Air Costa — Airline cheating customers by booking tickets on closed sector

Address:	520008
Website:	www.aircosta.in

Aircosta operations were shut for more than 2 months on flight LB635 JAI to MAA but still airlines continued to sell tickets online and then sent flight xxln msgs to passangers only 1 week prior to departure date stating limitation of no other option on other flights hence giving complete refund which will only be posted post call out to customers and they verbally saying that they are OK with this cancellation.
After writing to the airline below are few trail mails and final revert from airline for compensation asked for INR 1, 00, 000 for entire agony & mental stress for the travel xxln at the last minute.


From: Feedback
To: Neha.[protected]@hdfcbank.com,
Cc: [protected]@aircosta.in, [protected]@aircosta.in
Date: 02/19/2016 05:51 PM
Subject: Re: Flight xxln & no onus of airlines in refund or adjustment of passengers LB635


Dear Ms. Neha,
At the outset we regret the inconvenience caused to your good self due to cancellation of our flight LB635 from Jaipur to Chennai on 28.02.2016. Nonetheless, your allegation that Air Costa is cheating its passengers is unfounded and not factual. Whereas, we agree that we have not operated Jaipur- Chennai sector for some time, as we were short of an aircraft in our fleet, we very positively expected one aircraft to join our fleet so as to enable us to operate this sector and started bookings. However, due to conditions beyond control of airline induction of said aircraft in our fleet got delayed, resulting in flight cancellations.
Madam in given context, we would like to draw your attention to extant guidelines of Director General of Civil Aviation ( Civil Aviation Requirements Section 3- Air Transport, Series 'M' Part IV, Issue I, Dated 6th August, 2010 effective 15.8.2010).
Clause 1.4 of aforesaid guidelines states
The operating airline would not have the obligation to pay compensation in cases where the cancellations and delays have been caused by event(s) of force majeure i.e. extraordinary circumstance(s) beyond the control of the airline, the impact of which lead to the cancellation/ delay of flight(s)...
This DGCA guideline is also reflected under clause 10.2 of our conditions of carriage, which is binding on a passenger booking our flight, and which states

At any time after a Booking has been made, we may change our schedules and/or cancel, terminate, divert, postpone, reschedule or delay any flight if it is caused by an event(s) of force majeure i.e. extraordinary circumstance(s) beyond the control of the airline...

Basing on foregoing explanations, we are sorry to say that we will not be able to meet your demand as raised by trailing email, of compensation for cancellation of flight, which was due to reason beyond control of our airline.

Regards,
Team Air Costa



On 17-Feb-16 1:23 PM, Neha.[protected]@hdfcbank.com wrote:
Dear Concerned,

This to bring into your notice Air Costa has been cheating the passengers big time by continuing the reservations/ bookings on the Jaipur to Chennai sector where no flights are operational.

Airlines has been continuously making bookings and holding customer money until 10 days prior to the scheduled departure later stating that flight has been cancelled due to operational issues without making any arrangements for alternate flights or compensation to the traveller.

I, Neha Mittal had booked tickets on Air Costa Flight LB635 for 26-Jan-16 & 28-Feb-16 from Jaipur to Chennai for which flight xxln status was received 10 days prior to the departure date even after airlines knowing that flights on that sector are non-operational.

Passenger Name: Neha Mittal
Mobile No: [protected]

Trail mail speaks on the compensation requested from Airlines & revert from Airlines on inability to provide the said compensation. Requesting you to kindly do a detailed study of the entire pshing business run by AIR COSTA & arrange for an overall compensation of 1, 00, 000 INR towards both the travel cancellations leading to mental trauma, financial losses & certainly inconvenience being a single female traveller.

Ensuring, basis revert from Aircosta, I will now be moving this case to Consumer Forum, Ombudsman, Legal Notice to Airlines & Social media (Online/ newspapers) on account of the entire series of events & fraud business run by airlines for minting consumer money and continuing reservations on closed sector.

Kind Regards,
Neha Mittal
[protected]

On Monday, February 1, 2016, 21:47, Reservations wrote:
Dear Sir,

Greetings from Air Costa!

Thank you for contacting us at [protected]@aircosta.in

With reference to below mail regarding cancellation over the PNR 02N60W,

Kindly accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you have experienced due to flight cancellation,

We regret to inform you that, flight has been cancelled due to 'Operational reasons' and We really understand your urgency in traveling, but this is happened all at a sudden which is beyond our control and we tried our level best in order to reach destination as per schedule. Please be noted that the same has been conveyed on immediate effect. And as per the confirmation PNR has been cancelled with full refund and amount 6415 INR will be credited to your respective credit/debit card with in 4 working days, we regret to inform you that compensation cannot be provided for other airline booking(s)

For any assistance, you may also contact[protected]toll-free).

Thank you for choosing Air Costa.

Regards,
Team - Reservations


-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Flight xxln & no onus of airlines in refund or adjustment of passengers LB635
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2016 06:01:46 +0000 (UTC)
From: neha mittal
To: [protected]@aircosta.in, [protected]@aircosta.in


Dear concerned,

It has been extremely pathetic to have such unprofessional behaviour from airlines where flights get xxld and passengers are not even adjusted in alternate flights. Moreover, airlines has the courage to call the customer and ask that they should confirm on recorded lines that they are ok with these xxln then only refund will be processed within 7 working days.
Story doesn't end here, after almost 15 days of wait, when we call up customer care, executive informs that refund will now be processed within 7 working days.
I'm formally writing this mail to inform the airlines abt the financial losses that have been incurred and request you to refund the whole calculated amt below failing which I'll have to escalate the case to ombudsman.

Air Costa flight cost: Rs 6000
Alternate flight purchase: Rs 11000
Interest @ 18% ( bank charging due to non payment of dues in time as refund not processed) : Rs 3060

REQUESTING AIRCOSTA TO ARRANGE FOR THE REFUND OF RS 20, 060/- AT THE EARLIEST, ELSE WILL NOW BE FORCED TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST AIRLINES.

Needless to mention that all this irresponsible behaviour of airlines has impacted my CIBIL behaviour and put into highly embarrassing situation.

Regards,
Neha Mittal


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

On Sunday, January 17, 2016, 18:36, Reservations wrote:
Dear Sir/Ma'am,

"air costa regrets to inform cancellation of its flight LB635 JAI to MAA on 26/01/2016 DEP 15:00hrs. Regret inconvenience".

Regret the Inconvenience caused, for any assistance contact us on[protected] {toll free} (or) +91-[protected] {Charges Apply}.

Thank you for choosing Air Costa.

Regards,
Team - Reservations