While planning air travel, passengers often have to pay huge cancellation charges due to discrepancy in dates, sudden change of plans or mistake in name at the time of booking. Many times, the cancellation fee even exceeds the base fare of the ticket, due to which passengers get a nominal refund. However, the country's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has given great relief to the air passengers. 48 Hour Look-in Option Made mandatory. Under this rule, passengers can get their tickets canceled or amended without paying any additional penalty, provided they fulfill one of the basic conditions.
What is DGCA's 48-hour 'look-in option'?
As per the revised Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) of DGCA, all airlines are required to provide information to passengers after ticket booking. 48 hour 'cooling-off window' (Look-in Period) It is mandatory to give.
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Zero Cancellation Charge: If a passenger cancels his ticket within 48 hours of booking the ticket, the airline cannot deduct any cancellation fee or processing charge from him.
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Free Ticket Amendments: If you wish to change the date of travel or flight, there will be no change fee if the change is made within 48 hours (only if the fare for the new flight is higher, the fare difference will have to be paid).
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Free name correction in 24 hours: If there is a human error in the spelling of name while booking a ticket directly from the airline's website, the airline cannot levy any additional charges for making corrections in the name of the same person within 24 hours of booking.
Know which is the '1 most important condition'?
To avail this free cancellation and change right of 48 hours, DGCA has set a very important time frame condition:
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For Domestic Flights: Between the date of ticket booking and flight departure at least 7 days apart Should be.
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For International Flights: Between date of booking and date of travel minimum 15 days gap It is mandatory to have.
Understand with example: If you have booked a ticket on 25th August and your domestic flight is on 2nd September (more than 7 days), you can cancel the ticket till 27th August with 100% refund without any penalty. But if you have booked a Tatkal ticket for next day or 3 days later on 25th August itself, then this 48 hours free option will not be applicable and normal cancellation charges will be deducted.
Credit Shell's coercion ends, full money will be received in the account
Earlier, instead of sending the refund amount directly to the passenger's bank account, airlines used to forcibly put it in a 'credit shell' or wallet, which could be used only for the next booking of the same airline.
As per the clear rules of DGCA, Keeping money in credit shell will be a completely voluntary decision of the passenger, not a compulsion on the part of the airline.. If the passenger asks for a refund to his bank account or credit card, the airline must refund the actual amount within the stipulated time frame (7 days in case of credit card and maximum 14 to 21 working days in case of travel agent/portal). By being aware of this right while booking air travel in advance, you can easily avoid unwanted financial loss.