MakeMytrip.com - Flight tickets cancelled by airlines but didn t get refund

We had booked tickets on **th June from Hyderabad to Dharamshala (connecting flights) through MakeMytrip site. Travel date was *st July,****. [Hyderabad -> Chandigarh (Go Air – PNR: N*IUHM): Chandigarh-> Dharamshala (AirIndia – PNR: Z*JHJ)]. On **th June, we received a message from GoAir that the tickets have been cancelled with no reason provided from their side. We tried contacting them, but got no response. Then we contacted MakeMyTrip and after multiple tries, we got to talk to their call center executives. Following are our grievances: *) Total amount of tickets was Rs *****, but MakeMyTrip charged us Rs *****, which they promised to refund (Rs ****). But we never got it back. *) Regarding the refund of cancelled tickets, they said airlines will give credit voucher and we will receive that in MakeMyTrip wallet. And the conditions to use the credit voucher will be as follows: o We can use the amount on same airlines. i.e. We won’t be able to book tickets with any other airline. o The passenger names cannot be changed. i.e. The same passengers should be booking the tickets with same airlines. o Every time we use the voucher, we’ll have to pay convenience fee of MakeMyTrip. o The source and destination locations of booking should be same. o We would not get the refund back in our bank account (the original source of payment). o Every time, we need to contact MakeMyTrip, it takes at least ** mins to connect to them and then they open a new incident on their system and then close it without our consent, thereby leaving us contacting them afresh next time. We end up explaining the issue to every call center executive of theirs. *) We had booked tickets for our hometown in emergency, which they cancelled then. Booking it again would not be of any use. However, even if we want to utilize it, there are no tickets available for the same route on same airline (i.e GoAir). Upon giving this update to MakeMyTrip, we were told that this is Airlines issue and they cannot do anything. And suggested us to go to Hyderabad Airport to check at GoAir Counter to speak with them. In this pandemic situation, we were forced to go there, but to our surprise, we found out that the office of GoAir is shutdown since last three months and MakeMyTrip office was also closed for a week. So basically, this Airline is looting people by booking the tickets and keeping customers’ money after cancelling the tickets without any reason. *) We again called the MakeMytrip customer care, to tell about the status and requested them to make the credit voucher flexible, so that we can book the tickets with some other airlines. But they responded in a harsh way that nothing can be done and if we need to use this money, we must wait for this airline to open the flight tickets and the passenger names, source and destination should be exactly same. *) A point to be noted is that this specific ticket was only available on MakeMyTrip and no other sites, which seems like it is a combined fraud of these two companies (Go Air and MakeMyTrip). Conclusion: We being common people are struggling to get our hard-earned money back, since **th June ****. My senior citizen parents are getting harassed because of this issue. We everyday spend *-* hours in contacting them and get huge disappointment in return. Being aware of DGCA guidelines for airline tickets refund, we spent * month in speaking to those people but by now we have become sure that they have no intentions to initiate the refund (Neither GoAir Airline nor MakeMytrip). We are just being exploited by these two companies. We did some analysis and found that these companies are duping people in a same manner. They first display some connecting flights on the website and fool customers to book them. Later cancel those tickets without giving any reason to customers and retain all the money. Our Sufferings: o We couldn’t reach to our hometown. o We are struggling to get our own money, that too when the cancellation is done by airline. o There is no ticket available for the same route with this airline and we are forced to use credit voucher on their terms. o We were forced to go to airport when they already knew the counters/offices of MakeMyTrip and GoAir are closed for a long time. o We are getting mentally harassed by both these companies for a month. o Rs ***** is a huge amount for a middle-class family like ours. We can’t afford to leave this money just like that and spend more amount to book another tickets. Being responsible taxpayer Indian Citizens, we have our last hopes on Consumer Forum that our grievances will be addressed and taken forward to be resolved and these exploiting companies should be charged a huge compensation and should be taught a lesson by Indian Govt. Please find attached all the relevant documents (MakeMyTrip booked ticket, screenshot of wrong amount charged, Email conversations with MakeMyTrip).