Good experience so far!. Review on Cleartrip

I had booked air-tickets from ClearTrip.com about 4 times in the last one year (between May-2007 to May-2008).

International Credit Card is accepted:

I recently returned to India about an year from abroad. Until now, I do have an international credit card only, that means I do NOT have any credit card issued by an indian bank. When I tried to book air tickets during May-2007 through other 3rd party web-sites like MakeMyTrip.com, Yatra.com (including some of the airline's own web sites itself like Air Deccan, SpiceJet etc.), none of them accepted my credit card...simply because my credit card is an international card. Finally, I tried the same card with ClearTrip.com and got my tickets booked for the same price of what other 3rd party web-sites offered. This was the most influencial facility that keeps me as a HAPPY CUSTOMER of ClearTrip.com unitl today.

Quick Reservation:

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One time, I had to fly to attend an emergency. I booked the ticket in the morning about 10am for a flight that starts at Pune by 4pm. I was able to book through ClearTrip and not found any issues regarding the same in the airport.

Incorrect Ticket Details:

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My reservation details were always be perfect as I filled up during booking process and tickets were issued on time without any delay during all the four booking experiences.

As one of the previous reviewer "Arvind Shukla" mentioned, I am not sure whether the incorrect "date of journey" in his ticket was a "system error"...if the software/system is behaving erroneously, I would expect there will be lot many people would have encountered similar issue by which their business could have been badly affected. I think, this type of issue could occur due to one of the following two reasons:

Reason-1: If ClearTrip representative books the ticket manually (through airline's websites as an Agent or other way of booking by establishing a phone contact or so with the specific airline's booking office) after customer submitted the ticket booking request....then there could be an miscommunication or manual mistake from Cleartrip's part.

Reason-2: If customer himself/herself has entered incorrect information while submitting the booking request online.

I think, ClearTrip sends an EMAIL notification as soon as customer submits the booking request. (there will be one more email that will be sent once your ticket was booked by ClearTrip). I am not sure whether it contains the complete full-info. This email could be the evidence in case of any conflicts in booking information. If you can prove your side as "proper" from this email, ClearTrip should refund full-amount or bear the expenses incurred to issue the correct ticket to the customer.

About Cancellation/Changes in ticket:

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I never cancelled my tickets hence I can not share my experience. However, there are some cancellation charge which is expected to be paid in case of cancellation or any changes in the travel itenerary. I do not think this can be much different than what any other vendors (includingr direct air line's booking office) would do.

Evidence to apply Leave Travel Assistance(LTA):

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I do not think you need to submit separate tickets for your eligible family members to claim LTA. As long as you can calculate the actual expenses incurred for eligible members in the LTA claim form and you may probably encircle/highlight the eligible member names in your (single-consolidated) ticket then that should be fine.

However, if you are trying to submit more than one LTA claims and wants to book all in one booking then also it should be OK. For example, you're planning to travel with your friend's family and you are trying to book tickets for both family members in a SINGLE booking. Say, you and your friend both wants to claim LTA for your respective family's travel expenses. Even if you get a single consolidated ticket (through EMAIL), when you travel every traveller gets an individual BOARDING PASS which is actually a mandatory evidence when you claim LTA. So, there is no issues as such for LTA due to the single ticket issuance of ClearTrip.

Moreover, I have booked tickets for my family along with other relatives as well. But when I claimed LTA I calculated the expense only for my eligible family members (like spouse, Kids and my parents only...) other relatives who travelled with me and listed in my ticket receipt (emailed by ClearTrip) were ignored from calculation...and I submitted only the boarding pass of my eligible family members. Our office's accounts department approved the claim with no questions asked. I hope this would help someone in future. Thanks!

Regards,

Ramesh Bupathy