Ibibo Group / Goibibo — Refund Raised by Goibibo without Passenger Permission, then I had no choice but to travel on new expensive ticket.

Address:

19th floor, Tower A, B & C, Epitome Building No. 5, DLF Phase 2, Sector 24, Gurugram, Haryana 122002

Dear Sir,

Good Evening!

I hope you are doing well in this Covid pandemic situation.

Myself is Ayush Agarwal, working as a Consultant in Tata Consultancy Services - currently deputed in JAPAN(Tokyo). (Ccing my bother Kushagra as well, who is also following up on this matter)

I am writing this email to you in reference to the harassment I am facing for my Air India travel E-Ticket No.[protected]From Tokyo to Delhi roundtrip).

Issue - Air India and Go-IBIBO did not inform me before cancelling my Ticket even until the day before my travel.

Issue Background -

I have booked my above mentioned Air India E-Ticket via Go-IBIBO in January 2020. (Attached the ticket for your reference - old confirmed ticket.pdf)
But due to pandemic situation, the flights were postponed and my travel could not happen last year.

Air India did not do any refund last year for this ticket and it was put on hold for the future re-scheduling, making it valid until Dec 2021.

Air India has also instructed that for all the future re-scheduling/ticket changes I should contact Air India directly over email/call and they will release the updated ticket and confirm the booking.

Considering the ticket was on hold since last year, I have decided to travel this year in May, so I have called them in April 2021 to confirm the travel dates from 31st of May - 10th of July 2021.

Air India has then released the new itinerary receipt for me with the same E-ticket id[protected] but updated travel dates (Departure from Tokyo on 31st of May - Return to Tokyo on 10th of July 2021). (Attached this itinerary with the email for your reference - Updated Itinerary Receipt.pdf)

Post this confirmation, I have made my travel plans like getting the leaves approval from my company and the customer in Japan and then taking the RT-PCR Test just before my travel date(as per the guidelines needs to be taken within 72 hours before the day of travel).

Now on 29th of May evening, I was trying to Web-checkin through Air India website (https://icheck.sita.aero/iCheckWebAI/), for my travel ticket[protected], but it was not accepting it and stating that ‘it could not find the booking’.
Hence I have emailed to Air India ([protected]@airindia.co.jp, [protected]@airindia.in) same day about this issue, so that they fix it and I can get my seat number (to be filled in self declaration form on Air Suvidha).

On Sunday morning i.e. 30th of May, I got the response from Air India that there is no reservation with my name on this flight of 31st of May. And the ticket status is marked as REFUNDED in their system.
So the ticket is equivalent to closed/cancelled at Air India side and I can not travel on 31st May on that ticket[protected].

The question from my side was I have never asked them for any refund neither did they inform me anything about it until I have emailed them on 29th May for Web-Checkin.
So their response was that it must have been requested by Go-IBIBO, so I should contact Go-IBIBO for this as Air India did not do anything wrong.

Now when it comes to Go-IBIBO - neither their customer care phone numbers and neither their customer care Email address was working when I have tried on 30th May. So then I have used Twitter to reach out to them to help me and sought out this matter so that I can travel on 31st of May.

But nothing was concluded even until the midnight of 30th of May as they both were busy blaming each other rather than helping me out.Hence I had to buy a new ticket(which was more expensive) for the same flight at the airport in Tokyo on 31st of May just before my flight. I could afford to buy only one way ticket for now as it was very expensive.(attached it for your reference - New Ticket booked at airport.pdf).

Now I am able to finally reach to India but I have not yet booked the return ticket for 10th of July considering it very expensive. Hence, I am expecting that either Air India or Go-IBIBO should book it for me or they should bear the fare difference between old and new ticket.

Concerns -

1 How can a airline or the agent(go-ibibo) change the ticket status at their end without the consent from the passenger ?

2 Why no-one has informed me about my ticket cancellation even until the last moment.

3 I have suffered both mentally and financially due to their irresponsible behavior and mistakes.

Request -

1 Request you to please help me in getting the 100% refund for my old ticket ?
2 Request you to please help me in getting the fare difference compensation between the old and new flight tickets.

Regards
Ayush Agarwal
[protected]@gmail.com