According to reports by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), within four months, close to 5.12 lakh domestic passengers in India faced issues due to airline companies denying boarding, as well as flight cancellations and delays. Airline companies have paid their passengers compensations of over Rs 22 crore for various inconveniences during the first four months of this year.

KNOW THE RIGHTS

It’s important to stay informed about the refund policies of your airline for delays, cancellations, being denied boarding, loss or damage, or delayed arrival of baggage. Also, find out about their grievance redressal procedure.

REFUND PROCESS

The refund process is fairly straightforward. The airline is mandated to follow the civil aviation requirements issued by the DGCA. The compensation has to be paid in cash, bank transfer or travel vouchers, according to the preference of the customer.

Compensation for Delayed Flight
Compensation for Delayed Flight

RELATED CASE

Dr. Varinder Singh and his wife Monica Singh Kanwar booked a return flight from Delhi to Hangzhou (China). The flight was delayed by 24 hours, the day it had to arrive to New Delhi. Consumer forum directed to pay 500 USD along with Rs. 30,000 as a compensation for the delayed flight.

The Airline is not liable to pay the compensation. The ICICI Lombard General Insurance company has to pay the compensation. The reason behind this is that Dr. Varinder Singh and his wife were travelling under the travel insurance policy provided by the company. According to the policy the company will pay the damage if the flight is delayed. When the company denied to pay the damages, the victim approached the consumer forum. On the complaint of the victims, the forum gave a judgement against the insurance company.

 Dr. Varinder, in his complaint, told that he had booked a return flight from New Delhi to Hangzhou on 22 July, 2018. For this flight he had also taken travel insurance policy and paid Rs. 671 as a premium amount. According to this policy if the flight is delayed for more than 6 hours, the passenger will get 500 USD as a compensation. In the complaint the complainant told that on 26 July 2018 when Dr. Varinder had to come back to New Delhi from China the flight was delayed for more than 24 hours. Due to this the complainant returned to New Delhi the next day. Dr. Varinder told that due to delayed flight he had suffered some financial loss also. After reaching Chandigarh he filed a complaint against the insurance company in the consumer forum.

The insurance company argued that the claim of the costumer was in process but the costumer did not submitted the documents he was required to submit. Due to non availability of documents the company did not pass his claim. According to the policy the costumer was required to submit all the bills which he did not submit.

After hearing both the parties the consumer forum directed the insurance to pay 500USD in Indian currency. The consumer forum also directed to pay Rs. 30,000 as a compensation and Rs. 15,000 as procedural expenses.

For your specific case advice, you may contact top/best/expert Consumer Court or State Commission Lawyers/Advocate in Chandigarh Panchkula Mohali Zirakpur Derabassi Kharar Mullanpur New Chandigarh.

This post is written by Dipti Prakash of Punjab University. For more info, please dial 99888-17966.