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Travel Complaints

There are various modes of transportation in India be it through air, sea or land. Indian transportation, due to its immense population, is one of the most widely used in the world.

For traveling within India people generally prefer to rent a car or travel via train or bus as they deem convenient. Ola and Uber are prime examples of this. These startups have skyrocketed and are one of most used traveling apps in the India.

Meanwhile, many people prefer to travel via plane as it saves times. For this they either book the ticket through the website directly or look for agents to do the same.

Apart from big names there are some private travel agencies in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata etc, which try to lure customers by offering them lucrative discounts. Travel agent frauds are quite prevalent in India. The most common travel agent/agency complaints include refund not provided, hotel denying check-in, fake promises etc.

Travel complaints have a sense of urgency and responsibility attached to them because no one wants to board a late flight or wants to stay in low-quality hotel.

We all want our travels and trips to be smooth right from the beginning. And if something does not go as per our expectations, the mood gets spoiled!

Therefore, it brings a significant responsibility on the shoulders of the travel companies to solve the issues faced by their customers. One should only book their hotels/flights via trustworthy sites to avoid getting duped. However, sometimes even these reputed travel companies commit an error.

In this article, we have covered the common travel complaints that are faced by customers and how you can resolve them.

But first lets check out the famous travel companies in India

Famous Travel Companies in India

1. Make My Trip

Make my Trip is one of the leading online travel companies in India. In 2000 it was founded by Deepak Kalra and had its headquarters in Gurugram, Haryana.

They have more than 14 company-owned travel stores in India and have over 30 franchisee-owned travel stores in India. They also have offices in Dubai, Phuket, Bangkok, New York, Kuala, and Lumpur.

2. Yatra:

Founded by Manish Amin, Sabina Chopra, and Dhruv Shringi in 2006, Yatra.com is the pre-eminent Indian online travel agency. It is based in Gurugram, Haryana. According to the sources in 2012, Yatra became the second-largest online travel service provider company in India.

3. OYO:

Oyo rooms, popularly known as Oyo hotels and rooms and stylized as OYO, is the fastest and largest growing hospitality chain in India. They worked on the franchising and leased system, which fortunately turned out to be the best for the company. Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, OYO gained much popularity right from the beginning.

4. GOIBIBO:

Subsidiary of Make My Trip Limited, Mauritius Ibibo, is a travel organization in 2006 by Ashish Kashyap. In 2013 Goibibo made it among the top five most trusted e-commerce brands in India.

5. HappyEasyGo:

Happy Easy Go is one of the emerging online travel company founded by Boris Zha in 2017. In 2019 it became the second-largest online travel booking platform in India and had more than 10 million customer bases all over the world. It has its headquarters in Gurugram, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, and Singapore. During late 2018 HappyEasyGo established its hotel business.

6. Thomas Cook:

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has its headquarters in Mumbai and caters to all the travel related requirements from visas to foreign exchange. They established themselves in India in 1881 and expanded its business to all the nearby countries.

7. Clear Trip:

Clear Trip earlier was known as Clear Trip Travel Services Private limited is a universal online travel company established in 2016. It has its headquarters in Dubai and Mumbai. In India, they started with a vision of making travel simple by bridging the gap between the Indian hospitality and travel sector. It was founded as an air and hotel aggregator by Stuart Crighton, Mathew Spacie, and Hrush Bhatt.

8. Travel Guru:

Travel Guru is India’s leading and growing travel website. It offers flights, holiday packages, and hotels at the best prices; they aim to make your trip smooth and convenient.

9. Travel Triangle:

Founded by three IIT graduates Sanchit Garg, Prabhat Gupta, and Sankalp Agarwal. It is India’s first fully stacked Holiday Marketplace that connects verified travel agents and travelers. It was founded in 2011 and competed with companies such as Thrillophilia. It is a platform that is trusted by many.

10. Travelocity India:

It is rated as one of the best online travel portals in the world and perfectly caters to the local needs of the people by launching specialized programs. In India, they cater to both business and leisure requirements.

Types of Travel Complaints

1. Tickets canceled, but money is not refunded:

One of the significant problems that are being faced by customers of major travel companies is that they cancel the tickets, but money is not credited to their bank account. This is the most common issue faced by almost all the consumers in cities like Pune, Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru.

During COVID-19 times, many have reported on the internet that they have booked tickets, and they got canceled due to the pandemic. However, the companies did not refund the amount. Either they are saying that they have refunded the amount, or instead, they are offering a credit voucher.

2. No refund for flights canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic:

Due to the global pandemic, suddenly, flights were canceled. It was reported by customers of many major travel companies that they did not get their refund; however, the airlines did return the full booking amount. Many customers were upset because the travel companies did not inform them about the refund from the airlines.

3. Partial refund for the flights canceled due to COVID-19:

Many customers reported that they did not receive the full amount of flights they booked pre-corona. However, airlines have refunded the entire amount, but travel companies did not credit the whole amount; instead, they deducted a certain amount without giving any valid reason.

4. No refund against booked packages:

Many planned trips in June assuming that pandemic will end, but in the wake of current times, still, the tourism industry is on hold.

