It is with deep anguish and disgust that I am bringing to your notice a very unethical and cheap practice of Jet Airways. I have corresponded with Jet Airways on this. However, there has been absolutely no response.
I was awarded a Jet Airways free travel voucher for 2 passengers in the New Year Party organised at Hotel Peninsula Grand at Mumbai (check attachment). The voucher allowed any two passengers free return tickets between Mumbai and Dubai. The validity of voucher was between 1st January, 2011 and 31st March, 2011.
However, when I went to redeem the voucher at your counter at Amarchand House, Mumbai (sometime in last week of January, 2011), I was not allowed to do so. The reason given for the same were shocking and to me it reflected the lack of business ethics and respect for the passengers.
I put down my observations as follows:
1. I was told that though the Free tickets have been given, the flights have very limited / no quota to accommodate Free passengers! If Jet Airways has no quota to honour the commitment of a Gift voucher, then why does it issue such vouchers?
2. I was told that even if the tickets were issued to me, I could be offloaded if they get a ‘revenue’ passenger. Does Jet Airway feel that people who redeem free vouchers are have no self respect? First they offer a free travel voucher and then they tell the passenger that they are going to offload him because they are less important then ‘revenue’ passengers.
3. I was told that the only way to get a free ticket is that if I check closer to the travel date. If a seat is available, I can be issued a free ticket. Does Jet Airways feel that people have no life of their own and they should just keep making rounds to Jet’s counters to check when a ticket is available for free? And that too when Jet’s voucher mentions exactly the reverse, that the ticket must be issued at least 15 days before the departure date.
4. I was told that I cannot be given a confirmed ticket if my travel date is till 25thof February!! So essentially from last week of January to last week of February, I was not allowed to fly. The voucher had a section to mention the embargo date. So why was this not mentioned? Obviously it was because Jet Airways did not want its voucher to be treated like a waste paper. If they had the honesty to mention all the terms that I was told that day, they know very well that any recipient of the voucher would tear it that same day he receives it.
When the issue was raised with Jet Airways, they mailed back (Dated 22nd Feb, 2011, from
[email protected]) saying that their sales team shall get in touch with me to offer us a compensatory voucher in lieu of the voucher which they did not honour. However, after that they never got back to us.
I fail to understand why should a major airline resort to cheap tricks of issuing invalid Travel Vouchers just to gain some publicity!