India, along with the whole world, is in a situation like never before. The 21-day lock-down from March 25 to curb the spread of the corona virus pandemic, has been so far, effective. According to the no-movement policy, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights were suspended for this time period. However, most of the airlines had been taking bookings except national carrier Air India for domestic flights for the period beyond April 14.
But lack of clarification regarding the service, cancellation and refund policies of private airlines companies caused utter confusion and dilemma among passengers, who had tickets already booked within that time period.  Many cancelled it but did not get a refund, others waited for any announcement from the companies.

According to cancellation rule laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA):

In case of credit card payments, a refund shall be made by the airlines within seven days of the cancellation to the account of the credit card holder, while in the case of a cash transaction the refund shall be made immediately by the airline office from where the ticket was purchased. It sets a limit of 30 working days for airlines to complete the refund process for tickets booked through travel agents/portals. Now, no airline issues a ticket unless it has received full and final payment from a passenger. Whereas it is possible that airlines could take the plea that they might not refund particular tickets as they are yet to receive the money from some other vendor like a travel site or aggregator.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of lock-down till May 3, the aviation regulator DGCA issued a circular which states if a person books a ticket during the first lock-down period, and the travel date falling in the second lock-down period, the airline company will have to give a full refund without levying the cancellation charge. The airline companies rolled out their policies regarding cancellation and refund for tickets issued before the first lock-down period, with travelling dates within April 14, which was putting the amount in a credit shell instead of refunding, so that travellers can use that amount to re-issue tickets within a given period of time.
We are in the process of cancelling the affected bookings and we will offer customers free of charge rescheduling to another date until December 31, 2020," a Vistara spokesperson told in a statement.

A GoAir spokesperson said that the airline will review its earlier scheme of providing rescheduling free of cost at a later date while protecting their existing bookings for one year. The airline had on Monday announced that it was extending the "Protect Your PNR" scheme till April 30, 2020.

Announcing that all its flights are cancelled till May 3, IndiGo said, it is in the process of cancelling the reservations. “Your ticket amount is protected in the form of credit shell in the PNR, which can be utilized within one year of the issued date. "We are cancelling the reservation of those who booked tickets for travel till May 3, 2020. Upon cancellation, your entire amount will be maintained in credit shell and the same may be used for fresh bookings and travel till February 28, 2021, for the same passenger," it said. The way airlines changed their policies regarding cancellation and refund put them in a grey zone as they applied the new policies to the old bookings which were done way back in 2019 for the travel period from Mar-Jun 2020. This was a forced decision which was put on the flyers.

However, these statements caused momentary respite to travellers. Though it was not a complete loss of money, even the ‘Book before a certain date’ policy sounds fine however at least a time period of 2 yrs should have been granted, what is unacceptable is that the tickets have to be booked for the same passengers. What if they are unable to fly during that time? What about ailing, aged and deceased? It is not a business trip for everyone. Long vacations cannot be rescheduled just like that! The money put in credit shell will definitely benefit the airline companies in terms of getting interests, whereas it will be useless for the travellers who are taxpayers and stakeholders. In fact, the airlines fare might be increased by the time tickets are reissued and passengers will end up paying more.
If the tickets are booked for a different passenger, it will not cause any monetary loss to the airlines but will benefit passengers as well.

This lock-down has caused economic loss to the country, people have lost jobs or had their pays cut down, still struggling to get all required supplies and services.
Govt has to take a stand regarding this issue, after all, it is the taxpayer’s money that runs a country, and their plea should not be unnoticed, ignored or rejected.