical situation that we all are battling Will be highly obliged if u could refund my full amount of booking of PNR H24P7L on priority basis as my Mother is suffering from Lung Cancer & we had planned the journey to Vaishno Devi to just pray for her healthAs i have decided to drop to take on this journey 1st for safety & most important I need this fund to treat her every month for Chemo cycles as u know we all are struggling to just fulfill our basic needsFor further clarification iam attaching all medical proof with the ticket detailsLooking forward for a positive response
But there was no response instead I feel v should not beg v should take them legally & sue when they dont understand emergency cases also
Raj Lalwani
9370091917
I have booked a flight of jet airways from cochin to imphal on 22 March 2020 but flight cancelled. I have booked flight ticket of Air India on March 31 2020 but flight has been canceled. I have booked a flight of Air Asia from guwahati to imphal on 25 March 2020 but flight has been cancelled due to the lock down. Lots of money has been lost. No any flight has been refund I wrote so many emails to all the booking airlines but not responding. I need assistance.
I have booked Ahmedabad to Bombay ticket on dt 12-3-2020 for traveling on dt 22-4-2020 in goair flight.
I have not received any refund message regarding refund from Goair.
My flight to Egypt was cancelled and could not get a refund they gave me travel credit instead and only two months to book a flight .
Austria airlines I’m not sure if I can even use this trip in two months now.
Thank you for this initiative. If we, as consumers can band together and be noticed, I’m sure it will motivate the airlines to honour their conditions of carriage and issue refunds for flights that are not operating.
I had a lot of travel planned for Mar, Apr and May 2020. My experiences in claiming refunds are as follows:
1. Singapore and Siem Reap in March on SQ: BOM-SIN-BOM was a Krisflyer redemption and SIN-REP-SIN was a cash ticket. In this case, although it did take some time to speak to someone at SQ, once I did, they promptly agreed to refund the cash fare and fees for redemption bookings, as well as redeposit miles without fees. So far I have received back the refund for the SIN-REP-SIN cash ticket, and taxes and miles for BOM-SIN. I’m still waiting on SIN-BOM, but I’m told its in process and will happen very soon.
2. USA in Apr on BA/AA, purchased through AA.com: Cash ticket. I approached the AA office in Gurgaon after I received a cancellation notification where they informed me I was eligible for a full refund and promptly directed me to the AA refund application portal. A couple days later I received a notification from AA that my refund was approved and that this should show up in my statement within 7 working days. It has now been 3 weeks, but I’m hopeful that this amount will be refunded. Prior to being assisted by AA reps in Gurgaon, I tried speaking to someone at AA in the US. I do not recommend this. They were really not helpful at all.
3. US Domestic: LGA-DCA-BHM. The flight I originally booked was cancelled, and the alternate flight’s departure time was more than 60 minutes before the original, which as per AA, makes me eligible for a full refund. I have applied for the refund and I am waiting to hear from them about this.
4. Europe in May on BA/IB (Avios redemption) and AI (Krisflyer redemption)
3 tickets booked using Avios: DEL-LHR, LHR-SVQ and AGP-MAD-ORY. As soon as I received flight cancellation notifications, I called the BA Executive Club number in Gurgaon, but was connected to their central contact center (in the UK?). After a lengthy hold, the rep who came on line very quickly assisted to redeposit Avios for all three itineraries and informed me that the refund for taxes and fees will take 28 working days, approx, due to a high number of requests. I am waiting on the refunds.
The return leg, CDG-DEL, a Krisflyer redemption in the end of May, still shows are operating as per AI. When it is inevitably cancelled, I’m confident that Krisflyer will assist to redeposit Miles and refund fees.
5. I booked a ticket booked for a business associate from the US to visit us in Apr. ORD-DEL-MAA on Air India. Purchased on AirIndia.com. This was interesting. On receipt of the notice of flight cancellation, I reached out to Air India in Delhi and was informed multiple times that if I request a refund, cancellation fees would apply as per fare rules. When I said the flight is canceled by the airline and not operating, and directed her to the conditions of carriage, the AI rep played dumb. Did not budge an inch. Finally I said I will have to escalate the issue. Subsequently, I have filed a Dispute Transaction with HDFC, and filed complaints on the Air Sewa portal: https://airsewa.gov.in/home as well as the US DOT Complaint Form: https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm. I’m hoping one of the three will yield a favourable result.
Update: 5. Air India. I submitted a Dispute Transaction request to HDFC Bank. This morning, I was amazed to receive a response that read, “We understand that your are expecting a refund from the aforesaid merchant establishment. In this regard, we would like to inform that travel companies / airlines have revised their refund policies in the form of Future Credit Vouchers (FCV), Wallet refunds, Credit Shells, etc. These modes of refund are beneficial for customers as these reduce cancellation penalties, handling fee etc from the travel companies/airlines and the transaction remains open for future utilization. Incase your still disputing the transactions , we would like inform you to contact the merchant directly and revert with recent dated refund proof from the merchant to take up the case with the concern merchant / merchant’s bank for resolution.”
So even the bank’s are taking up for the airlines and screwing their customers. Amazing times!
We had booked three tickets BLR- GOI (Spicejet -1)and GOI- BLR(AirAsia-2) via HappyEasyGo. The refund for 2 Air Asia tickets is yet to be received and the credit shell for Spicejet is unusable.
