BENGALURU: A travel firm that failed to arrange transit visa at London for an Amsterdam-bound Bengaluru family of four and imperilled their holiday plan has been ordered by a consumer court to refund the cost of fresh tickets the quartet purchased to continue with their tour. The firm has also been directed to pay the family Rs 50,000 as compensation and Rs 10,000 towards court expenses.
On April 18, 2019, Bannerghatta Road residents Ramesh, 46, and Renuka, 40, and their two children were denied boarding at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) due to lack of a transit visa to London. The tour operator — Zapmytrip travel solutions LLP in Mico Layout — apologised and pleaded with the family to book fresh tickets via Mumbai with a promise to repay the cost upon their return. As the agent failed to keep its promise, the couple approached court.
Zapmytrip had booked their tickets and visas for the the tour from April 18 to April 30, 2019. As planned, on April 18, Ramesh and his family reached KIA to fly to Amsterdam via London. But much to their shock, the airline ground staff denied them boarding, saying they didn’t have air transit visa for the London leg of their journey. The couple tried to contact Zapmytrip, but their calls went unanswered. Finally, they had to return home from the airport.
An agent representing Zapmytrip later contacted Ramesh and Renuka and apologised for the error in not taking note of the required visa. The agent, however, urged the couple to pay for another set of tickets, this time via Mumbai to Amsterdam, and offered to refund this amount (in INR). Having already paid 6,95,928 for the first set of tickets, the couple bought fresh tickets by shelling out US $6,274. With a promise from the agent that the additional sum spent would be refunded, the family flew out to Europe.
However, when they returned to Bengaluru, the representative of Zapmytrip started proffering excuses for not repaying the extra money spent. In February 2020, the couple approached Bangalore 1st additional district consumer disputes redressal commission in Shantinagar with a complaint against Zapmytrip for deficiency in service.
While the couple’s lawyer presented the case, Vikrant Goswami, managing director of Zapmytrip, argued that the complaint was false and the couple instead owed him money for their stay in Mumbai, while transiting for the European trip. He further claimed that a third party he had outsourced the job to had failed in securing the transit visa, leading to the confusion but he was quick in addressing the issuing by sending them on their trip via Mumbai as their hotel booking and other travel arrangements in Europe would have lapsed if they didn’t turn up.
In their verdict pronounced on May 6, 2022, the judges of the consumer forum noted that the tour operator was at fault as the customers had paid twice for the tickets, including $ 6,274 (nearly Rs 5 lakh as on July 1) the second time. The operator had not only failed to arrange the transit visa, but also tried to put the blame on a third party.
The judges ruled that the managing director of Zapmytrip must pay the INR (Indian rupee) equivalent of $6,274 to the complainants with 12% interest. Further, the court ordered that the opposite party must also pay Rs 50,000 for causing mental agony, physical hardship and financial loss to the complainants and Rs 10,000 towards their court expenses.
