Confusion and chaos reigned at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Friday evening after SpiceJet Airlines allegedly re-scheduled its Delhi-Guwahati flight timing twice.
According to reports, the Delhi-Guwahati was scheduled to take off from IGI Airport at around 6.40 pm today.
Passengers who are about to board the Guwahati-bound SpiceJet flight slammed the SpiceJet Airlines management for the interruptions.
Notably, the Ministry of Civil Aviation released a charter in August 2019 on the rights of passengers flying within the country.
Here's a look at what customers are entitled to and how they can claim compensation.
Delays
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), if a flight is delayed by over six hours, the airline needs to communicate the rescheduled time more than 24 hours before the original departure time and also offer customers either a full refund or an alternative flight.
In case of a delay of over 24 hours, the passenger should be offered free hotel accommodation.
Customers should also be offered a free stay if a flight departs between 8 pm and 3 am and is delayed for over six hours.
Airlines also need to offer meals and refreshments to passengers in case of delays beyond a certain period, depending on the 'block time' of each flight. Block time is the time between the departure of a flight from the gates and arrival at the destination gates.
If a flight has a block time of two-and-a-half hours, customers are entitled to refreshments if the delay is for two hours.
In case of flights that have a block time of between two-and-a-half hours and five hours, the delay has to be three hours for the passenger to be eligible for refreshments.
If a flight doesn’t fall into these two categories, the delay has to be of over four hours for the airline to offer refreshments.
Cancelled flights
Cancelled flights can play havoc with travel plans, so under ordinary circumstances, airlines are meant to inform you about the cancellation a minimum of two weeks before the scheduled departure time.
At the same time, airlines should arrange another flight for passengers or offer them a refund.
According to the DGCA website, the airline should give a full refund of the amount or an alternative flight if it informs the passengers about the flight cancellation less than two weeks before the flight’s departure but at least 24 hours before the time of departure.
If the airline fails to inform the passenger at least 24 hours before the time of departure, or if they miss a connecting flight booked on the same ticket number because of the cancellation, then it has to pay compensation ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 to the passenger.
If you paid cash, the airline has to refund the money immediately. If you have paid with a credit card, the money has to be refunded within 7 days.
For bookings made via a travel agent, approach the agent. The refund includes Passenger Services Fee, Airport Development Fee/User Development Fee and service tax. You can either take the refund or use it to travel on another date.