As people booked packages for traveling and now are requesting for a refund, but many companies are simply denying it.
However, many customers are disturbed with it because, in these uncertain times, they are struggling so much to get their refund.

5. Unable to connect with customer care service:

Many customers from significant travel companies face this very issue when they contact the customer care, they are not entertained, or their complaints are not correctly handled.

Many faced this particular issue while they were contacting the customer care, and their complaints were not appropriately welcomed or they were not able to connect with them.

6. Fraudulent booking agents:

Many travel companies have their booking agents, but some fraudsters just dive in and cheat people.

Many customers from significant companies, including Make My Trip and Yatra complained that they had been cheated by fraudsters in the name of these companies, and they have demanded a refund from the company.

7. Rescheduling of flights due to COVID-19:

Due to Corona pandemic, many people had to reschedule their flights, but travel companies are not helping them or are not considering their request.

8. Over billing by travel companies:

The most common types of complaints regarding Ola and Uber include over billing issues and not returning the left item in the cab. But you can try contacting the customer care number of Ola which is 098842437 and customer care of Uber which is 1300091272.

How to resolve travel complaints?

1. File support ticket/send an email:

You can always contact travel companies through their official website by going to their contact us section and by sending them an email. Customer service emails of some leading travel companies are:

Yatra- support@yatra.com
Make My Trip- care@makemytrip.com
Happy Easy Go- cs@happyeasygo.com
Clear Trip- customersupport@cleartrip.com
Goibibo- travel@goibibo.com
Travel guru- service@travelguru.com

2. Call Customer support:

One of the perfect ways to directly come in contact with the travel company is by contacting it through phone call for customer support. All these well-known travel companies have a 24*7 working customer care number which helps in resolving complaints as they value customer feedback. The customer care number of some of the leading travel agencies and hospitality companies in India are :

Cox and Kings Customer Care Number - 1800 209 0400
Thomas Cook Customer Care Number - 1800 209 9100
Club Mahindra Holidays Customer Care Number - 044 6695 3435
Expedia Customer Care Number – 800-319-4834
Yatra Customer Care Number - 0124 3040500
Goibibo Customer Care Number - 1800 208 1060
Makemytrip Customer Care Number - 1800 102 8747
Travelguru Customer Care Number - +91 92111 77444
Oyo Customer Care Number - 093139 31393
RedBus Customer Care Number - 1860 121 2102

3. Report to the airlines/hotel directly:

As we have seen above, many customers have reported that the airlines and hotels have issued a refund, but the travel companies have not refunded the money in the bank accounts. It is always better to contact the airlines or hotels directly if the companies don’t issue a refund by time. You can contact the airlines and hotels by calling them on their customer care number or by sending the email.

4. Send Legal Notice:

Consumers can send legal notices to travel company in case it is unable to resolve his complaint. It is one of the efficient ways to handle the issue legally. Check below to know how to send a legal notice to travel company?

Step 1: Firstly, get a legal notice drafted by a lawyer.
Step 2: Check it properly and make sure it is signed by lawyer.
Step 3: Keep a copy of it for future purposes.
Step 4: Send the legal notice to travel company by registered post.
Step 5: Keep the slipor delivery report for evidence.

5. File consumer forum case:

Consumer forum deals with consumer complaints and you should approach consumer forum if you feel that your rights as a consumer have been violated.

If travel company is not responding to your complaints even after sending legal notice by a lawyer then you should file a case against it in a consumer court.

Here is how you can file a case in the consumer court?

Step 1: Intimate the aggrieved party via legal notice.
Step 2: Draft the consumer complaint
Step 3: Attach all the relevant documents and proofs to support your complaint.
Step 4: Select the appropriate court for filing the complaint.
Step 5: Pay the prescribed court fee that is required to be paid along with the complaint.
Step 6: Submit the case along with the affidavit & fees in the court.
If you feel uncomfortable doing all this yourself, then you should use Voxya to file a complaint against travel company. We will send Legal Notice and prepare Case for filing in consumer court. We, at Voxya, are generally receiving more than 100 travel consumer complaints every month.

Complaints

Ramanuj on Apr 22, 2019

Goibibio – Not refunded after flight being cancelled by the airline Closed

I had a flight from Kolkata to Lilabari on **/**/****. The flight was cancelled by the Airline. I had used Goibibo's platform to book the tickets. Ever after logging a service request (********), I am yet to be refu...

Gp Capt S Shrivastava on Apr 22, 2019

Cleartrip – Non cooperation in name correctionClosed

I have booked domestic and international tickets through Cleartrip on ** April. Within ten minutes of my booking, I realised that I have made a mistake in my son's name. The ticket reads Arju instead of Arjun. I str...

Jaya jainani on Apr 21, 2019

Oyo – Lack of security Closed

Someone by the name Mr Mangesh Raut has used my mobile number to book Oyo hotel rooms. Why Oyo app has not some security procedures to send some verification number on the given mobile number to authenticate if the ...

