As airfare war esclates and passengers rush in to take advantage of the low prices, booking flights 3-6 months in advance, how much do we all know about our rights as Air passengers. Airlines will surely try every trick in the book to deny you your right, and obviously many are unaware of them and hence falling into the trap of the airline who never pay a single penny for cancelled flights and merely reschedule us to next day flights.
Having taken advantage of one such scheme, I booked my Mangalore-Mumbai-Guwahati return ticket for Rs 14400 on Jet Airways. I would start my journey by a morning flight from Mangalore on a Saturday, then catch a noon flight to Kolkata and from thereon, take an evening flight to Guwahati, reaching there at late evening all on the same day.
The first indication of a flight delay was when I was unable to web check-in on Friday. At around 5pm, I received a call from Jet Airways Mangalore Airport office stating that my Mumbai flight was delayed by more than 2 hours, which would mean that I would then miss the Guwahati flight and would have to travel Guwahati on Sunday. Alternatively, I could take a late evening flight on Friday and then take an early morning flight to Guwahati from Bangalore on Saturday early morning. What was clear that I had to either stay in Bangalore on Friday night or stay in Kolkata on Saturday night. I asked who would take care of my stay for a night at Kolkata or Bangalore as it was Jet Airways who is changing my schedule. That's not our responsibility, our job is to inform you before 3 hours, you can take it or leave it. You can take back you money which is another option, he informed me. This is what DGCA rules are he further told me when I said this is not what DGCA rules say. You won’t even get a penny as compensation or any stay facility from Jet Airways, come today or tomorrow, he reconfirmed to me. I promptly told him I would call back in half hour as my fellow traveller was still at work.
Made a choice to take the Bangalore route as it would mean that I would reach Guwahati much before what my actual plan was. Braced myself for a Rs 4000 hit for hotel and taxi, no doubt which I would then recover by filing a case against Jet. Called up my fellow traveller, who incidentally was still work place, to get ready today and get me a copy of DGCA Know your Rights page and reach airport at 7.30PM.
After collecting my tickets, the first thing I did was to head to the airport manager. This person in DGCA representative and has a complaint book where one can file their complaints, I was informed that I opt for the email route which would be treated on a priority basis. Moved on and collected my boarding pass and asked for the Jet Airways In-charge at Mangalore Airport.
Must say he was a much sane person. He duly apologised for his staff’s behaviour on phone. He said he was well versed with DGCA rules. I asked him to arrange for our dinner and hotel stay at Bangalore failing which I shall duly file a complaint to the email id of the Airport Manager. He came back to us after few minutes stating hotels were not available and instead offered us a compensation of Rs 3000 each for the inconvenience caused due to change in schedule.
My fight was for not for the amount of compensation. Think of the tickets being booked for your family with kids or senior citizen, what would they do if left stranded at Bangalore or Kolkata Airport for no fault of theirs. Until we fight for our rights, Airlines will surely take us for a ride.
We would be rendering a great service, if we take time to read it and then pass on to our friends as well, so that everyone is aware of their rights.
