New Cancellation and Refund Rights of Air Travelers
The Ministry of Civil Aviation recently released a draft passenger Charter defining rights related to cancellation and refund for air passengers which seeks to remedy variety of issues air traveler usually face.
To resolve their problems, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has released the passengers’ right charter.
Have a glance at some essential provisions from the charter to get an understanding of your rights as a flyer.
1. Flight Delay
In case your flight gets delayed by two to six hours, the airlines will have to provide you free meals and refreshments. This only applies to travelers who wait at the airport.
In case flight is delayed for quite six hours, the flyers are also entitled to full refund or a choice of an alternate flight.
In case the flight scheduled between 8 pm-3 am, is delayed for more than six hours, the airlines will have to inform you in a day in advance and also give you free accommodation.
If you miss your connection flight because of delay in previous flight airline will compensate passengers for missing connecting flights as per below slab.
- If delay more than 3 hours: INR 5,000
- If delay between 4 and 12 hours: INR 10,000
- If delay more than 12 hours: INR 20,000
2. Cancellation of Ticket or Flight
For flights up to one hour long, this makes up to one-way basic fare and fuel charges or Rs 5,000 and for flights over two hours long this amounts to Rs 10,000—whichever is less.
An airline can no longer cancel your flight in the last 24 hours and compensate. As per the rules under the new charter, the carriers will either provide a refund to the passengers or arrange for an alternate flight.
3. Refund
Those days are gone when you had to give cancellation amount for canceling your ticket. now you’ll get a full refund, provided it’s done within a day of the booking.
If the tickets are booked less than seven days before the departure time of the flight, this zero cancellation charge won’t apply
In case there are less than seven days between the date of booking and departure, the airline will charge cancellation fee limited to the total of the base fare and fuel surcharge. other additional charges including user development fee, tax, traveler service, and field development fee have to be refunded.
In the case of a foreign airline, the right to refund will be subject to the internal policy of the carrier.
4. Change of Name
The new rules also allow passengers to make corrections to their names within twenty-four hours of booking, free of cost. Earlier, a correction in the name was considered as cancellation so the passengers had to book a new price ticket and pay extra charges.
5. Overbooked Flights
In case boarding was denied thanks to overbooking, the airline had to rearrange Associate in Nursing alternate flight inside one hour of the initial flight. If Associate in Nursing alternate flight as stipulated isn’t on the market, then the traveler must be salaried up to four hundred percent of the booking value (one way) subject to sure conditions.
6. Baggage Damage or Loss
In case your baggage is broken or lost, the traveler can get a compensation of Rs 350 per kg or up to Rs 20,000. The new amount is 75th more than the previous compensation.
In a case where a traveler suffers physical injury because of the airline’s fault or if a traveler dies on-board, the airline will be liable to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation.
According to a financial express Report, the Civil Aviation Minister said the purpose of the charter is to bring uniformity in passenger services.
“A minimum benchmark has been set. we want passengers to have world-class flying experience. this would be beneficial for the airlines too in the long-run,” he said.
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Download:- Ministry of Civil Aviation Notifies Draft Passenger Charter Defining Rights for air Passengers for Public Consultation
