American Express Services India Limited
- Airline voucher reissued with 1 month validity Open
Anirudh Iyer filed this complaint against American Express Services India Limited on Aug 25, 2020
A horrendous experience with Amex that has prompted me to consider discontinuing years of association with the brand.
Let me first describe the series of events that have led to this issue.
• In Jan/Feb this year, I redeemed **k points on my Amex card for a travel voucher worth INR **k.
• In Feb itself, I utilized the voucher for a flight booking for my family for the month of July. The total booking amount was INR **k.
• In June, I reached out to the airline and came to understand that my originally booked flight was cancelled. I was given the option for a cancellation and full refund – I took this option.
• The airline informed me that the refund would be processed by the travel agency (Amex travel/Cleartrip) in in ~* weeks. This happened on *rd July.
• I waited * weeks and still did not see any refund processed by Amex. At this time I called the travel agency (Amex travel/Cleartrip) to check on the refund. The customer service rep apologized and stated that the refund would be soon. It was clear that the travel agency had forgotten all about the refund.
• A week later, I got a partial refund into my card account for the amount paid w/o travel voucher initially i.e. INR *k (**k-**k). I was told that the remaining amount will be returned in the form of the voucher. I was not happy but accepted the same since it is understandably challenging to convert voucher to cash.
• Now comes the bombshell: on ** Aug, I received an email from the travel agency stating that the voucher is available to me and I had to use it by **th September ****. Essentially I was told that if I didn’t use the voucher within * month of receiving the email, I would stand to lose INR **k even though the airline had fully refunded the ticket amount.
The issue:
Under any circumstances, this short notice of ** days to book a flight would be deemed harsh, especially when the airline themselves have been considerate and processed a full refund without any T&C. Under the present circumstances with the covid cases peaking, I find this stringent timeline unacceptable. I had even suggested that Amex provide me with a challenging but reasonable timeframe of * months to use the voucher, if not until Dec**** like some airlines. They have refused to change anything at all.
Are you brand?
Are you Lawyer?
Resolution Demanded:
Refund / Credit for purchase
American Express Services India Limited
Resolved
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