GoAir ? Only if you wish to GoMad !!

On Sept 17th I had booked tickets to Goa and was thrilled that I managed to get two tickets for Rs. 21000/-. It was a set of hopping flights and I was thrilled that I had managed to book in advance and was so smart ….. The first time I realised that this trip won’t go as planned was on Nov 6th. One leg of the journey was on Air India and we had to change that because they obviously were never taking off on time. So I canceled the ticket from Goa to Mumbai on the return leg that cost 4500, got 878/- as refund and booked the new flight on a different airlines at Rs. 8000/-. So the math at this stage is –

Tickets cost – 21000 + 8000
Refund – 878
Money lost in cancellation – 3600

Yesterday an SMS completely messed with the trip. Our onward flight from Delhi to Mumbai was to depart at 10.45 am and our connecting flight to Goa from Mumbai was at 2.55 pm. The SMS innocuously said this GoAir flight (G8-332) had been rescheduled to depart Delhi at 12.10 and would land in Mumbai at 2.05 pm. And the opening words were really sarcastic and cut me deep “Smart Flier! GoAir informs you that your flight G8-332/28th Nov Delhi Mumbai is scheduled to depart DEL at 12:10 Hrs and arrive BOM at 14:05 Hrs. For Further assistance please call on our number 09223222111 or 02025662111.”

I didn’t lose heart, thinking I could reason it out with them and started calling on the two numbers given above. Between Krishnan and I we tried calling these numbers for three hours …. And only got to hear music and no one picked up the phone. I posted on facebook and Linkedin checking to see if GoAir was still functional, reached out to Monica and Rajesh late at night to check if they had any contacts and I sent a message on their facebook page. I got a response from GoAir today morning asking me to send my complaint to an email box. :(:( Smart flier ? Dumb flier.

We had to cancel the entire leg and I booked on Indigo – just the onward trip cost me Rs. 22000/- …. Am hoping we get the full refund from GoAir for the rescheduled flight, but I lost money on my Mumbai Goa flight. So here’s the final ticket cost –

Total cost of reservation – 21000+8000+22000
Refunds – 878+6000+1875
Cancellation loss – 3600+2600

Total cost of this trip = 48400/-.

Dumb flier ? You bet. I don’t mind being the dumb flier but it pains me to lose 27000/- for no fault of mine. We could have funded two students in that money for a year of schooling at OM Foundation. Will GoAir refund this loss ? Atleast will they refund the onward journey cost that was incurred purely because they changed their flight timing arbitrarily ??? Am just asking for the difference between my original booking amount and the new booking amount. Pay us Rs. 14000/-. And pick up the phone when your customer calls you or don’t give the number for us to call. Advertise saying “book at your own risk, no refunds, flights will change at will, and we won’t answer calls” … Don’t fool the customer.

Am sure there are many many many stories out there that are more painful than this – I still remember Lufthansa cancelling a flight and a son in tears because his father was scheduled for an operation in the US and there was no way he could reach him in time :(.

With this kind of customer service, GoAir hopes to make money ?? Now am waiting to see if anybody bothers to respond to this from GoAir. I want Rs. 14000 and I am happy if the money is paid out towards the fees of one of ShikshaDaan’s beneficiaries. I don’t even want the money for ourselves, but I am not willing to waste this money.