A passenger who booked an air ticket through a prominent agency for Indore from Bhubaneswar with his spouse allegedly suffered a lot of mental agony. He alleged that not only did he suffer a lot of harassment, he also bore financial losses.
The aggrieved, Pradipta Kishore Sahoo , a native of Ranipatna under Baleswar town, has lodged an FIR with the Airport police against the booking agency Goibibo.com. He further said that he would lodge a complaint with the Ministry of Civil Aviation as well DGCA and Consumer Redressal forum.
According to Sahoo, a development officer of LIC, he wanted to fly to Indore on January 19 with his spouse to attend an official meeting at that place through the booking agency Goibibo on January 3 .
The ticket for two passengers was booked against Rs 18,000. The PNR 57NNCR was generated for an Air India flight.
The PNR showed the flight of Air India ETD from Bhubaneswar airport was 8.15 hours with ETA 10.45 hours. Further, after a layover at Delhi, another flight would leave for Indore with ETA and ETD 14.30 hours and 16.05 hours, respectively.
“To my utter shock I found there was no Air India flight in the scheduled time when I showed my PNR ticket at the counter. Although the PNR was showing the journey from Delhi to Indore, the Air India staff at Bhubaneswar refused to entertain me on the PNR. Further, on their advice, I called the customer care of Goibibo. From the customer care also no solution was received although I requested them to arrange my trip by any flight up to Delhi. They just stated that it was beyond their purview," complained Sahoo.
"After facing harassment from all corners and finding no solution, I booked a ticket for Indore via Kolkata against Rs 42,000 for two tickets on January 20. Although I could reach on January 20 yet I missed the first day programme. Although the customer care of Goibibo assured me of refunding my amount against the not-available ticket, so far they didn’t refund ,” said Sahoo.
“Regarding the issue I lodged an FIR with Airport police. Further I would take up the matter with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA. I would also initiate a case against the company in the Consumer Redressal Forum,” he warned.
