No charges for cancelling tickets within 24 hours of booking: Aviation Ministry
BY MPost22 May 2018 11:40 PM IST
MPost23 May 2018 5:11 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Come August, and you may be able to cancel your domestic air ticket within 24 hours of booking the same without any cancellation charges for flights that are at least four days away from departure time. It will not matter whether you booked the ticket directly from the airline or through an agent or travel portal.
And if an airline tells you 24 hours before the departure time of the domestic flight you are booked that the same is delayed by over four hours, you could be entitled to a full refund. Similarly, airlines may have to offer compensation between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000 to passengers for missing connecting flights due to the first flight being late. However, both the domestic flights for connecting passengers should be on one PNR — meaning on the same airline ticket.
The aviation ministry on Tuesday issued a draft passenger charter that, among others, has these passenger-friendly proposals. This government will seek comments from stakeholders' views on the same and, by July issue the final rules — that will apply on airlines and in turn on travel portals and agents also in cases of cancellation charges. Almost all airlines have opposed the proposals. Aviation secretary R N Choubey said the final rules would keep in mind the interests of both airlines and flyers, with passenger rights getting more weightage.
"Cancellation charges have been a sore point with passengers. We studied the issue and found that many of the complaints can be addressed by having a 24-hour lock-in period for people to cancel their domestic tickets without any cancellation charge if the flight departure time is over four days away. Accordingly, we have included this provision in the draft charter," Union minister of state for aviation Jayant Sinha said.
The compensation for damaged baggage and a passenger dying on board or suffering bodily injuries are also proposed to be hiked by having similar amounts for both domestic and international flyers.
Next Story