Due of the Covid-19 outbreak, the resident of Chandigarh’s return flight from Melbourne had been canceled.
A city resident’s flight was canceled because of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the district consumer disputes redressal panel has ordered Air India and a travel agent to reimburse her for the roughly 40,000 she paid for her ticket and compensate her 20,000 as compensation.

The complainant, Sector 44 resident Narinder Kaur, lodged a grievance with Chandigarh-based Air India and Yatra.com through their respective directors.

Kaur disclosed in her complaint that she had purchased a round-trip ticket from New Delhi in order to travel to Melbourne in February 2020. However, due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, the flight was canceled, so she attempted to book a seat through Vande Bharat Mission from Australia.

Since the opposing parties could not alter or accommodate her on the old ticket, she was therefore forced to buy a new ticket for her return trip in April. On July 19, 2020, she left Delhi once more.

Kaur argued that although the opposition parties had still not reimbursed the cash on her return ticket, the Union ministry of civil aviation had already indicated that there will be a full reimbursement for booking and travel during the shutdown period without cancellation.

Air India rejected the customer’s complaint and insisted that there was no lack of service on their end because the woman had purchased the ticket via a third-party website, Yatra.com. It was also stated that when a ticket has been sold to a third party, Air India no longer monitors its status.

While Yatra.com asserted that the commission lacks jurisdiction and that users of the responding opposing party are bound by the terms and conditions of the master user agreement, which states that any dispute between a user and the responding opposing party is exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the Gurgaon, Haryana, court.

The company said that because they act as an intermediary, they are not responsible for any trip tickets that the complaint purchased directly from an independent airline.

Source- Hindustan times
Link- https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/airlines-travel-company-fined-for-failing-to-refund-chandigarh-resident-s-flight-ticket-101694122341979.html