Flying on your advance, the low cost way

The low cost revolution might have made travelling much easier and cheaper, but it has not come without it's own pettiness. If the parsimony with ANY feature was not enough, most airlines seem to follow a strange practice when it comes to cancellations. While all of them charge a fee ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 650 for cancelling, most, it seems, donot want to return the money you have paid even after that. Go Air, Spice Jet, Kingfisher, they all give you a 'credit note' instead of a refund of the remaining amount. The idea being that you use the note the next time you travel.

My issue here is that most people who use these airlines seek the lowest fares, and chances are not great that the next time, they will find it with the same airline. On top of that, since these credit notes come with an expiry date of six months to a year, it is unfair to expect the person to use it well within that time. Especially since a lot of their travellers are not necessarily frequent travellers. In fact, going by the Air Deccan claim of 40% first timers on their planes, we would seem to have a serious issue with repeat usage in any case.

Most importantly, by sticking to your money despite charging a cancellation fee, I feel the airlines are simply doing something wrong, and need to be pulled up for it. A better option would be to give the person the option of zero/lower cancellation fees in case he opts for the credit note. One of the excuses I have been given is that the process of reversing credit card payments is too painful, or even that some banks charge a fee. I don't think any of these hold water.

Even a government company like the Indian railway cataring company (irctc.co.in) , which books railway tickets for the Indian railways, has a fantastic system where refunds come to you within a week, and in case of errors in booking the ticket, the same day even. Clearly, one case where the private players need to learn from a government monopoly on customer orientation.