JOIN USFlight cancelled? Forget instant refund
Frequent flight cancellations due to fast-shifting Covid-19 protocols by multiple states and other factors have forced airlines to stick to its ‘credit shell’ strategy perfected last year: No immediate ticket refunds, but passengers could choose another travel date.
Struggling to raise revenue in the pandemic era, this is one of the strategies airlines are adopting to stay afloat.
Simply put, a credit shell is a credit note created against a cancelled PNR that could be used by the air passenger to book another ticket in the future.
But the going has been tough for airlines. Last year, most airlines had taken the credit shell route when all flights were cancelled during the lockdown. Thousands of passengers who had booked tickets in advance could not get a refund in time. Since the flight ban got extended, the credit shells, too, did not work.
As revenues fell, airlines could not refund the credit shells. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had pulled up airlines, directing them to refund passengers for tickets booked during the 2020 lockdown. GoAir and IndiGo reportedly submitted to the ministry that they had completed the refund process.
But not all airlines could afford this. Now, with the second wave triggering more disruptions and uncertainty, cancellations are bound to get more frequent.
However, as a top executive of a travel tech firm explained to DH, airlines and passengers are more prepared now.
“Last year, when the cancellations mounted, the airlines did not know how to deal with it. They had no idea. But now, passengers, too, are aware that when they book a ticket, the flight might be cancelled. They don’t create a ruckus like before,” the executive said, preferring anonymity.
A MakeMyTrip official said the refund process, which would take a week before, now gets extended beyond a fortnight or more. “Airlines have a refund backlog from last year. The second wave has made it even tougher. But whether to take the refund route or credit shell is entirely up to the airline,” he said.
Passengers pay for their tickets through multiple modes and if the refund has to go back to the same source, the process takes time, the travel tech executive pointed out. “Last year, from April to August, airlines were busy with this process, while making no revenue.”