What Jet passengers must know about ticket refunds and status of JPMiles

Travel agencies and online travel portals have said that the refund would take more time than usually required

Passengers who bought a Jet Airways ticket from online travel portals or travel agents could be in for a long wait to receive refunds against flight cancellations. JetPrivilege members, however, needn't worry too much about their JPMiles.  

Jet Airways on Wednesday announced the temporary grounding of its operations after lenders rejected its  plea for emergency funds. "Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, we will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going. Consequently, with immediate effect, we are compelled to cancel all our international and domestic flights temporarily. The last flight will operate today," Jet Airways had said in an evening statement back then. 

If you had booked Jet Airways tickets or are a member of the airline's frequent flyer and loyalty programme, here's what you need to know about your options. 

Getting a refund for cancelled flights

If a person has booked his tickets directly through the official Jet Airways website, mobile application, the airline's contact centre or any of its ticketing offices, he will have to fill up an online form provided by Jet on its website for cancellation and refund. Or, the passenger can visit Jet's airport/city ticketing office.  

Jet has created a special page for all flight disruption assistance on its website. The online form is available on this page. 

After the refund request is processed, Jet has said it would take 7–10 working days for the credit to reflect in the passenger's account. Jet has assured that affected passengers would be provided with a full refund. 

However, in case the passenger made the bookings through an online travel portal or agent, the refund request would have to be made directly with them.  

Prepare for a long wait

As reported earlier, travel agencies and online travel portals have said that the refund would take more time than required. A spokesperson for travel portal MakeMyTrip said, "As Jet Airways management mentioned in their press statement that they will await bid finalisation, the refund process will likely take some more time. We are in constant touch with the airline to get regular updates on flight refunds. We are keeping our customers duly informed about their refund status and will be processing the same as soon as we receive it from the airline. We have opened special helpline numbers for our Jet Airways customers." Other travel portals, Yatra.com and Cleartrip, could not be reached for comments. 

This is where the real pain could set in. As reported earlier, the bid documents to select new investors for Jet Airways were issued on Wednesday and the lenders propose to conclude the process on May 10. This, along with the travel portal's statement above, would suggest that a refund demanded from a travel portal today could take at least 21 days, if not more, to be processed. Meanwhile, LiveMint has reported that online travel portals have requested time of up to 40 days for issuing the refund. 

MakeMyTrip did not provide a specific timeline for issuing refunds to Jet Airways customers. 

JetPrivilege members and their JPMiles

Under the JetPrivilege frequent flyer and loyalty programme, the airline was rewarding customers with JPMiles. Frequent Jet passengers, who might have earned thousands of JPMiles over the years, would be worrying about their becoming useless under the present circumstances. 

In a statement, JetPrivilege said that the value of its members' JPMiles was secure and remained intact. Under its air reward offering, called "Select Flights", members can "redeem their JPMiles to fly free across more airlines, any destinations, any flights and any seats in India and globally, starting with the same JPMiles requirement as before which was applicable on Jet Airways and its partner airlines". 

According to the statement, JetPrivilege members can also continue to use their JPMiles on hotel stays, fuel and over 2,500 merchandise options on the JetPrivilege Reward Store. 

Part of the Etihad Aviation Group, Jet Privilege Pvt Ltd is a separate, independent entity formed with the sole purpose to market, develop and grow JetPrivilege.