The New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum awarded the compensation saying not only was the flier inconvenienced by the flight cancellation, but he also had to bear additional expense of buying another ticket for returning to India from Malaysia as well as hotel charges.
"Complainant (Sukhija) was forced to purchase another ticket for return journey...He suffered lot of inconvenience due to cancellation of the flight and (had to) bear expenses towards hotel charges, etc.
"There is deficiency on the part of opposite party 1 (GMG Airline) for not accommodating passengers (who had) already booked (tickets). It also failed to refund amount of return journey. Holding opposite party guilty of deficiency in service, we direct it to pay Rs 40,000 lump sum," the bench, presided by C K Chaturvedi, said.
The forum also directed Barclays Bank, whose card Sukhija had used to book the tickets, to pay him Rs 5,000 for not paying/refunding him Rs 2,500 as per its cash back offer.
The Delhi-resident in his complaint had said he had booked tickets on GMG Airlines for his trip, from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur and back, in May, 2008 for Rs 16,377.
On enquiring about his return flight, he was informed by the airline that there was no flight to Delhi for the month of June and the travel portal had issued him a wrong ticket for June 11, Sukhija had alleged.
He had also alleged that Barclays had offered cash back of Rs 2,500 if tickets were booked using the bank's card, but he was not paid/refunded the amount.
Despite the summons issued, the airline and the bank had not appeared before the forum and were proceeded against ex-parte.
