[Resolved]  Ixigo — Flight Rescheduling Charges/ Extortion

Address:	Ixigo, 2nd floor, Veritas Building, Behind Ibis Hotel, Sector 53, Golf Course Road, Gurgaon, Haryana, 122002. Phone No: 01246682111.
Website:	www.ixigo.com

Date Of Incident: 11.07.2022 (12PM-2PM)

I, had booked flight tickets, from the IXIGO application and apparently due to some reason the tickets were booked for Aug 11, instead of Jul 11 (due to some application issue, or maybe a mistake on my part),

So, I opted for rescheduling the flight, and paid an amount of INR4361 post which, I, got a WA message mentioning that the rescheduling process might take approximately 2hr. The details of the message is written below, some texts have been removed for confidentiality:

...

Hey XXXXXX,
We have received the rescheduling request for your CCU - BLR flight booking. Booking ID: IF[protected].
Your rescheduling details are:
New travel date:[protected]
Travel sector: Kolkata - Bengaluru
Flight number: I5991
Passenger name(s): XXXXX
Payment received: Rs.4361.00
Your updated travel itinerary will be sent to XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com within 2 hours.
For further queries, please visit our Customer Service section here https://ixi.to/helpcenter
Thank you
Team ixigo
...

After roughly 15mins or so, I get a call from the IXIGO team during which I was asked to pay INR739 more to confirm the flight ticket, as the airline has updated the fare by INR1739 apparently, the IXIGO support executive mentioned that IXIGO has provided a discount of INR1000 and that I need to pay the remaining INR739 only (very arbitrary discount, I did not receive any documents/collateral that can prove that they have actually given me a discount).

On checking the updated price of the flight on the airline's website the price had increased for INR550 and not INR1739 as mentioned by IXIGO. I was willing to pay this INR550 amount, but the customer support team was hell bent on receiving the amount of INR739, which they could not validate by providing documents/collaterals.

I repeatedly asked them for some sort of documentation to substantiate the price change, but they were not able to provide any proof of this price increase (by airline), whatsoever.

After staying in call for almost an hour, it reached a point at which the customer support executive/manager named Shalu/Shanu, suggested me to cancel the flight as well as the rescheduling charges and directly book from the Airline's website, in a very derogatory way.

Finally, I was out of options as I had already paid INR4369 for the rescheduling and had to pay the further INR739, as there was no other resolution that the customer support team could provide.

After completing the payment of INR739, I received a WA message, I have copied the message below, some infromation is removed for confidentiality.

...

Hi XXXXX XXX,
We have received your add-on request. Please complete the payment of Rs.739 within the next 15 mins, after which the payment link will expire.
Pay now: https://www.ixigo.com/payments/view/home/1/2ALFCLE2SUJ85UMNRW6

For any queries, please visit our Customer Service section: https://www.ixigo.com/help-center

Thank you
Team ixigo

...

The above mentioned WA message made no sense, I paid more money to get the flight ticket not to get an Add On and it has been almost 1hr since the payment and I have received no notification as to where the rescheduling process stands as of now.

I am lodging a complaint in this forum for the following reasons:

1. Firstly, if the rescheduling ordeal takes around 2hr, why isn't the consumer made aware of it before paying the rescheduling charges on the app and in the same manner, if there are chances of an additional fee why isn't it disclaimed before the final payment for rescheduling is done.

2. Secondly, if I had paid the full rescheduling amount according to the current time/ current airline fare (at the time of rescheduling), why should I pay more, if the fare expires/updates while IXIGO is handling the rescheduling request. Why should I pay for their, incapacity to complete the rescheduling before the price of the flight changes.

3. Thirdly, there were unsubstantiated claims of airline increasing the flight price by INR1739, which was not the case when I checked the prices, so how can IXIGO charge an amount arbitrarily without proper proof's.

4. Finally when I calculated the total rescheduling price that I had to pay it was as follow:

INR4361 + INR739= INR5100.

So the actual maths behind the extra reschedule charges, seems to be about getting a round figure sum from the customer, rather than airline price increase( which was not the case here), it's a shame!

So, all-in-all, I think that IXIGO has laid down a trap for consumer who want to book a flight ticket by giving them a discount in the beginning and then by extorting money from the same customer, post the payment.

It was such an ill experience that I would not recommend anyone to book flight tickets from IXIGO, trust me when I say that there processes are fraudulent, deceiving, unethical and illegal.

I would like a resolution, in which IXIGO gives me back the amount taken from me unsubstantially and also I would like IXIGO to stop laying traps for innocent customer's who trust their platform.