Aman jain on Apr 21, 2019

Easemytrip.com – Money taken but booking not madeClosed

The complaint is regarding my baggage booking which I did from EMT for my Air Asia flight from Bangkok to Phuket. I have purchased ** kg of baggage from EMT for Rs ****. We were informed at Bangkok airport that EMT ...

Kamal chourasia on Apr 20, 2019

Goibibio – Worst car services Closed

I booked cab services from Goibibo for Jaipur for **th April ****. I booked Cab on **th and they scheduled the cab and mailed me that cab will arrive at your address at **:** am. But no cab came. I called customer c...

Zaki Ahmad on Apr 20, 2019

Oyo – Refund got declinedClosed

Booking ID: TURG**** I booked Oyo ***** ( Luxury Home ) for * nights from Wed ** April to Sun ** April and paid online Rs ****. On **th April I reached the location provided by Oyo app. There was no hotel in the pa...

Anushruti chatterjee on Apr 18, 2019

Make My Trip – Customer harassment doneClosed

We booked * rooms via Make My trip for Regenta resorts in Pushkar wherein we got confirmation of the booking too and after nearly * days we received a call from the resort that the rooms are full and they don't have...

Prasun khabya on Apr 18, 2019

Red Bus – Bus did not showed as per the boarding timeClosed

I booked a bus from Redbus en route from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. The name of the travel was Laxmi travels. The bus was scheduled to come at *:** pm at the boarding point. Redbus notified the information through the me...

Praveen Agarwal on Apr 18, 2019

Goibibo – No response on my flightsClosed

Goibibo website is modified suitably to give no response on Jet bookings. I have booked Jet flight from Mumbai to Singapore but all modes of communication from Goibigo website is blocked. Phone lines always state th...

Jithin Das on Apr 17, 2019

Cleartrip – Full refund not receivedClosed

I have booked a ticket on **th of March **** from Mumbai to Bangalore for two passengers on Cleartrip for an amount of Rs *****. The trip id is ************. However, the name I entered there was wrong and I immedia...

Sujay Navghare on Apr 16, 2019

Oyo – No response from customer careClosed

I booked Oyo sober dreams Hinjewadi Pune hotel for ***/-. After reaching there I came to know due to the electricity issue they couldn't allocate the room to me. They ask me to place a call to customer care to adju...

Abhinav sharma on Apr 16, 2019

Goibibo – Refund is not given for cancelled transactionClosed

I booked train tickets from Goibibo which gets cancelled and the money is deducted. They are sending me emails from weeks saying the refund is done but I haven't got single money from them. Also, they haven't provid...

Babli razdan on Apr 16, 2019

Makemytrip (india) Pvt. Ltd. – Check in baggage allowance Closed

A few days ago we inquired on MakeMyTrip app about booking of flight for Sector Jammu Delhi and saw that check-in baggage allowance of ** kgs allowed in Air India flight no AI ****. Accordingly, we booked a ticket u...

Jithin Das on Apr 14, 2019

Cleartrip – Refund not receivedClosed

I have booked a ticket on **th of March **** from Mumbai to Bangalore for two passengers on Cleartrip for an amount of Rs *****. However, the name I entered there was wrong and I immediately called the Cleartrip cus...

Prashanth on Apr 12, 2019

Zoom Car – Treated badly by the companyClosed

I have booked a car from zoom car on **.**.**** for ** hours and he supposed to deliver it by * am on booked day. But they didn't deliver the car instead of delivery they asked me to pick the car from another locati...

Ayantika Chatterjee on Apr 12, 2019

Oyo Hotel – Rude and threatening attitude of the receptionist Closed

On **th March we had booked at GS Residency in Varanasi. Due to some reason, we cancelled the booking in the hotel itself and wanted to seek assistance from an Oyo advisor but the receptionist misguided us and misbe...

P KUMAR on Apr 12, 2019

Cleartrip – No refund for failed booking Closed

Cleartrip is not refunding amount for failed booking even though bank and intermediary ccAvenue is stating successful transfer to Cleartrip account. They are cheating customers. Customer service is pathetic and they...

Tina mitra on Apr 12, 2019

Make My Trip – Harassed by the companyClosed

I made a booking through MakeMyTrip for two adults and one child to Hotel Malas, Panchgani for one night on *th April ****. On arrival, I was harassed by the front office receptionist by saying that I did not provid...

Aakriti upadhyay on Apr 11, 2019

Happy Easy Go – Refund not givenClosed

My PNR number was RNRGNR with a two-way journey. I wanted to cancel my return ticket three days prior to the journey. The app of happy go easy wasn't helpful so I went ahead and cancelled the tickets from the Indigo...

SHAILENDRA KUMAR on Apr 11, 2019

Make My Trip – Refund not made for the cancelled flight ticketClosed

I had cancelled round trip booking flight Delhi-Sydney on **.**.**** and till date, no refund has been done. Their support customer care and chat are absolutely pathetic. No one replies. Booking ID is NN************...

Resolved

"Voxya has been instrumental in addressing my concern. I truly appreciate the prompt and effective assistance provided throughout the process. Will certainly recommend Voxya to others."

Ajay Masih

Complaint filed against: Byjus

Ajay Masih
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