The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has penalised an airline and a travel agency after a complaint was filed by Sector-16 resident Dr GS Arora.
British airlines and Yatra Online Private Limited have been asked to pay ₹15,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and physical harassment and ₹10,000 as litigation cost.
The travel agency has been directed to refund the ticket amount, ₹58,708, to the complainants with interest @9% per annum from the date which it received the amount from airlines. During hearing, the airline had contended that it had refunded the ticket amount to the agency, which had in turn not transferred it to the complainant.
Dr Arora and his two sons filed a complaint against Yatra Online Private Limited, headquarters, Gurugram and British Airways PLC, Gurugram.
The complaint said that Arora had booked a ticket for his son from Geneva- London-Delhi through the travel agency and paid ₹59,787 for a date in December 2020. However, on arriving at the Geneva Airport, his son Virat Agam was informed that the flight had been cancelled almost a month prior.
He had to stay in Switzerland and had to incur high expenditures.
The travel agency contended that it was an intermediary between service providers and customers and does not have any interference in the modus operandi or working of service providers. Any liability of changes and deficiencies related to the service provider was not its responsibility, it argued.
The airlines argued that cancellation of the flight was intimated well in advance to the travel agent and the company had taken all possible steps to arrange alternative flights for clients on the same date.
However without consent of the complainants, the ticket could not have been issued on alternative flights.
The forum observed that according to evidence on record, the airways kept the complainant in lurch by not providing immediate help in the form of an alternative flight.
It added that the airline is trying to escape from its liability by putting the burden on the travel agent for not sharing contact details of the complainants. The forum added that the airline was duty-bound to seek details of the complainants and sent timely intimation about the cancellation of the flight.
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