Travellers and flyers, we have some exciting news to share with you. Did you book flight tickets during the COVID-19 pandemic but could not travel as per scheduled plans due to lockdown and restrictions? If yes, have you received your refund yet? Well, the government has recently directed all online travel aggregators and platforms to disburse the pending refunds of flight tickets that were booked during the pandemic and affected by the lockdown.
Online Travel Aggregators Need To Disburse Pending Refunds By The 3rd Week Of November
The government issued the matter about completing the processing of pending flight ticket booking refunds on November 8, 2023. According to the recently issued directives, these platforms will need to process all the concerned passengers a refund for booking flight tickets during the COVID-19 lockdown. There were several restrictions and lockdowns during the pandemic. The companies have to process the refunds by the third week of November.
A lot of rules and regulations were established to control the outbreak of the scary coronavirus. With lockdowns and restrictions, travelling was not an easy option for anyone. Suspension and cancellation of flights were some of the many steps that were taken back then. This affected the plans of many travellers and many of them have not received the pending refund yet.
Recently, the Consumer Affairs Ministry held a meeting chaired by Rohit Kumar Singh, the Consumer Affairs Secretary. The meeting was with the online travel aggregators and platforms to talk about the problems faced by the consumers of the travel sector and how everything impacted their interests as well, according to the Press Release of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. One of the primary points of discussion was about the refund of the flight tickets booked back in the pandemic.
Also read: Top 10 Destinations With The Most Significant Airfare Drop For Indian Travellers!
CCPA May Take Legal Proceedings If Travel Aggregators & Platforms Do Not Do The Needful
All the concerned travel companies will need to process the number of pending refunds of flight tickets that were booked during the pandemic, and whose plans were affected due to the lockdown, by the third week of November. If aggregators fail to take the necessary steps and comply with the directives, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) “may initiate appropriate legal proceedings before the Supreme Court”, according to a statement. In fact, this will include the “filing of a contempt petition against the defaulting platforms”.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority issued notices to several online travel aggregators about refunding the customers according to the order of the Supreme Court. The notices were issued to a total of 5 travel agencies and 6 online travel portals, according to a report by the Financial Express. Among the companies that were asked to process refunding, Ixigo and Thomas Cook have done the needful and completed the process of refunding consumers.
Also read: Soon, Senior Citizens May Be Able To Travel For FREE On NMMT Buses
Did you book any flight tickets during the COVID-19 pandemic? Did your plans also get affected due to the lockdowns? Are you about to receive any pending refund of that booking from the pandemic days?
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