Chennai: A dream holiday at Zurich became a nightmare to a family due to deficiency and unfair trade practice adopted by an international airline. They have approached Consumer Forum seeking compensation for re-scheduling the flight from Chennai to Abu Dhabi last year.
In the petition, Sujit Kumar of Velacherry, submitted that he was planned to spend vacation along with his wife and two children at Zurich, Switzerland last year. He booked flight tickets with Etihad Airways to reach Zurich through Abu Dhabi. He paid Rs 2.14 lakh for the tickets. They were scheduled to depart at 10 pm on May 13, 2015, from Chennai and reach Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, airport at 12.55 am on next day.
The counsel for the petitioner, Sanjay Pinto said they were expected to board the connecting flight 2.05 am and reach Zurich at 6.55 am. He said “we had only an hour to catch the connecting flight at Abu Dhabi”.
However, when they reached Chennai airport at 7.30 p.m to board flight to Abu Dhabi, he was shocked to notice that the flight was delayed and it was re-scheduled to leave Chennai at 1 am on May 14.
After lot of pleading, the Etihad Airways staff offered them an alternate route through Rome and they would reach Zurich at 6.55 pm after a delay of 12 hours. They had come forward to offer flight passing through Geneva.
As a result of unfair trade practice adopted by Etihad Airlines staff, he purchased alternate tickets from Emirates Airlines for Rs 1.52 lakh and hence he paid '42,532 extra for one way travel. The Etihad Airlines staff had not refunded the amount.
