My review of Jet Airways is based on my experience of the airline misleading and cheating me on the name of "Free" / "Complimentary" ticket that I had got as a part of Jet Airways ICICI bank Sapphiro credit card after paying an annual fee of INR 6000 (over USD100) and the terribly poor service quality provided by the airline pre-departure (while making the bookings).
In Oct 2012, I had applied for Jet Airways ICICI bank Sapphiro credit card by paying an annual fee of approx INR 6000/- and had got a Complimentary One way Air ticket on Jet Airways Flight as a part of the promised offer. The validity of the Complimentary ticket is for travel till 27-Jun-2013. I had tried making a booking using the "COMPLIMENTARY TICKET" on 19 & 20-Feb-2013 using the Promotion code that I had received as part of my "Jet Airways ICICI Bank Sapphiro" Credit card.
On these dates, the all inclusive revenue ticket was available for INR 3850 (DEL-MAA) and I wanted to make a booking by redeeming the "COMPLIMENTARY Ticket" promotion code that I had got from Jet Airways. However, unfortunately the code did not work even after multiple attempts for any of the dates and sectors when I tried redeeming this on 19th & 20th Feb.
So I had called the Jet Airways reservation helpline on 20-Feb. After a long wait of over couple of hours (being put on hold, being transferred from one department to another and giving reasons such as the issue can be resolved only by ICICI even though the Promotion code was e-mailed by VP Marketing JetAirways), I was finally communicated that the issue can not be resolved on Phone and I have to send an e-mail to info@jetairways.com. I had promptly sent the e-mail and the same was forwarded to Jet Previlege Service Centre by "Info" with out giving me a solution.
While all of this happened on 20-Feb, I have not received any response from any of the departments of Jet Airways till date on why the code did not work on 19th and 20th Feb. When I tried again to make the booking, the Promotion code worked on 21-Feb and I was able to redeem the same for the booking I was trying to make. To my surprise, the cost of the ticket after redeeming the so called "Complimentary TICKET" was INR 4500+ which is more than the revenue ticket (INR 3850) that was available a day earlier. As I had lost trust and confidence on Jet Airways and the level of customer service that they can provide to their loyal customer.
I went ahead and purchased the Complimentary ticket for INR 4500 (by spending INR 700 more than what I was getting a day earlier as revenue ticket). I had sent multiple e-mails to the Jet Airways explaining the problems I had faced and requesting an explanation on the below points :
- To start with, I had to spend over 2 hours of my valuable time on phone to get a solution to a problem created by Jet Airways of my Complimentary ticket code not working. At the end of this painful effort, there was no solution provided; Instead I was asked to send an e-mail. After sending the e-mail, there is no clear explanation provided till date on why the code did not work on 19th and 20th Feb.
Because of this delay and poor customer service from Jet Airways, I had to purchase a Complimentary ticket at a price more than the revenue ticket.
- I had to spend approx INR 6000 of joining fee for my Jet Airways ICICI Bank credit card, and as a part of the deal, I was promised a Complimentary one way ticket. But when it came to redeeming the same, the Complimentary ticket worked out more expensive than a revenue ticket. This a a straight forward case of misleading and cheating a loyal customer by false advertising. So requested Jet Airways for an explaination on how can a Complimentary ticket be more expensive than a revenue ticket.
However, even after multiple reminders over past 2 months, I have not received any satisfactory response. All responses from Jet Airways have been stating that the fare difference can not be refunded as the fares are already discounted. Key aspect the airline is not able to understand is that my intention has never been to get INR 700 back from Jet Airways. My time that I have been spending in writing to the airline is much more valuable than INR 700 that the airline says is not ready to give back.
None of the rationale provided by the airline explains why the "Complimentary" ticket promotion code does not work when a cheaper ticket is available and why it started working only after all cheaper tickets are sold out. Had the code worked on 19th Feb when DEL-MAA tickets were available for INR 3850 and had fare quote for "Complimentary" ticket shown INR 4500, I would have immediately trashed the e-mail from VP Marketing, Jet Airways (with "Complimentary" ticket redemption code) and gone ahead with the discounted revenue ticket for INR 3850. I wouldn’t have even bothered to raise this with the airline any further.
Fact here is the "Complimentary" redemption code did not work when cheaper tickets were available; I did not get any help from the airline customer service (even after wasting 2 hours on phone) in getting the same sorted out; the issue was neither sorted out by e-mail; and when the "Complimentary" redemption code started working, I had to shell out more money than what I would have paid for a ticket available to general public when I originally wanted to make the booking a day earlier.
Drivers for me taking this issue so seriously is the mere frustration out of : - fact that the airline could not provide timely help on sorting out the issue of the promotion code not working; - frustration out of repeated cut and paste e-mails from their customer service teams teaching me the airline market dynamics, Revenue Management, RBDs, Inventory caps by booking classes, dynamic inventory fluctuations, real time bookings so on and so forth -
And the basic fact that the airline has never acknowledged that there has ever been a service failure from their end; let us not talk about of any efforts to recover the service. - as a result of above facts; it is the feeling that "I have been cheated" which forces me to take this issue so seriously and bring in to the notice of wider audience using social media.