[Resolved]  Yatra.com — international flight tickets refund - lack of services of yatra, resulting in inability to cancel and additional expenditure

Website:

www.yatra.com

Booking reference with yatra.com:[protected]Booked on 4th dec, 2019)
Mumbai to london (8th march 2020) and lon to mumbai (25th march, 2020), both qatar airways, refundable. We were three o[censored]s (Me, my wife and my daughter)

We landed in london on 8th, march, 2020. I had enabled international roaming on my phone.
In view of covid19 (Corona virus), and due to daily new advisories coming up, we decided to cut short the trip. To reschedule, tried to contact yatra.com, on 13th march, 2020, on help line no. (1860... And other such numbers from website, but couldnt reach any of them, as most of the times, phone could not get through). So went to app, logged in, lodged a request through their own portal, (For re scheduling of return flight to mumbai) - request id 24569405, on 13th march, 2020. There was no reply by 14th march, 2020 (And there is no reply as of today also, 18th march, 1:30 pm ist, as i write this complaint and the request is marked as 'open', i have taken screenshots). With covid19 rising, india making multiple restrictions, i couldnt rely on yatra (Time was running out) i contacted qatar airways directly on 14th march, 2020 and requested to re schedule my flight to 19th march, 2020. Initially they refused, saying i have to do this by contacting my agent (Yatra, in this case), but on requesting to talk to a higher authority there, and explaining that yatra is simply uncontactable after so many tries and not responding to requests as well, qatar airways helped me by re scheduling my london to mumbai flight to march 19, 2020, for no additional charge.

Then, on 16th march, 2020, around 7.30 pm ist (And 2:00 pm in edinburgh, where we were waiting for our train to london), i got news that indian govt. Will ban entry of passengers from the uk, eu and turkey, effective 18th march, 2020, 1200 gmt. This was a panic situation, as i had only a day left and my flight was for 19th march, so i needed to re schedule it immediately. I instantly tried yatra helpline, which as usual, was non contactable (Wanted to either reschedule the flight to 17th, or cancel and book some other flight, through yatra). After 15 minutes of waiting on phone, i managed to speak to qatar airways executive to request them to reschedule once more to 17th or cancel (If they couldnt), but they told me to do this only through agent (Yatra, in this case) and get a voucher which would be valid for future travel. Panic was building up as we had only a day left and we were now in train from edinburgh to london. Since yatra was un contactable, i had no choice but to book flight with some other airlines directly. As i was in train (I have train tickets to prove my travel), with fluctuating free wifi in the train there, and fluctuating 4g on my international roaming, booking online was not an option; immediately i contacted my friend in london, managed to send our passport images through whatsapp, and requested him to book online or via an agent. They did it promptly, and booked virgin atlantic flights, which cost me 1.72 lakhs (Total, for the three o[censored]s), for march 17, 2020, 10:10 am flight from london, which was amongst the cheapest at that point of time, as air india was booked out and only premium was available which was costlier than this, and british airways was costing upwards of 6l). By this virgin atlantic flight, we reached mumbai at 12.30 am on 18th march, 2020.

Even presently, since last two hours (10 am to almost 12.30), i am trying to call up yatra, to cancel the earlier flight (Scheduled for 19th march, 2020) and refund or give a voucher but no avail. According to rules, one has to cancel flight more than 48 hours prior, but what could i have done. My travel agent is not reachable. Airlines asks to do through them. And on 17th march, 2020, the whole day i was on flight, without any form of connectivity.

I am definitely considering legal options, but before that, i want to ask yatra to give me my refund for the return lon to mumbai flight, and because of their extremely poor service, being non contactable when needed (Lack of services) and also not replying at all when a request was lodged through their own portal after properly logging in (Request id[protected].in these 'extenuating circumstances', i definitely demand a renumeration for the charges i had to bear due to them and their lack of services (The charges i paid for the virgin atlantic flight). I have saved all screenshots of communication, and all the concerned tickets and proof.

So far, i had always travelled with yatra earlier, i am waiting for their reply for my faith in them to be assured.