Indigo Airlines — ticket refund and notice to initiate further action before the consumer disputes redressal forum

Address:	New Delhi, Delhi
Website:	Indigo

To
The nodal officer
Indigo airlines

Subject: ticket refund and notice to initiate further action before the consumer disputes redressal forum

I would like to inform you that i had booked a return flight from new delhi to chennai on 3rd nov (6e985) for two people - i. E. Myself ms. Neha gulati and my father, mr. Mukesh kumar gulati. My return back to delhi from chennai was also booked for the same date itself (6e704) for the same passengers.

The ticket cost for two tickets was as under:

(A) delhi to chennai was rs. 10363.
(B) chennai to delhi was rs. 9787.

Totalling: inr 20, 150

I booked these tickets on november 2, 2017, however soon after booking the return tickets, i received a call from a colleague in chennai that the weather condition in chennai was severely bad and it was unsafe to travel to chennai owning to the bad flooding and heavy rainfall situation and i was advised to postpone my trip to chennai and cancel my flight.

We were going to chennai for business purposed but unfortunately we had to cancel our flight on account of the travel advisory due to force majeure events of a severe downpour and flooding situation in chennai. This news of the heavy rainfall and travel advisory against going to chennai was also covered in all news channels and the news of that day.

On account of such an act of god like situation, we were forced to cancel our business trip which resulted in heavy losses to our business and to our utter shock and disappointment, we also were informed by the indigo customer service that they would be charging a heavy cancellation price for cancellation. Please do appreciate that i was forced to cancel and postpone my chennai trip on account of force majeure conditions that were beyond my control and were well within the airlines control and knowledge. It is pertinent to mention that i cancelled my tickets on november 2, 2017 itself, well before the scheduled time of departure on november 3, 2017, so it was not a last minute cancellation two hours prior to the scheduled departure.

I received refund from the airline for the cost of inr 20, 150 that i incurred on the ticket booking as under:

(A) refund amount from delhi to chennai is rs. 2558.
(B) refund amount from chennai to delhi is rs. 8044.
Totalling: inr 10, 602, which amounted to a cancellation fee of 50 percent of the booking amount.

This excessive cancellation charge has shocked me as firstly i only cancelled my trip on account of the extreme and highly unsafe weather conditions in chennai prevalent at that time and not only did that result in my incurring significant losses on my business, it also resulted in me being charged an undue and excessive fee of inr 9, 548 for such cancellation, which to my mind is arbitrary, unfair and excessive and leads to unjust enrichment of the airline.

I fail to understand as to why were we so heavily charged, chennai's weather was all over the news for its excessive and heavy rains and water logging everywhere, in such situations, cancelling the business trip was considered most prudent to ensure our safety given the extreme weather situation and taking into account the travel advisory against traveling to chennai at that time.

We always consider indigo to fly with and we were highly disappointed while we talked to the customer care requesting for a refund. We told them we will book our tickets again once the weather is good and requested them to give us credit for the full amount of the ticket such that we could book tickets at a later date but they were adamant on charging an excessive cancellation charge.

I understand cancellations carry a charge, but given the weather situation in the interest of public policy and the safety of the passengers, it is imperative that the airline firstly accommodate requests from passengers to give them flexibility to use the full credit of the tickets to book tickets at a later date or atleast not charge them any cancellation charges.

I am extremely disappointed in the behaviour of indigo airlines in charging such an excessive fee from innocent passengers and penalising me and my father during act of god like situations which were beyond our control.

I urge you to kindly look into this matter asap and demand a full refund of the inr 9, 548 that i have been excessively and unfairly charged from the airline.

We have already witnessed the shocking manner in which indigo has treated customers (Which has publicly disgraced the airline today). It is shocking that the airline charges innocent customers excessive cancelation charges during force majure/act of god situations such as extreme weather situations in order to unjustly enrich itself from such events.

I request a full refund of my money within one week of receipt of this communication, in the absence of which i will have my lawyers send your company a legal notice and i will take this matter up in front of the consumer disputes redressal forum in the first instance and i also reserve my right to complain and bring this act of indigo's unjust enrichment policy in front of the ministry of civil aviation and also publish the same on all media and social media.

Needless to state, this is without prejudice to other remedies available to me under law.

Please treat this matter with utmost urgency and ensure that my full refund of inr 9, 548 is returned back to my account, keeping in mind the exingency of the situation at the time of cancellation on ground of excessive and unsafe weather conditions.

Regards
Neha gulati