1st Jan 2011
Hyderabad, India

The Manager
Customer Support,
British Airways
LONDON U.K

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Dear Sir /Madam,
Deceptive business practices by the British Airways
and
Om Travels, Hyderabad, India

I have been subjected to intense stress, insult and injury by the deceptive business practices by the Travel Agent Om Tours & Travels, Hyderabad and the British Airways.

I and my wife have bought BA airline tickets on 10th Jun 2010 for a round trip from Hyderabad, India to Washington D.C.for our proposed travel date of 7th Jul 2010 [with Booking Reservation Number BRN : YL77NJ } from the Travel Agent Om Tours & Travels, Hyderabad, India.. .

The travel agent didn't accept our request of open return ticket, but dated the return trip from US on 4th Jan'11 which is farther than we intended to stay and advised us that we could reschedule our return trip to an earlier date as per our convenience. The Travel Agent told us that they do this for the convenience of the passengers. We were led to believe that we could change our return date without any difficulty by contacting the British Airways directly within US. We accepted the Travel Agent's advise and proceeded on our travel to US.

We approached the British Airways through their website www.britishairways.com in US to change our return trip from 4th Jan'11 to 22nd Nov'10. After logging in to the BA website in US we entered our BRN / PNR # as requested by the Airlines. The Airlines website informed us that our itiInerary cannot be accessed through their website because our tickets were of a certain "kind" and we must approach our original travel agent Om Tours & Travels, Hyderabad in India for any changes in the dates of travel. We tried many times on the website as well as local USA travel agents, but the result was the same, i.e., we were advised to contact our original travel agent in India.

Getting worried, we contacted our friend, Dr. Subhash C. Reddy, in Baton Rouge, LA, USA . He confirmed our experience with British Airlines to be true because he also faced the same problem when he approached BA to help his sister for travel date change. He also told that the BA would not disclose the complete information on their website about why they cannot retrieve our itinerary and why they could not change travel dates in US. Having been frustrated, Dr. Reddy, being a long time resident and a citizen of US, called the British Airways office in US and talked to an officer of the company about the situation. The BA informed that our tickets, just like his sister's tickets, were BULK tickets and were not considered Regular Airline tickets which qualified for itinerary changes to be handled directly by the Airline. Dr. Reddy was told that the issuing Travel Agents were aware of such restrictions and were required to inform their customers about these restrictions before being sold.

Our travel agent Om Tours & Travels, Hyderabad never told us about any such restrictions placed on our tickets. In fact, the travel agent repeatedly admonished us for contacting them and repeatedly told us to contact BA in US.

We called our travel agent OM TRAVELS several times for help to reschedule our return travel dates but we did not receive any help. In fact, the travel agent repeated their same wrong advise to us to contact BA in US for travel date changes. We called several times and wrote email messages. Adding insult to injury, the travel Agent wrote very rude emails to us complaining that they don't have unlimited time to help us and we are being unreasonable. They also complained that we did not pick up the phone when they called us on phone in US. We informed them that there is a 11 1/2 hour difference in time between the two countries and that they may have called us in the middle of night when we were fast asleep. Being travel agents, they should have known about the time difference between India and US but apparently they don't even care.

Finally, after literally begging for help, the travel agent rescheduled our return trip but demanded IMMEDIATE CASH PAYMENT WITHIN A DAY and if not the changed travel dates will not be confirmed and we will be forced to stay until the original date. We were held to ransom of Rs.10, 500 per ticket which is about 17% over the original ticket price. We had to do a lot of phoning to friends and relatives to arrange such a large amount of cash for payment at such a short notice. We were lucky we could find kindred souls among our friends/relatives willing to spare such a large amount of cash at such a short notice and facilitate our return trip.

It should be illegal for both the Airlines and especially the Travel Agents to sell such BULK Tickets for travel especially to a foreign country. Such a business practice, on the part of the Travel Agents, is DECEPTIVE and FRAUDULENT. It is a tremendous disservice to the unsuspecting passenger who is innocent and has the disadvantage of being uninformed of such business practices. It is horrendously expensive, horribly inconvenient, and extremely tedious for the passenger to correct the situation being in a foreign country. And not to mention face the very unfriendly, non-cooperative, and arrogant conduct by the Travel Agent who had profited handsomely from the sale of airline tickets to te passenger.

We were lucky and resourceful enough to pursue the matter and to afford such large cash amounts at short notice. It was nothing short of a RANSOM. And a King's RANSOM at that.

We DEMAND that the Airlines be not allowed to sell such horribly restricted airline tickets in the first place. And it must be made ILLEGAL for the Travel Agents to sell such restricted BULK TICKETS to passengers. AT the Least, the Travel Agents MUST inform and receive written consent of the passenger or the purchaser to accept such restrictions on their tickets. And the AIRLINE and the TRAVEL AGENT MUST BE REQUIRED TO PRINT IN BOLD LETTERS THAT THE TICKET ISSUED IS A BULK TICKET AND CAN ONLY BE CHANGED BY THE TICKET ISSUING TRAVEL AGENTS ONLY AND AFTER A HEAVY PENALTY IN CASH.

I am communicating this complaint to ALL concerned Authorities, Govt. Departments, and Agencies. I also demand that we should be refunded the additional amount collected forcefully .

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Doma Panduranga Reddy Mr.
Doma Rekhadevi Reddy Mrs

201, Pallavi Residency
12-13-662, Nagarjuna Nagar
TARNAKA, HYDERABAD-500 017
INDIA
Mobile :+91 9848128708