Nov 19, 2009 02:46 PM
3541 Views
Am a frequent flier and have been using KF for long. A recent flight cancellation on the eve of Diwali makes me avoid this airlines from now on. The main reason is not just flight cancellation but a well-planned delay in informing the customers.
I reserved a seat on September 7th for a flight from Bangalore to Pune for October 16th. I was informed of the cancellation on October 12th (4 days before the flight). Upon inquiring, I was told that the flight on this route was discontinued altogether from September 26th!! Clearly, they did not inform me for 3 weeks even when they had discontinued it. The reason became very clear once I tried to rebook myself.
The only option I was given was a flight at 6AM the same day (Friday, a working day). Alternatively, they offered to refund the ticket charges (~Rs. 3000). The other convenient flights by then were more than Rs. 10000. So I asked them to refund my the charges I would encure due to their own negligance and delay. Obviously, being cheat, they refused. Thus they managed to keep my money and made me fly at an incovenient flight 6AM (instead of 6PM). A seat on an otherwise empty flight was also used this way.
This reminded me of an earlier experience I had with KF along the same lines. They sent an SMS about flight cancellation 4/5 days before the flight. I did not rebook myself nor asked for refund as I was in a position to change my plan later. In a couple of days, they informed me that they flight was not cancelled but rescheduled!! I had booked the ticket well in advance at cost of around Rs. 3000. They may have over-booked the flight by selling tickets at Rs. 10000 and then tried to make me cancel/rebook my ticket. This way they would have made Rs. 7000 profit without any risk. I am sure some other early-bird customers may have cancelled/rebooked if they were in a hurry as I did in the situation discribed previously.
It appears to me that KF is playing games in flight ticketing charges. Why would I fly with them no matter how good their service?
