SpiceJet Passengers Voice Anger Over Flight Overbooking Fiasco; Airline Responds

SpiceJet also reacted to the post and apologised for the inconvenience caused. The airline asked the passenger to submit PNR details so that they can look into the matter

SpiceJet ended up on the receiving end of passengers’ ire as the airline’s early morning Sunday flight became a hassle for travellers. Sharing his experience in a post on LinkedIn, one of the passengers, Manish Jagdish Taneja, complained about the lack of operational efficiency from the carrier’s end.

Taneja shared that he was supposed to board SpiceJet Mumbai-Delhi flight SG8252 at 6:30 AM on Sunday, however, the airline over-booked the flight without any prior intimation. On reaching the check-in counter at the Mumbai airport, Taneja was denied boarding stating that his seat had already been given to another passenger. 

Enquiring about the next available flight, the airline offered Taneja, along with several other passengers, the option to fly on the 10 PM flight on the same day. “You can understand the pain it takes to catch an early-morning Sunday flight at 6:30. I arrived at the airport a good 1.5 hours before my flight, and upon reaching the check-in counter for my boarding pass, I was informed that the flight is overbooked and the seat has already been allocated to another passenger, and the next available flight is after 15.5 hours at 10 p.m,” he said in his post.

Taneja, along with 6 other passengers, complained that the airline didn’t bother communicating the over booking of the flight to the passengers via any SMS or email. After the passengers waited for about 40 minutes, the airline crew tried to accommodate them on the same flight and printed them boarding passes without any seat allocation. 

The passengers were then escorted over to the security gate by the ground staff, where they were made to wait for sometime and then asked to leave stating that the boarding gate was closed now. “With all the ruckus and arguments, we have been fooled for 30–40 minutes that they are trying to accommodate us in the same flight, and later they got the boarding pass printed with no seat allocation, and all have been rushed to the security gate along with the ground staff, where after looking at the boarding pass, we have been asked to wait for another 10 minutes, and then informed us to leave as the boarding gate is closed now & there are no available seats in this flight; they can’t help further; we have to either return home or get refund,” Taneja added.

After the passengers made a demand for a refund since they didn’t want to avail a flight at 10 PM, the airline staff made them wait for a while and then said that the passengers will be issued double the amount of the base fare as a ‘token of apology’ and their tickets have been cancelled.

The staff further informed that, “Communication regarding this will be received within 1 hour, and your refund will reflect in bank within 7 days.” However, when exiting the airport, Taneja found the exit gate register had a record of ‘No Show’ for the passengers and urged that the record should display ‘Seat Denied’. 

The post attracted multiple comments from Netizens, empathising with the passengers and sharing their own troubled experiences with the carrier. 

SpiceJet also reacted to the post and said, “Dear Mr Taneja, we sincerely regret any inconvenience caused. We request you to kindly confirm your PNR details so we may look into this.”

Taneja also urged DGCA and SpiceJet to consider customer experience and look into improving the conditions.