Air India Overbooks Flight: Passengers Left Stranded Without Refunds

Mumbai: Air India has managed to sell an additional 30 tickets than the seats on board the aircraft. The incident took place last Saturday in connection with flight AI-629, which was scheduled to depart from Mumbai for Nagpur in the evening. The 30 passengers are yet to receive a refund of their tickets. According to reliable sources, an Air India flight from Mumbai to Nagpur was scheduled to depart for Nagpur at 7.20 pm. As per the rules, boarding is allowed in advance of an hour and a half. Lately, all airlines have been asked to web-check in and receive boarding passes. 

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The boarding pass also mentions the seat number. When some passengers arrived at the airport to travel on this flight, the company staff told the passengers that they would not be able to travel as 30 tickets were booked more than the number of seats on our flight. However, the passengers pointed out that we had a boarding pass and a seat number mentioned on it. Also, when the passengers asked the staff how such a mess happened when the booking of tickets was computerized, the passengers were told that the extra booking was due to some technical glitch in the computer system.

Passengers demanded alternative travel arrangements. The staff told the passengers that they could send 10 people on an IndiGo flight the next morning (Sunday) and the rest by a Monday evening flight. "If you want to take another flight, you will be paid for that ticket and as per the company's refund policy," the officials said. According to some passengers filled out an application for a refund. However, even after five days, these passengers have not received a refund of the ticket money.