I would like to share my experience with folks around India so that they can make informed decisions before jumping into any holiday package offered by Yatra.com. During the month of September 2009, I planned to take my family out to Singapore. It was meant to be a fun filled trip with everything taken care of by Yatra.com.
My horrible experience began when I made the booking thru YATRA hotline (it went to their Chandigarh Branch). Initially (until I paid the money eh?) their response was pretty prompt and they exhibited a sense of urgency in closing the booking. On Sep 2nd I agreed to go-ahead with the ’customized’ package and made the payment (around 1 lakh rupees) so that they can book the tickets.
The Yatra personnel claimed she would send the tickets the very next day (email of course). However days passed by and I didn’t get any intimation about tickets. I called her, she said she is working on my case and will book without fail today (this was the same response everyday). Extremely irresponsible and unprofessional service. I had to make around 100 calls to their Chandigarh office to get exatcly whats happening. Eventually, I realized they are not capable of booking the tickets (some cheap airways they had suggested to hook me up with the Singapore deal). I booked our holiday tickets on my own.
Now, all YATRA was to do is to ensure, they takecare of land bookings (Hotel + Sightseeing) and VISA processing. There again, their lack of competence and understanding of the process came up. I went through hell of experience and its extremely difficult to express that in any form. Till the date I was supposed to fly out, I had not gotten my passport with Visa stamps. Forget abt the innumerable calls I made to Chandigarh office, Bangalore office and Chennai Office. Well, after all the fight, eventually I boarded the flight. Before boarding I had specifically requested the YATRA Customer Service rep to ensure everything in Singapore atleast is taken care of. Very promptly the person said everything was taken care of and wished me a happy trip.
Well, landed in Singapore @ 5am Singapore time. As we were told, a person would be waiting for us with a pla-card. Apparently, YATRA works with "TOUR EAST Company" in Singapore. The cab/coach which was supposed to pick us up, didn’t turn up. Fortunately, I knew how to deal with such situation(well, having been thru hell of experience and total lack of confidence in YATRA), approached the helpdesk in Singapore and tried to reach TOUR EAST company. Eventually we were arranged for a transport and were picked up from airport @ 9am Singapore time.
Well, next was absolutely horrendous and disorganized land sightseeing experience in Singapore. First of all, the TOUR EAST company representative come late (at least 30 mins after) and next, they push us thru places like we are pigs. Absolutely no breathing time was given to us and we were transported like pigs all around. I blasted the TOUR EAST company for such an experience and he defended by saying they were best (yeah, like we would believe him).
All in all, Please DONOT fall into trap of YATRA.com. What they publish isn’t true (package they offer doesn’t even exist in reality) and they offer extremely poor customer service. Hope this experience will help you guys make good decision while choosing any travel.