On 2 August, a Twitter user tagged the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in a complaint against an airline. The user, who had put up pictures of a boarding pass dated 21 March and other receipts, said he had not got a refund even after 4 months. The minister took cognizance and asked the airline to look into the issue.

The same user tweeted again on 5 August with a screenshot of the airline’s message to him, in which the airline had apologised to him and stated that the refund had been processed and would be credited in 4-5 days.

The main issues behind many of the complaints are the refund process and the cancellation charges. For example, one user complained on Twitter (with pictures) that he was charged a cancellation fee of ₹ 8,000 when the booking amount was ₹ 7,214.

Apart from base fare and taxes, this amount could have included airline fuel charge; passenger service fee (PSF) for security and facilitation at airports; user development fee (UDF) for passenger facilitation at airports; development fee for funding of infrastructure at airports and convenience fee, which would depend on your mode of payment.

Some of the airlines do not charge all these extras and not all airports levy fees like the development fee and UDF. There is fuel surcharge too, but some of the airlines have merged it with the base fare, after the steep fall in fuel prices globally. In short, getting a full refund was not exactly easy.

Keeping these and many other issues in view, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) notified new rules dealing with cancellation of tickets, denial of seat due to overbooking, delay and cancellation of flights, baggage allowance and refunds. The rules are a big pro-consumer measure.

Here’s a look at new rules that streamline compensation, refund and cancellation charges.

According to the old rules too, if a ticket was cancelled or not used, the airline had to return the passenger service fee (PSF). There was lack of clarity on other charges and taxes.

The new rules mandate that airline will now have to refund all statutory taxes along with UDF and PSF.

Consider a one-way ticket from Delhi to Bengaluru for 17 August. It would cost ₹ 4,622. Of this, about ₹ 900 is towards taxes and charges like UDF and PSF. If you cancel this ticket at any time, you will get this ₹ 900 back.

These rules will be applicable on all types of fares, including promotions, special fares and offers where the basic fare is non-refundable.

Airlines can no longer levy a cancellation charge that is more than the basic fare plus fuel surcharge. In the above example, the basic fare plus fuel surcharge comes to ₹ 3,640. So, if you cancel the ticket, you won’t have to forego more than this.

Another piece of good news is that while making the refund, the airlines cannot levy any additional charge to process the refund.

However, these rules still leave open issues relating to unbundled services like meals and preferred seating. The airlines are allowed to charge separately for these on opt-in basis.

When bookings made through travel agents are cancelled, passengers are often confused about who to deal with: the airline or the agent?

According to the old rules, passengers and travel agents had to sort out the refund among themselves. The airline did not interact with the passenger directly for agent-booked tickets. But now the onus of the refund has been put on the airlines. DGCA has termed travel agents as “appointed representatives".

Apart from this, airlines are now allowed only 30 working days to complete the refund process.

Airlines often overbook flights to some extent, to reduce empty seats because of no-shows by booked passengers. A no-show is when a passenger with a confirmed booking does not report for travel, at the time stipulated by the airline.

Before the new rules kicked in, if a passenger was denied a seat due to overbooking, the airline had to pay ₹ 2,000-4,000, depending on the duration of the flight.

This was in addition to the ticket price being refunded.

Under the new rules, this compensation has been increased, depending on when the passenger flies out on the next flight.

If the alternate flight is scheduled to depart within 24 hours of the original flight, then the compensation is up to ₹ 10,000. If the next flight is more than 24 hours away, then the compensation is up to ₹ 20,000.

But if the alternate flight is within an hour, there won’t be any compensation.

What if the passenger does not want to take the alternative provided by the airline? In such a case, the ticket’s full value will be refunded, along with a compensation that is 400% of the one-way basic fare plus airline fuel surcharge, up to a maximum of ₹ 20,000. For instance, if a passenger—with a confirmed ticket for a Delhi-Bengaluru flight on 17 August—is denied a seat due to overbooking, and she doesn’t want to take the flight arranged by the airline, she will get back about ₹ 14,000 for a ticket that cost her ₹ 4,622.

Earlier the airlines had to pay a penalty if they failed to inform the passengers about flight cancellation at least 3 hours before departure time.

Now they have to inform the passengers as early as 2 weeks in advance, and arrange either an alternate flight or refund the ticket, depending on what the passenger chooses.

If the passenger is informed less than 24 hours before the departure, the airline will have to offer an alternate flight that’s within 2 hours of the original scheduled time.

If the passengers are not informed 24 hours before departure, they will be compensated up to ₹ 5,000 or ₹ 10,000, depending on the flight’s duration. This will be in addition to the ticket being refunded.

But no compensations will be paid if the cancellation is due to factors outside the airline’s control, for example natural disasters or political unrest.

One often finds complaints of inordinate flight delays on social media. Yet, in case of delays, DGCA has not revised the rules. According to the existing rules, when there is a delay of over 2 hours for a flight, whose duration is also of over 2.5 hours; or the delay is of over 4 hours for flights of shorter duration: airlines have to provide passengers with meals and refreshments in relation to the waiting time.

Also, hotel accommodation has to be provided when the flight is delayed by over 24 hours or when necessary. However, for flights that get delayed by less than 2 hours, customers do not get any compensation.

As per existing norms, all domestic airlines allow check-in baggage of up to 15kg. Under the old rules, there was no limit on how much the airline could charge for excess baggage. Airlines usually charged ₹ 300 per kg. New rules mandate that an airline can charge only ₹ 100 per kg for excess baggage between 15-20kg.

So, if your checked-in baggage weighs 18kg, you may have to pay ₹ 300 more for the extra 3kg. Beyond 20kg, the airline can decide its charges.

However, airlines can continue to offer ‘no check-in baggage or hand baggage only’ fares, and if a customer with such a fare turns up with check-in baggage then the “airline cannot charge more than the amount of incentive offered in the scheme compared to lowest fare," the DGCA’s circular helpfully explains at http://bit.ly/2aDurtT.

After the new guidelines were issued, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted, “To protect passenger rights for delayed, overbooked & cancelled flights, we have issued new directions w.e.f 1st Aug." Consumer forums, while agreeing that some recent initiatives of the government are “laudable", want more steps to be taken. D. Sudhakara Reddy, president of Air Passengers’ Association of India (APAI) said that the association is taking up the issue of convenience fee charged by airlines for online bookings.

“You are being penalised for buying a ticket online," he said. It is likely that as air travel increases, so will the demand from passengers for fair practices. “The government initiatives to strengthen regional connectivity, cap fees on ticket cancellation and extra baggage... show clear intent to drive the sector forward whilst keeping the interests of both passengers and the carriers in mind," said Sharat Dhall, president, Yatra.com.

At the same time, there are voices that caution against too much intervention from the government. “While anything that is good for the passenger is generally good. But I think that in an industry that is reasonably competitive, the less interference the government has is better," said Amrit Pandurangi, partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India.

“When there are 2-3 companies it is okay to interfere because it is almost a near monopoly. But when there are 8-10 companies, it is believed that the market will take care of it," he said, adding that “airlines will come out with smarter ways of beating the system."

It has just been a few days since these norms have come into effect. It needs to be seen how, over the next few months, it turns out for the consumers

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