JetLite

1. I had a very unpleasant experience with sahara airlines recently

which leads me to believe that this company follows the following

policy:-

a. Talk big.

B. Act small.

C. Use discount offers to attract the customer and then execute a

rip-off.

D. If someone complains, talk big, act small and hold on for dear life

to the rip-off.

1. At the pune ticketing office, I purchased a discount offer ticket

for rs 2500 for my wife to fly from delhi to pune. This was apparently

a good deal because one was flying for rs 2500 only against a normal

fare of rs 5999. However, such a discount is available only for 25 days

in advance on a firm booking. Another restriction that I was informed

about was that the ticket was non-refundable and I could make only one

preponement or postponement within 15 days of travel. Fair enough.

Incidently, there was a brochure pinned up on a notice board at the

ticketing office with details of the discount fare plan. When I asked

if I could have a copy, I was informed that it was only for the office

use and not for customers.

1. As it happened, my wife had to advance her flight due to some urgent

work. Since there were less than 15 days to go, the airline could only

change the reservation on payment of:-

(a) a full fare (rs 6999)

(b) minus the rs 2500 already paid

(c) plus a rs 500 penalty.

1. Upto this point, I wasn’t aware of this ’’plus rs 500 penalty’’. The

airline staff at pune where I had purchased the ticket had never

informed me either verbally or in writing about this penalty.

1. Secondly, the harassment. My wife was expected to go to connaught

place at the sahara office in delhi to get the ticket duly changed at

the earliest. I asked if she couldn’t do this on the day of the flight

itself at the airport ticketing counter by paying the difference of

fare, if you could make a notation of the changes on your computerised

ticketing system ? A big no. Once again, the airline staff at pune

where I had purchased the ticket had never informed me either verbally

or in writing about this procedure. This was definitely an avoidable

piece of travel, considering that one full day was wasted in getting to

connaught place and back.

1. I made a short complaint on the sahara website through an e-mail.

After about a week, ( talk about speedy customer-care !) I received a

call from a middle-level manager who started with a fair effort to

understand my complaint and then an offer of apology in writing for the

mistake made by the ticketing staff at pune in not informing me about

the rs 500 penalty. This was followed by a big lecture on the economics

of discount fares and the big favour being done by the sahara airlines

to the indian public, not to mention the security risks involved in

issuing tickets anywhere except at the connaught place office. I got

the feeling that sahara assumes every passenger to be a potential

suicide-bomber or an aircraft-hijacker, unless his or her body-language

can be properly observed and analysed at the connaught place ticketing

office? The lecture made me feel that the victim in this whole episode

was not me but sahara airlines.

1. What is at stake here? Firstly, a rs 500 penalty. Is it a big

amount? Well no. But wait a minute. Although this appears to be a minor

sum, it seems important enough to the airline which levied the penalty

in the first place! Then why should it not be important enough for me?

And at the point when I was informed of the penalty, I was totally at

the mercy of the airline....either pay the rs 500 penalty or lose the

entire rs 2500. Do you see the rip-off, and the petty attitude behind

this whole set-up? Secondly, what is the logic of this penalty? Is

there any loss to the airline if I change the date of travel? No. Is

that the administrative cost of issuing another piece of paper? Mr.

Middle manager’s argument was precisely that. ’’it takes money to

maintain the wide area network servers, you know’’. Further, in this age

of computerised reservations, one expects online handling of one’s

requirements through phone or on the internet to avoid unnecessary

trips on the road. Is it not possible to cancel one’s booking of a

ticket on the phone and pick up another from the airport on the day of

travel? Or does the airline just derive sadistic pleasure in making the

passenger travel all the way to connaught place?

1. I refuse to believe mr middle manager’s explanation that the

ticketing staff at the pune counter made an honest mistake in not

informing me in advance about the rs 500 penalty. I also refuse to

believe that the ticketing staff at the pune counter made an honest

mistake in not providing me a pamphlet on the terms and conditions of

the discount deal. Well, I did ask for that and that was exactly i

didn’t get since there was apparently only one pin-up copy for office

use and none for the customers. The way I see it, it is a well-known

business practice ( as learnt by our mbas coached in highbrow

american-style business schools) to not reveal the unattractive parts

of a deal especially when one is talking about an otherwise attractive

package. I have a feeling that the staff is quite properly coached in

what and how much to reveal or conceal. The trick is to tell only the

attractive parts of the deal when money is being initially committed by

the customer, and leave the unsavoury parts for later, if the customer

ever finds out, when he is anyway in a no-win situation. That’s why,

these customer-repelling penalty clauses either never appear in print

on the ticket or are not pointed out to you specifically. The

conditions of contract that appear on the ticket are about other

general minor inconveniences, and even those are heavily loaded in

favour of the airline to help it wriggle out of every conceivable

sticky situation whether of their own making or not, including one...

And I really like this ... In which if they book extra passengers by

mistake, they have every right to haul you out of the aircraft by the

scruf of your neck and dump you on the tarmac (with a letter of apology

later on, if you really want it, buddy) but no promises of monetary

compensation.... Wouldn’t you love to have that experience?

1. My basic point is this. A customer often has a subterranean desire

not to be considered a nitpicking, small-minded, cheapster...

Quibbling over petty sums and minor inconveniences when dealing with a

nice big friendly airline, with charming ’’lucy’’ at the front office,

hence one shies away from making an issue. The big companies make money

from you by doing exactly that...by being nitpicking, small-minded and

cheap...all by hiding behind the charming ’’lucy’’ at the front office.

(that’s why charming lucy got the job in the first place). They offer

you small-printed, unreasonable and one-sided terms of contract that

you can do nothing about. As the companies see it, the onus of being

fully informed of the terms of contract is upon the customer and not

upon the airline. And if they are confronted with the details, they

play hide and seek by unloading the blame upon hapless lucy for not

doing her job too well. Put lucy on the tarmac!