Here is my story to make people aware of Make My Trip’s callous attitude towards customers and you will be surprised how they lie at court saying they wanted to settle outside but we did not agree because they know consumer forum is not even the first step they will keep on making the sufferer run into the Indian judiciary’s tornado and finally middle class will be reluctant and step back . But fortunately change.org is there and hope the citizens of India will help each other:

 I am a known young artiste of the country and this very happening with us can actually leave anybody in panic and insult.  Rather I should say about both of us (me and my friend Mr. Samanwaya Sarkar) as we both are internationally acclaimed Indian classical musicians and were travelling together. So, my humble plea to is not only to get us compensation rather to make people aware of this online agency’s trivially treated business policies.

I would just like to your kindest notice the facts below casing our sufferings because of Makemytrip:

 

a)      Improper description  on the ticket:

 

Nowhere was it mentioned that it’s a special ticket and can’t be cancelled by the issuer itself. I booked the tickets on 17th of May 2013 having itinerary of Mumbai –Paris, Paris –Calgary and Victoria- Mumbai as our last concert was at Victoria in Canada.

 

 While going through all the sites like yatra, cleartrip etc, every sites showed “you may require UK/US visa for this itinerary” . Makemytrip too showed the same thing on UK bound tickets. But in case of the itinerary I booked, Make My Trip did not mention anywhere about the requirement of US transit visa though the flight was via Seattle. Similarly nothing was mentioned when I checked their flights via US after filing this case. So, you can see that this is a kind of misguidance and partial information, rather suppression of fact??

And as you know according to Geneva Convention if someone stays at any airport more than 6 hours he may need a transit visa but US is an exception and we had never been to US on transit before. In US the moment you land you are viable to carry a pre approved transit visa. There are countries where there is a facility of visa on arrival too.

 During the process of booking the price changes sometimes even while one reaches the page of payment so, seeing the price we booked it only checking the arrival station and departure station. It’s tough to go through all the tiny letters of terms and conditions too though when we later go through those it was not having any proper description stating that this ticket is even non cancelable.

  

b)      Non fulfillment of own commitment:

 

On 29th May, 2013’s night while checking in, the Air France officials stopped us saying we can’t travel as  we  don’t have a US transit visa. On our incessant request and stating our profile being internationally acclaimed musicians their visa officer later agreed to get us onboard especially seeing our performance schedule at the most prestigious venue of Europe that is The Theatre De La Ville on the 1st of June 2013. In spite of Make My Trip’s own promise of 24 x 7 customer service nobody picked up my call  on the night of 29th May 2013 from Mumbai airport that created the first panic inside us.  I was calling them to change the tickets if possible then and there, before the visa officer of Air France got convinced to get us onboard.

 

c)       Legal hazard to customer

  But the visa officer of Air France warned us to change our tickets (having transit through any non US city) while staying in Paris otherwise we could have a penalty of Euros 5000 per passenger and an imprisonment of more than 1 and half years. HE WARNED also not to apply for transit visa for US over there as it won’t be approved at all.

 

d)      Challenge and threat to our professional existence and career.

 

 I tried to call to save our trouble as it was related to our sustainability being artistes rather we were representing the heritage of this nation in Paris and few Canadian cities. We being professionals if had not reached and performed at Theatre De La Ville in Paris and other scheduled concerts in Canada, it would have been a threat to our professional existence and also could have been a shame for our own nation.

 

e)      Inefficiency in service

 The executives of Makemytrip whom, me and my brother later got connected with, told that it’s definitely a flaw on their part but inspite of that the authorities neither cooperate nor agreed to compensate us at the end. Make MY trip could not cancel their own tickets after my incessant calls from France  and also my brother’s personal visit to their Gurgaon and Kolkata office. Rather they suggested him to ask us to change it in Paris at Air France’s office. We rushed to Air France office where the official had to struggle hard and they took more than 45 mins to cancel the ticket as they said it’s a special ticket issued by Make My trip and also mentioned had it been issued directly by them they would have refunded the whole money as they had such experience previously so they mentioned after cancelling the ticket that:  ‘Pax were not informed about US transit visa”

 So, you can imagine if we could not travel , Make My Trip would not be able to  cancel their own issued ticket.

 

f)       Callous attitude towards Customers

They did not care about the citizen of their own country and left them in immense trouble and mental agony. You will be surprised that the executives of Make My Trip called me thrice for travel insurance after I booked the tickets on 17th May 2013, but never they felt asking “Sir do you have a transit visa for US or not??’ as it did not have any monetary gain for them on the other hand the insurance if they issued would get them so.  Why did they give such a connection on which they don’t have any control? We got ample time to get the transit visa done had we been informed about the same instead of repeated calls related to   insurance.

Whenever we booked ticket from any travel agents on the land  or we can say offline they use to give us all minute details what we need and how we need then isn’t it a duty of this online agency too atleast when they are issuing international tickets.

g)      Threat to our return to country and Exceeded personal expense

Air France said if this ticket had not get cancelled we would not be allowed to travel as there was already an existing ticket on our name so the internal security agencies would not allow us to have any other tickets booked.  But fortunately it got cancelled and  we had to pay $2113.38 extra for new tickets to Canada and return to India.  We could not have done that if our concert in Paris was not a well paid one.

 

h)      Other Online agencies’ help

 

I believe there are no different rule for different online agencies, when other agencies showed me requirement for visas even Makemytrip showed for UK visa requirement why not US’s.  We booked the ticket from Orbitz sitting at Paris for Victoria(Canada) – Mumbai and Orbitz is controlled from USA. You would be pleased to know that the flights were coming through Istanbul (Turkey) and the city was having some civil disruption Orbitz sent us an email to warn us if we go outside airport on transit what are the places we should avoid.

 

i)        In reference to the raised points that before going through payments one should go through their terms and conditions then I should say we belong to simple middle class educated family and not businessmen so, we always check for the lowest and beneficial fare and once we get that we go for a ticket. During the process as fares change fast it’s tough to go through tiny lettered terms and conditions. One may check that I booked the tickets on 17th of May awaiting till our visas for France and Canada got approved on 15th May 2013 and 3rd May 2013 respectively so, it proves that we got the visas for our destination countries. As I already mentioned above about the Geneva Convention and the ticket we booked was making us stay at Seattle airport for less than even 4 hours. So according to that very fact we were having valid visas for our destinations. Then why did Makemytrip give such connection or offer which mislead passengers/customers and if they did so they should have intimated us or on the itinerary while we were checking.   Their own site was misleading as they were showing for few tickets that “you may require transit visas” so, not only me anybody could think this itinerary did not require transit visas.

 On the other hand it’s so shattering that Makemytrip being controlled from India itself neither could inform us about visas nor even agreed to cooperate us anyway while we were ready to pay for our new tickets by them.

 

 You can see above how Make My Trip ignored their own responsibility towards their customers. We were not seeking anything more other than proper information. Even when they ignored our email demanding just the extra fare we paid for new tickets booked through Orbitz, they did not respond so, now we seek proper compensation. We could have messed up because of non participation at our concerts in Paris, Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria leaving the organizers in huge loss and also harming our own music career.

 Rest of the things are mentioned in my petition and I hope this bench of honourable judges will understand the trauma, agony and severe feelings of insult that me and my friend and music partner Samanwaya Sarkar (a known Sitarist) , had gone through and will give me justice considering my plea.                    Thank you.

 Jai Hind