Cancellations, refunds, name corrections: What changes for flyers with DGCA’s new rules

The DGCA said the issue of refund of tickets by airlines has become a “major source of grievance” among passengers, with a large number of complaints being regularly received highlighting issues like delay in refunds, problems with the refund value, and airlines adjusting refund amount against future travel instead of issuing a refund.

“While the Government is committed not to interfere in the commercial practices of the airlines, the volume of the complaints necessitates some affirmative action to safeguard the interest of the traveling public. The matter has been discussed in several meetings with the airlines with no improvement in the system adopted by airlines for refund of tickets. It is now considered that the onus rests with the Government to fix some minimum benchmarks, as far as the refund policy is concerned…,” the regulator said.

The changes in airfare refund rules

• Refunds for bookings made via travel agents, portals:In case the ticket is booked through a travel agent or an online travel portal, the deadline for completing the refund process has been shortened to 14 working days from 30 working days.
• Look-in option: The “look-in” period — allowing cancellation or amendment without charge — has been doubled to 48 hours from 24 hours. But the time between booking and departure to qualify for this option has been changed from a flat seven days earlier to seven days for domestic flights and 15 days for international flights. Moreover, the new rules mention that this facility is available “when ticket is booked directly through the airline website”; the facility was also applicable to bookings through travel agents and portals in the earlier rules. This effectively means that changes/cancellations can be made chargeable even in the look-in period if booking are made through travel agents/online portals.
• Name correction window:The 24-hour window for free name correction now specifies it applies when the ticket is booked directly through the airline website. The earlier rules did not make a distinction between the airline and travel agents/portals for this facility. The change means that customers can be charged for name correction even in this window if the ticket is not booked directly with the airline.
• New medical emergency clause:A new clause has been inserted in the revised rules, which provides for refunds or credit shells in cases of hospitalisation of the passenger or a family member listed on the same ticket PNR during the travel period. “For all other situations, refunds will be issued once an opinion on the passenger’s fitness to travel certificate is received from an airline’s aerospace medicine specialist/DGCA empanelled aerospace medicine specialist,” the revised rules state.

Except for these changes and the one additional medical emergency clause, all other clauses in the revised rules are identical to the ones already in place.