Name of Complainant	Neethu Thomas
Date of Complaint	August 31, 2022
Name(s) of companies complained against	Experience Andamans
Category of complaint	Tours & Travels
Permanent link of complaint	Right click to copy link
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We decided to choose Experience Andamans tour operators, for a family trip to Andaman islands in August 2022 in the event of my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, after seeing some good reviews about them online. When I approached them, their quotes were also cheaper and attractive as compared to other known travel agents like Thomas Cook, MakeMyTrip, Yatra etc as they are locally situated.

So we booked a 5D4N package with them, initially for 7 people (my parents, brother, spouse, kids and myself), and later added 2 more people (my parents-in-law), so total 9 people (including 4 senior citizens). Though flight tickets were not a part of the initial package, we asked them to also book the same, so that it will be taken care of together. Hence they also booked GoFirst flight tickets from Chennai to PortBlair on 27th Aug 2022 PNR U6SNSS, and return on 31st August, 2022 PNR S8LU5Z. I made 50% payment for package ie Rs. 63000/- and full payment for flight tickets ie. Rs. 102000/- for 9 people through online banking transactions and received Whatsapp/email confirmations from them on all bookings for the initial 7 travellers, and also received confirmation on flight tickets for the additional 2 travellers. I received no package/hotel booking confirmations for the last 2 travellers as they were added only on the night of 20th August, 2022.

Unfortunately, my parents got tested Covid positive 6 days before the travel (21st August, 2022 night) and my mother was badly affected. And 5 of us in the group were also in their close proximity the previous weekend, so we were not in a position to go ahead with the travel.

And there started our misery.

I contacted Experience Andamans on 22nd August morning asking to stop all further bookings, and asked for options to reschedule/modify the trip. The agent through whom I did the booking, Shebaz, asked me to email to their office id with details and my parents’ Covid reports. And the case was taken up by a person called Zaid.

He said they could give a credit note for our package after deducting Rs.1500 per person (7 of them, as all bookings were not made for the last 2, as per Shebaz, but for all 9 travellers as per Zaid) that we could use to travel later. That is Rs. 10500-13500, cancellation charges on the package.
And regarding flight tickets, he said there would be no refund at all as it was a group booking, and as per their cancellation policy 100% cancellation charges are applicable on group booking.

Every airline has an exceptional clause for Covid situation, and hence I decided to approach the airlines directly as this was a matter of Rs.1 lakh + flight ticket charges. Go First confirmed that refund was possible in such cases. However, as they could not see any traveller names or details on the PNRs, they kept redirecting me back to Experience Andamans, and Experience Andamans kept asking us to check with airlines.
While this back and forth was still going on, Experience Andamans went ahead and cancelled all our bookings and flight reservations without even re-confirming with us.

Again I contacted GoFirst, and was asked to contact their Group booking desk, who redirected me to PJ travels, ticketing vendor of Experience Andamans. I had a word with one of the PJ travels staff who told me that they did not forward the travellers details to airlines (they usually do it only 1-2 days before the travel in case of group booking, and in this case travel was cancelled before that), and hence Go First airlines wont be able to do anything. Though we were given confirmations on the bookings, we didnt know the specific details were not forwarded to airlines.
PJ travels staff also mentioned that they were able to accomodate other travellers in our seats, but at lower cost, hence they have deducted Rs.1500 per person per sector, which is Rs.27000 (1500*2*9) from their end, and refunded the remaining amount to Experience Andamans on the same day when cancellation was requested (which would be 22 or max 23 August, 2022).

However everytime I emailed Zaid (from Experience Andamans) regarding the updates, he blamed it on airline or ticketing agency saying that they were not ready to refund the amount. I can send you the entire email conversation, where he kept shifting the blame. At one point Zaid mentioned they could refund the ticket reservation amount after deducting Rs.3000 per person per ticket ie. a total of Rs. 54000 cancellation charges (more than 50% of the total flight charges). But once I updated him on the response I got directly from PJ Travels, he stopped responding to my calls/emails. Its been 3 days since and I have not received any update from Zaid (or Experience Andamans).

Just to add, we also had connecting flight tickets booked through Indigo, from Hyderabad to Chennai and back, for 6 of us since we live in Hyderabad; Also train tickets for my parents to travel from and to Kerala; And we had also booked 4 hotel rooms in Chennai for overnight stay on 26th August. We were able to get all this cancelled and get almost 95% refunds credited by 27th August, 2022. Both Indigo and MakeMyTrip were co-operative and waived the cancellation fee even without us asking, since it was a proven Covid case.

But with Experience Andamans, there has been no update on the package credit note they promised, or refunds for flight tickets, even after 1 week of cancellation and we are really concerned about all that money that is with them. It is causing a lot of stress. They are not responding to our calls/emails/Whatsapp msgs. Its like they are purposely avoiding communicating with us. I tried contacting their customer support and they have no ETA and they are unable to commit anything about refund.

As per the latest I know from them, they and the ticketing agency would end up eating up around Rs.66000/- (40% of what we paid them), literally looting us in our miserable and helpless situation. I can understand some minimum charges, but Rs.66000 is a huge amount. And on top of that, the package amount (Rs.63000-12000 = Rs 51000 approximately) would still only be a credit note, which means we will be forced to travel with such a money-minded agency again, who took advantage of our helplessness.

As I understand, there are exceptional policies of open tickets/cancellation fee waivers/full refunds etc. when it comes to Covid positive cases. I would like to request justice in such a situation so that we have minimum loss. Please help us in this regard.

I can forward the entire email communication from Experience Andamans and also the booking details shared by email for verification

Image Uploaded by Neethu Thomas: