Foreign airlines bend backwards to woo Indian travellers By Deepshikha Ghosh, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) Weeks after standardising air tariffs in tune with global norms, international airlines operating in India are bending their own rules to attract the whimsical Indian traveller. Indians don't like to plan much in advance, and they like to change their mind at the last minute. Naturally, new airline rules imposed in April led to a storm of protests from customers because they entailed booking tickets in advance and a heavy penalty for eleventh hour changes. In an earlier era, passengers could book tickets two hours before the flight at almost the same ticket price and get away with rebooking or cancellation by paying a meagre Rs 500 or Rs 1,000. Now West bound foreign airlines have decided relax the stringent fare structure for advance purchases and penalties to woo more travellers. A category of passengers for which ticket purchase was stipulated 21 days before the flight can now buy tickets 10 days before departure and still pay only 60 percent of the published International Air transport Association (IATA). Passengers of the category that could buy tickets for 70 percent of the published fare for purchase seven days in advance can now make the purchase only five days before flying. Although it is still not as accommodative as the pre-April system, airlines hope this will appeal to their customers somewhat. The penalty on unutilised tickets has been reduced from 50 percent of the ticket price to 25 percent. The rebooking fee for outbound sectors also has come down from Rs 5,000 to Rs 3,000. The earlier tariff structure was enforced April 1 by several airlines including Lufthansa, Emirates, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Swiss Air, Alitalia and British Airways. The standardised tariffs meant the fare published on the ticket would be the amount the traveller paid the airlines and any discount would be factored into the printed fare. Before this, the fare printed on the ticket was much higher than the amount paid by the customer. "Gauging a very adverse response from Indian travellers, most airlines started bending their own rules barely two weeks after setting the rules," travel and tourism expert K. Joshi said. Joshi pointed out that while the system was functioning very well abroad, its success in India would depend on whether customers were willing to cough up too much money just to change their mind. Besides, foreign carriers are already trying to cope with the problem of low flight bookings and too many empty seats. Airline industry officials said the amended rules would customise the fare structure keeping in mind the special needs of Indian passengers who were prone to be erratic and whimsical about travel plans. Indians have always been used to a more accommodative regime of air tariffs compared to the strict norms in other countries imposed specifically for transparency and accountability in customer services. The new regime was also introduced by India's flagship carrier Air-India (A-I) for flights to New York and Chicago via London. However, A-I has also been forced to relax norms according to customer needs. --Indo-Asian News Service =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
