Travel firm asked to pay 10 k for bungling flight ticket bookings

The petition was filed by T Govindaraj from KK Nagar under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

According to Govindaraj, he had initially booked a flight ticket from Chennai to Guwahati scheduled on September 13, 2015, through the travel agency. A day before the trip, he requested the firm to reschedule his journey to September 20.

The agency asked him to pay Rs 3,418 towards rescheduling fee, which he did. But instead of rescheduling the ticket for September 20, the firm booked it for September 28.

Countering this, the firm denied the allegations and said it rescheduled the booking as requested by Govindaraj. It contended that when Govindaraj wanted to cancel the rescheduled ticket, they refunded the amount, including the cancellation fee, as a goodwill gesture. The complaint liable to be dismissed since there was no deficiency in service, it argued. But Forum president K Lakshmikantham and member PV Jeyanthi, said, “The agency should have attended with due care to note down the day and date while booking the ticket. The agency was not diligent and considering the circumstances, the firm should pay a sum of Rs 5,000 towards compensation for deficiency in service and mental agony, besides a sum of Rs 5,000 for costs with 9 per cent interest.”