Jet Airways directed to pay Rs 55,000 compensation to passenger

Chennai: The District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum Chennai, (North) has directed Jet Airways to pay a compensation of Rs 55,000 to a former Principal Sessions Court Judge, Chennai for failure to provide him a seat in a flight to Bhopal from Mumbai despite having a confirmed air ticket.

The judge, who was proceeding to attend a national judicial conference in Bhopal, was left in lurch by the airline staff in Mumbai airport in 2012. In his petition, N. Authinathan said that when he was working as Principal District Judge in 2012, the Madras High Court had nominated him to participate in “National Conference of Senior District Judges on Court Management for Enhancing Quality Responsiveness and Timelines of Justice”, in Bhopal during April 21-23, 2012. The meeting was organised by the National Judicial Academy.
He paid '23,308 to the manager of Gay Travels, Nungambakkam for air tickets to Bhopal and return to Coimbatore.

He was scheduled to fly from Coimbatore to Mumbai at 3.10 pm on April 20, 2012 by SpiceJet flight, at 6.50 pm on the same day from Mumbai to Bhopal by Jet Airways. While returning, he was scheduled to take Jet Airways flight (9W 2043) at 8.50 am on 24.4.12 from Bhopal to Mumbai and by SpiceJet flight 12.50 pm from Mumbai to Coimbatore.

After reaching Mumbai airport, he approached Jet Airways staff, who gave him a boarding pass without mentioning a seat number. On completion of regular security check, the Jet Airways staff took him to the aircraft point and made him wait. Meanwhile, the staff informed that all the seats were taken.

He said, “despite having a confirmed ticket, I was left in the lurch and unable to board the flight and prevented me from attending an important judicial conference”. “I was denied comfortable night stay at Mumbai by the Jet Airways personnel and stayed in the airport lounge with great agony and pain”, he said.
 In its reply, the manager, Gay Travels, said the company did not commit negligence since it issued all confirmed tickets to him.

Jet Airways stated that it was true that the flight 9W 2043 was marginally overbooked and when Authinathan reached the counter for boarding the flight, the flight was already full.

Overbooking in flights was accepted practice amongst all airlines across the globe. This was done to curb the possibility of flights departing with unoccupied seats because of non-arrival of passengers at the check-in counter before its closure. The airline sought dismissal of the petition.

The bench comprising its president, K. Jayabalan and member T. Kalaiyarasi said Authinathan, who possessed a confirmed ticket, was not allowed to travel from Mumbai to Bhopal. He was made to wait in the airport throughout the night till his departure next day causing intolerable mental agony to him.

This proves that the airlines committed deficiency in service. The bench directed the Jet Airways to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 for causing mental agony and Rs 5,000 costs.