I have booked tickets for Qatar Airlines from Sacramento ( USA ) to Chennai for 1 people and Bangalore to Sacramento for 4 people in MArch 2020 in YATRA , but due to this COVID i have cancelled all 5 tickets on 14th March , but till now didnt get refund from Yatra, I came to know from Qatar Airlines that YAtra guys not yet requested refund from Qatar. Yatra guys are telling that COVID, Delay we have to 30 days over…but already 30 days over…still same copy paste message….what to do ?
I have a booked with spicejet in goibibo on 17 April from hyderabad to patna. Now they says i can book again with credit shell but i don’t know when i will be able to book again. So i want full refund.
I had an AirAsia flight (AMD-BLR) on April 12th. Booked through Flipkart flights. Flipkart said reach out to AirAsia directly.
AirAsia’s automated chatbot said we can’t help. I was ok with a credit account also, but even that was refused by the bot.
I finally found a Google Form on AirAsia’s site that needed to be filled for refunds. I filled that, and it has been almost 17 days now, and have got no response from them.
I have booked Chennai to Trivandrum in IndiGo Airlines in the lockdown days and got cancelled, I need my money back. Will I be able to travel on 04th May 2020???
@Nivediya you haven’t provided enough details on part one.
I had booked blr-delhi-blr (flights on may 11 and 17) on 10th feb on Indigo. (Smartbuy-yatra). Cancelled it on Mar 13th. Was charged Rs.6000 as cancellation fee and got an email saying refund amount is Rs. 6260. I’ve seen no sign of the refund money yet. Its been 40 days now!
Hi Ajay,
We had booked Hilton , Malta from 23 -25 th April , thru Smartbuy/Cleartrip thru points. For Rs. 33311. Now Hilton says they have not received any money from Cleartrip and Cleartrip is not reverting at all, we are going around in circles without a solution. Can you please help!
@sanjay send them a stinker on Twitter and perhaps tag their management.
I had two tickets in business for United airlines for April -May 2020 going from New Delhi to Buenos Aires.
The trip was Del-JFK, JFK-IAH, IAH-EZE and return they same way.
United Has since cancelled the IAH-EZE route.
So far all we have is a credit voucher which says if we don’t use it in a year we get a refund. However the DOT guidelines specify that if the airline cancels the route they have to give a refund.
Please let me know how we should approach getting a refund
@Gaurav Gupta, fill up this form https://www.united.com/en/us/refunds and send United a message that a complaint will be filed with DoT if your refund is not processed at the earliest.
Thanks ajay.
I had booked 4 tickets for BLR-DEL for April 11 through Smartbuy (Yatra) on Air India.
Yatra has asked me to call their customer care to book a flight for future travel anytime before 30th Sep.
I don’t think I will be flying anywhere before 30th Sep, so definitely need a refund.
My money is also stuck same way in shell. Can we call refund from that? Whatever reasonable cancellation fee they want to charge. Waiting for either appropriate government ruling or just customer service rush to be over since money is anyway in credit shell. Do you advise contacting now or after 3rd May will work?
@Ashish where have you provided all the details of your situation for anyone to help you?
Qatar Airways :Del- Paris
Travel Date: 6-11 March 2020
I applied a refund normally and was given 71% as refund. I also did apply for a full refund again. Yesterday I got a mail that entire refund has been initiated and would reflect in 28 days.
PS: Ive got the initial refund, have been check my Amex statement since yesterday 😛 to see if it has reflected.
Vistara Complimentary Flight Voucher
I have a flight voucher expiring on 28.04.2020, in constant mail exchange with Vistara but they are not ready to extend or provide a solution. Clearly they are cheating their customers and Im very furious with them.
If anyone has an update on the Vistara issue please reply to the same.
Regards !
Stay safe 🙂
Domestic:
Indigo BOM-IXR (April 2020)
Credit voucher route taken. No idea how we will be able to use that in the future.
International:
Emirates BOM-DXB (April 2020)
Have given the request for travel voucher on 1st April. No update on that at all. Had booked via OTA so OTA is not in a position to help.
Big lesson: Always book via Airline websites, despite the potential of discounts/loyalty/rewards. Would be a lot easier if I had done this.
I have 2 tickets with AI and UK, 1 with Indigo, Spicejet, and Air Asia each. All flights scheduled for April with the exception of I5 and SG flights on MAA-BLR and BLR-MAA route. Indigo issued me full refund since flight was cancellelled before lockdown. Since, AI and SG is giving an option for sector change, could possibly use them later. Vistara isn’t giving an option of sector change, and my plans for Mumbai on hold for the time being, my BOM-MAA ticket on Vistara will possibly be of no use for me now and thinking of requesting a chargeback.
I had booked my tickets with Jet Airways for Last April (2019) and even though my name appears in the “List of Creditors” I have no clue when we are going to get back our money. If anyone has any update or clue on refunds please let us know.
Thanks,
@Riyaz Ahmed. No update and not a connected issue.
I have four tickets with Air India and the first one which is my guide flying from Jaipur to Mumbai is not even showing so I can’t cancel, as this is for 2nd May. The other flights are for him and me from Mumbai to Nagpur on 4th May and then him from Mumbai to Jaipur at the end of the month. I also have flights which cost about £275 with SpiceJet from Jabalpur to Mumbai towards the end of May. I am getting nowhere fast trying to contact either airline. I am waiting a bit longer for SpiceJet but I have been trying to get through to Air India for over a month n ow.