Yatra: Fraud to the power of infinity. Review on Yatra

I've been planning to write this review for so long now but just was able to find time. So, in June 15, 2015, we initiated a booking for an international travel package to Spain - inclusive of flight tickets, visa, accommodation, and sightseeing. We wanted to fly on the 11th of July. Also, we wanted a package where we would be picked and dropped off at our place of accommodation for every sightseeing tour. This was agreed upon by the team - Umesh Singh from Yatra. They tried to get us on expensive flights, and we had to research by ourselves to find cheaper tickets online and then suggest it to them. Initially they disagreed that such a flight existed, but later agreed and told us we could book tickets on that flight. After this, they asked us to make advance payment of INR 60, 000 to block the flights. We were informed this was non-refundable but once this was paid, we could be assured of the flights. I readily sent our passport copies and made payment of INR 60, 000 on their link. They sent a copy of the tickets. After 2 days, this same Umesh Singh calls and tells me(in a typical tele-ads tune) "So Madam, we'll have to cancel these tickets and book your tickets for around the 20th of July." I asked him what the problem was. He tells me nonchalantly that there's no problem, we dont think you'd get visa approved within such short time, so we think you should book flights for a later date. And for that? We have to pay INR 40, 000 as rescheduling fees! For no fault of ours. Can you believe that?!

I asked  him why he didnt tell us this before we paid the 60K INR, He says madam we didnt know that Spain embassy takes so much time to process visa and we just came to know they take 15 working days minimum to process visa. He very casually tells us, you count the number of days left, ma'am. Do you think you'll get visa on time? You wont. So reschedule tickets with 40, 000 extra! I told him I am not going to pay extra for no fault of ours! He says you should have known about visa rules as you have traveled so much, so why did you pay us without counting the number of days left?! Ha! No apologies in any way whatsoever! I called their so-called customer service number. People picked up and keep passing the phone to different departments. Then a guy picks up, says that's very unprofessional of our guy, ma'am. We'll sort it out and call you back. After that? Not a single call back and as expected, no one answers our calls. Later, an Anshuman Saraswat from the same team as Umesh calls us up and says listen, what you can do is apply though some other European embassy, like France, and then go to Spain. Yes, they will question and detain you at the embassy, but we'll give you dummy accommodation tickets to France as we do that often for many of our customers!(We have these conversations recorded and saved on our phone as proof till date!). Can you believe they wanted us to commit fraud?! And they say, yes, we'll get detained at the immigration counter. But you can get through it, we are sure. Oh God!

So the story went thus. Me and my co-passenger called up the embassy ourselves and asked them if there is any chance we could get our visas approved before our flights, and they said, yes, give it a shot. It may get approved. We flew all the way to Mumbai to submit our visa applications ourselves and did the whole thing ourselves. Luckily our visa was approved within a short time, but we had to do all the running around by ourselves, after paying nearly INR 3 lakhs to Yatra for their services.

What's more, 2 days before the trip they say they never committed to our request for pick and drop off at our place of accommodation for every sightseeing tour. For this, Ritika Oberoi puts Umesh Singh on a conference call and they say oh, you dont understand.pick and drop means from the point where the buses start. Not from your point of accommodation. That's the kind of transportation we committed to! I mean, really! They stoop so low when it comes to conning customers. No compromise when it comes to money, but everything else is nothing to them.(Oh, before I forget, also on this "dream team" was Sumi Baruah. Now you know all the names you need to avoid.)

One thing that came out of all this is that we started planning our trips by ourselves with no middleman. Seriously, trust us, you dont need a Yatra or Makemytrip to plan your holidays. They give you a total package cost and refuse to even give you a break up of the costs. They   say it's "company policy." Try it for yourselves some time. But, please, NEVER commit your money to them.

We hope this review helps you all and prevents further cases of fraud from Yatra.

Cheers!