Consumer Redressal

After the coronavirus outbreak and travel ban issues/restrictions in UAE and India, Spicejet released a flyer on 10th Mar on Twitter allowing passengers to reschedule their tickets which were booked between 12th and 31st March without any change fee. I had booked a one way ticket from Dxb to Cochin for the 19th Mar which I wanted to reschedule or get full refund. So I called the Spicejet customer support contact number to enquire on my request and process to reschedule since there was no option online to manage my booking, but for every attempt to connect to any service agent failed as all their lines was busy. Two days later after many attempts, I wrote an email to customer relations/support dxb on 12th Mar requesting for full refund or to reschedule my flight ticket. I get a response from Sonia (Senior Customer Service, DXB office) confirming that the ticket cannot be refunded, but change of date is possible, only fare difference need to be paid. I also receive an email from Rajvinder Kaur (Customer Experience, IND office) stating the same. The following day 13th Mar, I reply to their emails requesting for date change to the 20th Nov with all details. On the 14th Mar I receive an email response from Harpreet Kaur (Customer Service Office, Dxb office) stating “date changes for 20 Mar SG18 Dubai Kochi there will be additional charge of AED40 as of now after waiving the date change charges”. I realized there has been a mistake from her end and quickly responded to the email stating the correct date and details - Friday, Nov 20th, Dubai to Kochi, 3:55am - 8:25am. Later in the evening on the same day, I receive a call from Harpreet saying that she had given me details for the 20th Mar flight, to which I replied that was not the date I requested for, my email clearly states 20th Nov. She further replied that she will not be able to change it to my requested date because she has been instructed that date change waiver is only possible until end of April and if I need to change it to 20th Nov I will have to pay additional 205AED. I do not understand why I would have to bear this additional charge from an issue or an error clearly from the end of Spicejet when it was no fault of mine. So I responded immediately by email, regarding my disagreement to these charges and explaining my situation, to which there was no reply. Further to this I dropped a reminder expecting a favorable response and settlement to my issue. On the 15th Mar, I get a response to my reminder from Poonam (Superior Customer Service, Dxb office) stating there was a change in policy from 14th Mar, hence change fee is applicable. I again responded asking to please study my case to which there was no response. After receive no response from the Spicejet customer support emails or calls and as my travel date (19th Mar) was fast approaching, on the 17th Mar I visited the Spicejet Dubai office to reach some kind of resolution to my issue. At the office I explained my issue to your service agent Mrs. Syeda. She explained me the situation Spicejet is facing and advised me the best course of action will be to reschedule the ticket to the 20th Nov, instead of losing my current booking and to request for change of ticket waiver from the head office by email. I had no choice but to follow her advice and trust Spicejet will come back to me with a resolution at the earliest. My last communication to your customer service was on the 17th Mar updating them on my rescheduled booking, request for waiver and further steps I would be forced to take if there is no action taken. Finally on Mar 30 the Nodal Officers office responded with incorrect information for another PNR number and their inability to provide any refund. I reverted back saying this is incorrect and they again responded with no resolution and stating that is their final response.