BENGALURU: Jet Airways was pulled up, not once but twice in a week by a
Bengaluru consumer court after it
overcharged a flyer for
economy class seats and in another case, lost a
passenger’s luggage. Both victims were awarded
compensation for the company’s sloppy service.
Koramangala resident Bhairav Shanth is a frequent flyer with Jet Airways and holds a privilege card for the air miles accumulated. However, his good times with the airline ran out on October 6, 2015 when he used its mobile
app during his stay in Dubai to book premiere tickets from Dubai to Mumbai and Mumbai to Colombo. He also made a third round of booking for the return travel of his acquaintance from Delhi to Dubai. Much to his shock, all tickets worth over Rs 85,000 were booked as economy class tickets instead of premiere.
He claimed to have made several attempts to talk to a manager of the airline call centre in Dubai but was placed on prolonged hold, costing him a hefty ISD fee on his cellphone. The matter was not sorted out despite the airline allegedly acknowledging the mistake.
Irked with the poor response to calls and emails, Shanth finally knocked the doors of the Bangalore Urban II Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on March 9, 2016 with a complaint against the airline. He produced cellphone screenshots and emails pertaining to the tickets.
Counsel for Jet Airways claimed the screenshots were manipulative and that Shanth had only booked for economy class seats, and not premiere as he had claimed. However, counsel failed to establish why the airline collected 20 per cent extra money on the economy class fares.
Following a litigation lasting over two years, the judges slammed the airlines for deficiency in service. On April 11, the court ordered Jet Airways to refund the passenger the excess fare collected and also pay Rs 10,000 towards court expenses.
Banker’s lost bag
On April 6, the consumer forum pronounced another verdict against Jet Airways after a bank officer lodged a complaint about his bag missing during his Bengaluru-Mumbai flight on July 7, 2016. The check-in luggage of State Bank of India’s deputy general manager R Sankaranarayanan went missing allegedly due to asystem error in tagging the bag after he landed in Mumbai. The court ordered the airline to pay the banker Rs 16,415 towards the contents of the lost bag and Rs 10,000 for court expenses.
