Starting next month, there will be parity in the price of an air ticket whether you purchase it from the airline, a portal or an agent, thanks to DGCA's directive
Starting next month, there will be parity in the price of an air ticket whether you purchase it from the airline, a portal or an agent, thanks to DGCA's directive
You can now bid farewell to inequalities in your air ticket prices. In a directive issued this week, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has asked all airlines (domestic and foreign), travel portals and travel agents to ensure uniformity of airfares within 30 days.
This means, from next month, the fare listed for a particular ticket on the airline website, portals like makemytrip.com or yatra.com and by travel agents will match. "The uniformity of fares should be a reality by June," said Reji Philip of Cosmos Agencies, a travel agency. "Travel agents are happy with the directive since we will no longer be accused of selling tickets at high prices," he added.
The DGCA has also instructed airlines to provide the exact break up of the price of a ticket taxes, fuel surcharge, etc to nullify the possibility of any hidden costs.
Vijay Raj, chairman (communications), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), said, "The move came in the wake of several passengers and travel agents complaining about airlines misinforming passengers about the fares."
Tempting offers too
But this doesn't mean that commuters have to forgo tempting air ticket offers. The DGCA has allowed travel agents and websites the option of offering discounts on the uniform fare.
Airlines have already
started acting upon the directive. Virgin Atlantic has tied up with Travelport GDS, a leading global distribution system provider that connects travel agents to an airline's full-published fares and inventory.
"We will be able to give our travel agency customers access to Virgin Atlantic's full inventory," said Matthew Hall, Travelport's vice president, airline services.
The ABC of fares
The type of ticket class isu00a0 denoted by alphabets, almost always the same for every airline...
> The economy class alone has about 15 categories. Y is almost universally used to indicate a full fare economy ticket. B, H, L, M, V, etc are some of the letters indicating sub-classes (reduced, restricted, and/or discounted fares). X, U, R are a few of the letters commonly used to indicate a fare purchased from a consolidator.
> F and P indicate First Class
> J and C means Executive Class
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