There seems to be no respite for air travellers even after the government's intervention. The cash-strapped airlines and the travel agents, including online travel aggregators (OTAs), are trying different techniques to avoid giving refunds to the passengers who had booked tickets for travel during the ongoing lockdown period.
Essentially, there are two types of passengers who are bearing the brunt of the lockdown announced by the government from March 25: those who booked tickets before March 25 for travel during the lockdown, and those who booked tickets after March 25 for travel within lockdown period.
Last month, the government had directed airlines to refund money in cash to passengers for tickets booked after March considering that these people booked tickets for emergency purposes and their money should not be blocked. Following the directive, airlines started giving cash refunds to passengers who booked directly through the airlines' website. But that is a small percentage (about5 per cent) of total bookings; majority of the bookings happened through travel agents. That's where the travel agents have a problem since airlines have shifted the onus of returns to the agents. How?
The airlines are returning money to agents into their "virtual wallets" on the airlines' websites. Most large agents have to maintain a wallet (with cash) with airlines to make ticket purchases on behalf of their customers. Through these "virtual wallets", the agents cannot transfer money to their bank accounts. The travel agents, in return, could not process refunds for their customers because their money is still stuck with the airlines.
"We are closely working with our airline partners to work out more benign policies for the customers and trying our best to streamline the cancellation and refund process. We are processing refunds as per the policies defined by the airlines," said Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO of Yatra.com, in an email response.
But this is just one side of the story. The amount of tickets booked prior to the lockdown is estimated at Rs 3,700 crore. This money is being converted by the airlines into credit shells, which are basically notes against a cancelled ticket that can be used for future booking. Travel agents, therefore, are not issuing cash refunds. MakeMyTrip (MMT), which controls over 50 per cent of the online travel booking market, is particularly getting a lot of flak on social media because it's refunding money to customers in wallets on its website. "I want refund in my original payment method. Why you guys are transferring to wallet," said a Twitter user tagging MMT.
14/05/20 Manu Kaushik/Business Today
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Essentially, there are two types of passengers who are bearing the brunt of the lockdown announced by the government from March 25: those who booked tickets before March 25 for travel during the lockdown, and those who booked tickets after March 25 for travel within lockdown period.
Last month, the government had directed airlines to refund money in cash to passengers for tickets booked after March considering that these people booked tickets for emergency purposes and their money should not be blocked. Following the directive, airlines started giving cash refunds to passengers who booked directly through the airlines' website. But that is a small percentage (about5 per cent) of total bookings; majority of the bookings happened through travel agents. That's where the travel agents have a problem since airlines have shifted the onus of returns to the agents. How?
The airlines are returning money to agents into their "virtual wallets" on the airlines' websites. Most large agents have to maintain a wallet (with cash) with airlines to make ticket purchases on behalf of their customers. Through these "virtual wallets", the agents cannot transfer money to their bank accounts. The travel agents, in return, could not process refunds for their customers because their money is still stuck with the airlines.
"We are closely working with our airline partners to work out more benign policies for the customers and trying our best to streamline the cancellation and refund process. We are processing refunds as per the policies defined by the airlines," said Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO of Yatra.com, in an email response.
But this is just one side of the story. The amount of tickets booked prior to the lockdown is estimated at Rs 3,700 crore. This money is being converted by the airlines into credit shells, which are basically notes against a cancelled ticket that can be used for future booking. Travel agents, therefore, are not issuing cash refunds. MakeMyTrip (MMT), which controls over 50 per cent of the online travel booking market, is particularly getting a lot of flak on social media because it's refunding money to customers in wallets on its website. "I want refund in my original payment method. Why you guys are transferring to wallet," said a Twitter user tagging MMT.
14/05/20 Manu Kaushik/Business Today
0 comments:
Post a Comment