- Goibibo not honoring a refundable onward journey ticket and later cancelled my return journey ^Open

Anand Sharma filed this complaint against Goibibo on Dec 22, 2023

Resolution Demanded:
Refund
Damages

On **th August, I booked a return ticket from Bangalore to San Francisco to meet my sister and her family and be with my parents who were visiting San Francisco. The flight details were as below :
Onward Journey – Bangalore to San Francisco on *th December
Return Journey – San Francisco to Bangalore on **th January

I booked what was advertised as refundable onward journey ticket (attached screenshot). In the last week of October, I was faced with a family emergency because of which I had to prepone my travel. So when I attempted to cancel and seek a refund, I found that the travel partner was not honoring the refund policy as advertised and said that the ticket was non-refundable and non-changeable. I was asked to provide the proof of the booking being refundable which I did provide. Inspite of regularly following up with the Travel partner over phone, email and Linkedin and providing all the proofs, the travel partner stuck to it’s stance of saying that the ticket is non-refundable.
After repeatedly saying that the ticket is non-changeable, Goibibo finally agreed to provide a date (**th November) for re-scheduling the onward flight and the charges for it (attached mail). As this date wasn’t suitable for me to travel, I asked for an alternate date after which Goibibo again went back to it’s stance of the onward journey being non-refundable and non-changeable.
After having gone through significant mental distress because of the apathetic and inhuman customer service and being defrauded, I decided to book a flight for onward journey myself and travelled to the USA on **th November.
I was in touch with the Goibibo team on the refund issue and made them aware that I had travelled to the USA (attached conversation of Linkedin). On *th December, the date of my onward journey as per the booked ticket, I was told by the Goibibo representative that because I won’t be able to travel on my onward journey, my return journey ticket is not valid and Goibibo said that this is an airline policy. This came as a shock to me as this significant airline policy that was not adequately highlighted or explained to me :
*) during the booking process OR
*) during the whole period I had been engaging with them from **th October till *th December. The Goibibo team was aware that I had travelled to the USA prior to *th December still they told me of this policy only on *th December
I then reached out to Singapore Airlines highlighting the family emergency I faced and requested them to honor my ticket and allow me to return to India using the return journey ticket for **th January. Singapore Airlines refused to help and asked to reach out to the Travel partner to rebook the return journey as the booking was not directly made with Singapore Airlines.
I again reached out to Goibibo highlighting the family emergency again and requested them to honor my return journey. However, I did not receive any response from them.
I have tried to highlight the issue through social media (Linkedin) but Goibibo has chosen to ignore the customer and refuse responsibility of the terms and conditions promised during the booking process.
It has been a painful and painstaking process, with the travel partner not willing to understand the situation and not honoring the terms of booking and the return ticket itself. I’ve invested a significant amount of time in attempting to resolve the issue with all the * parties – the Travel partner (Goibibo), the portal through which the booking was made (HDFC SmartBuy) and the airlines (Singapore Airlines). I believe Goibibo is accountable for wrongly advertising the tickets as refundable on the booking portal and then not honoring the terms on the booking later.

While I understand that challenges may arise, the prolonged and ineffective resolution process has not only been disheartening but has also had a tangible impact on my time and emotional well-being. I’ve attached all the mail conversation, the conversation made over Linkedin and the call records to highlight – *) the details of the conversation *) the effort made to amicably come to resolution with the travel partner. In light of this, I kindly request:
*) A thorough review of my case to understand the challenges faced during my interactions.
*) An acknowledgment of the time and effort invested in pursuing resolution.
*) Compensation for the inconvenience, stress, and impact on my overall experience.

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