Airline, travel agency held guilty of deficient service

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, May 12

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has held an international airline and an online travel agency guilty of deficiency in service for not redressing the genuine grievances of their customers.

In a complaint, Anupama Raj, a resident of Sector 15-D, Chandigarh, had submitted that she and her son had planned to travel to Boston, USA, from New Delhi on May 27, 2019 for holiday and return to New Delhi on June 25, 2019.

On February 22, 2019, she had booked two economy class tickets through eDreams.com, an online travel agency, and paid Rs 1,17,085. The travel agency issued e-tickets. Upon scrutiny of e-tickets, she found that luggage was not included in the same. Accordingly, she took up the matter with the agency, which advised her to make a request to add the baggage at the time of check-in at the airport with the airlines only. But the agency did not disclose the eligibility of baggage, weight of baggage and the cost to be paid for carrying the baggage. Not satisfied with the response of agency, Anupama approached the Virgin Atlantic Airline on March 31, 2019.

The airline responded that on the tickets booked by her, she was eligible to carry only hand baggage allowance per person 10 kg as the ticket falls in the category of economy light fare. She was also informed that she had purchased economy light fare and economy light was a restricted ticket, which does not permit any check-in baggage. Anupama then visited the site of the airline and found information about baggage allowance, which clearly shows that a traveller travelling in economy class is entitled to 10-kg hand baggage and 23-kg check-in baggage per ticket.

However, the opposite parties did not appear to contest the claim of the complainant and preferred to proceed against ex-parte. “The non-appearance of the opposite parties shows that they have nothing to say in their defence against the allegations made by the complainant,” observed the forum.

“It is established beyond all reasonable doubts that the complaint is genuine as she has been made to run from pillar to post for no fault on her part. The opposite parties have certainly and definitely indulged into unfair trade practice as they ought to have issue fresh tickets by incorporating free hand baggage and check-in baggage allowance entitled as per the policy, but they failed to do. The act of the omissions and commissions of the opposite parties not only amounts to deficiency in service, but also is a grave malpractice under the Consumer Protection Act,” stated the forum.

The forum directed the opposite parties to modify and issue fresh tickets by incorporating the freehand baggage and check-in baggage allowance entitled as per the policy before the date of journey on May 27, to pay Rs 2,000 as compensation to the complainant for deficiency in service, unfair trade practice and harassment caused to her and to pay a sum of Rs 1,000 to the complainant as litigation expenses.