My tryst with Air Sahara-1

As luck would have it, I had the misfortune of dealing with Air Sahara. My best friend was getting married. Now he lives in US and therefore he asked me to get him 2 tickets from Delhi to Jammu. Now Air Sahara was the only one available, I booked him and his would be wife on it.

But I guess there is something b/w Air Sahara and me. Just when the wedding was happening the airline people called me up (well this time they did call b4 the flight) and told me that the flight has been cancelled and I need not worry as I will get a full refund on it. Full refund…. Did I hear full refund…. A guy is getting married and has plans to leave next day morning for his honeymoon… now How I am supposed to tell him that his honeymoon is cancelled and he need not worry as his money will be refunded.

I told the caller from sahara my problem and asked if those tickets can be transferred to any other flight or air line…. He refused… irritated I asked him for my money back immediately…. The guy says that the process has been initiated and I will get my money back in the credit card used for booking in 45 days. I don’t need to worry about it. What 45 days…. Y will sahara use my money for 45 days….”Company policy sir”… The guy gives me a reference no to trace the status of my money. I asked the guy do I need to do anything else… “nothing sir” came the reply.

The guy went back to US without his honeymoon and I came back to Bangalore. Days past and even after 60 days I did not get my money back. I called up customer care and they told me that I have not returned the tickets and therefore the refund has been stopped..

I told them that I do not have the tickets, as I was never told that I need to submit them. They told me that there is nothing they can do to help me out now and that my money is gone.

I then went personally to sahara’s office. I gave them the reference number and told my problem. The guy says that unless I have the tickets they can not help me. The conversation goes like:

Me: You can check with this reference nbr that you cancelled the flight.
The Guy: Yes I can see that, but I need the tickets that I gave you back.
Me: I don’t have them.
The Guy: So you can not have your money back.
Me: So what should I do.
The Guy: give an application that your have lost your tickets and we will issue new ones. Will charge Rs 500 per ticket and give you the rest of your money back as credit note.
Me: What… Y you will deduct Rs 500 per ticket and y the credit note.
Guy: 500 is ticket re-issue charge and in such cases we give back credit notes…..

By this time I have lost all my mind and just do what he says…so after canceling the flight themselves and keeping me waiting for 2 months all they gave me was a credit note… that too of a lesser value…

But hey how I got to use that is another story….for another post