Travel agents seek police protection fearing violence

VISAKHAPATNAM: In an unprecedented move, travel agents in Andhra Pradesh have sought police protection from the state government, with their offices reopening from June 1. This, they say, is to ensure that customers who had made bookings flights from May 25 to June 24 won’t create trouble at their offices, seeking refunds.

The request came in the wake of an incident in Rajahmundry in East Godavari district . On Thursday morning, when a travel agent opened his office for cleaning purpose, one of his customers allegedly entered his office and tried to manhandle him and ransack the office. The customer demanded refunds for a ticket that had been booked for a flight during the lockdown period.

“Although no police complaint was made, the agent and locals had a tough time pacifying the customer. Travel agents across the state had planned to open their offices on June 1 and are apprehensive about repetition of same type of incidents. So, we have written to state government seeking police protection,” K Vijay Mohan , the president of Tours and Travels Association of Andhra Pradesh told TOI.

Agents claimed that they are unable to make any monetary refund to their customers as most airlines are providing credit shells only in the name of the passengers, which can only be redeemed by the same passenger for future travel with the same airline.

“Say, if passenger ‘A’ had booked a ticket for April 20 from me, the airline is giving a credit shell similar to price of the ticket to me in the name of passenger ‘A’. So, now if only passenger ‘A’ travels on the same airline within one year and only if passenger ‘A’ wants to buy tickets from me we can utilize the credit shell. The value of the credit shell would get adjusted with the price of the ticket that ‘A’ would buy during that time. Now, how will I convince my customers of this?” Vijay Mohan asked.

Airline officials have made it clear that they are still sticking to the earlier policy of transferring credit shell with a value similar to the price of ticket. There are no plans, as of now, to give full fare refunds to the customers.

“We are giving two options. One, a passenger can travel on the same sector for which the ticket for the cancelled flight has been booked as many number of times for no extra cost till October 30. Second, full fare refund as credit shell that can be redeemed for any sectors for the next two years,” said an Air Asia spokesperson.