Cancellation policy is a big trap!. Review on Yatra

This is a review not so much related to the functioning of the website, but the policies of the company. I am not a regular airline traveler. Hence, This time around, when I wanted to book a flight from Delhi to Hyderabad, I checked on the travel portals and decided to book my ticket with SpiceJet through yatra.com.

The spicejet website offered a fare of Rs 2700/- whereas Yatra showed 2850/- ( crossed, the much abused marketing gimmick) and the final landing price as Rs 2600/- with yatra offering a "special" 250/- discount to its customers. I booked the ticket and the booking experience was fine, with regular SMS updates. The cancellation charges as mentioned at the bottom of the ticket were Rs 900 ( Rs 750 as airline cancellation charges + Rs 150 as fee from Yatra).

Unfortunately, my plans changed and I had to cancel the flight. When I called up the customer care ( and the wait times were more than tolerable), they told me that besides the above 900/-, an additional Rs 250/- towards reversal of the discount will be deducted from my refund with the base price taken as 2700. To me , this defied logic. If a company offers a discount to its customers, and the customer for some reason returns the product/service, will the company claim the discount from him/her?????

This is absolutely ridiculous !!!! Any sane pricing manager will will not do this. My long and heated arguments with the customer service resulted in no fruit. The refund was processed smoothly though. This way I was charged Rupees 1150 ( 900 + 250) for my cancellation on Yatra. Had I booked the ticket through SpiceJet directly, I would have been charged only Rs. 750. No guesses for where to book your tickets when your travel is not 200% sure.

Such an illogical pricing policy amounts to fleecing anyone and everyone who happens to book from your site, thumbs down to yatra.!!!!!!