10 December,2010 06:48 AM IST | | Vinod Kumar Menon
It was one hell of a trip for city's businessman Raju Paleja, when a trip he took with his family turned into a 29-hour nightmare that included flight disruption, being stranded without accommodation and being lied to by an airline.
Paleja feels he owes the disaster trip to the carrier he chose to fly.
The family received a message from SpiceJet saying though they had confirmed tickets, the airline would be unable to accommodate them on the flight to Mumbai due to 'operational reasons'
It began when Paleja, a Vile Parle resident, bought round tickets on SpiceJet flights to Varanasi via Delhi for his family and friends, including infants and a pregnant lady, some three months in advance.
They had a wedding to attend. Said Paleja, "We made the bookings through a tour operator on September 10, and got confirmed return tickets.
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We were to board SpiceJet flight SG114 on December 7 and return to Mumbai on flight SG119 on December 9, via Delhi."
All was well until the group, in the middle of the wedding celebration in Varanasi on December 8, the eve of the day they were supposed to fly back home, received a message from the airline, saying that though they had confirmed tickets, the airline would be unable to accommodate them on the flight to Mumbai due to 'operational reasons'.
Said Paleja, "Spicejet ruined our entire trip. We spent the rest of the night calling up their call centre. The nightmare lasted over 29 hours."
SpiceJet informed their travel agent that their flight had been cancelled and that they could either fly from Varanasi to Delhi on the scheduled date or wait back four days before they could be flown back home. Or, they could collect the refund on the tickets if they wished.
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The airline added that it was sorry but would the family please bear its own accommodation expenses in Delhi. But, as Paleja discovered, that wasn't quite how it was.
"While we were checking online travel portals for other flights to Mumbai, we found that tickets were available for the same SpiceJet flight that the airline said had been cancelled. Only, a ticket that we had paid Rs 6,454 for, now cost Rs 17,000.
Clearly Spicejet was trying to make money," said Hemant Shah, a businessman from Jogeshwari who was part of the group.
"After repeated calls to the airline's call centre, we were informed that the flight wasn't really cancelled. But it could only fly up to Delhi, which was kind of odd.
After pleading with a call centre employee and a reservation manager, and explaining that there were children and a pregnant woman in the group, SpiceJet agreed to book us on a flight to Delhi but flying to Mumbai could only be possible on December 10 from there, they said. For our halt in Delhi, they said, they would not arrange for any hotel accommodation," Shah said.
The family decided to go to Delhi. After a pointless argument with SpiceJet staff there they ended up flying on another carrier back home. "We have decided not to fly SpiceJet in future and file a complaint with the DGCA and consumer court," said Paleja.
The Other Side
"Senior airlines official refused to answer questions raised by the family and denied further explanation," said Kapil Kulkarni of PR agency Perfect Relations.
A SpiceJet spokesperson told MiD DAY, "The money will be refunded to the passengers or they will be accommodated on the next available flights. They will be given Rs 1,000 vouchers as well."
