Indigo faces public backlash over fee for check-in and printed boarding pass

Despite Indigo later clarifying in a tweet that the couple was charged for 7 kg excess baggage and Rs 1000 as handling charges for an additional check-in bag, the issue just refused to die down.
For representational purposes (Photo | PTI)
For representational purposes (Photo | PTI)

BENGALURU: A torrent of anger and sarcasm towards Indigo airline was unleased online since Thursday afternoon following a tweet by a journalist about an elderly couple in tears at Mohali airport in Chandigarh as they were forced to buy their seats at Rs 750 apiece under mandatory web check-in and baggage payment. Despite not being tagged, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, replied to the tweeter Rohan Dua saying he would definitely look into the issue.

When someone queried if the couple had asked for special seats like, front row ones, Dua went on to add they were charged for “regular seats, done from web check-ins.”

Despite Indigo later clarifying in a tweet that the couple was charged for 7 kg excess baggage and Rs 1000 as handling charges for an additional check-in bag, the issue just refused to die down. The airline statement made no mention of any fee for seats.

Indigo charges a passenger Rs 200 for printing of a boarding pass and the same sum as facilitation fee for domestic passengers if the check-in is done at the airport instead of a web check-in. This has been in place since October 17, 2020, said an Indigo spokesperson. 

Among those who expressed their annoyance over various charges levied by Indigo for its services was Bengaluru-based businessman, Prashanth George Verghese, a frequent domestic as well as international traveller. “This is truly ridiculous. No airline in the world charges you a fee for check-in at the airport. I remember paying Rs 200 at the Indigo counter at Bengaluru airport twice this year for the same, one was as recent as August, when I had to go to Trivandrum. However, the same fee was not followed for check-in at Trivandrum airport probably because they are worried that customers there would not tolerate it.”

The issue of the boarding pass invited much sarcasm. A tweet from the handle Caustic News posed this query to Indigo on the pass: “Do you print, laminate and then frame and give it to passengers?”

Another handle @Cawnporiahha pointed that the e-boarding pass was not accepted by security in certain airports and Indigo asks flyers there to pay Rs 200 to get the physical pass.

Tweeter Sharma Rohitraj predicted thus: “In future, there will be card swipe at toilet door. If you want to go in first swipe, Rs 100 per use” while a person who goes by the twitter name Grumpy granny tweeted thus: the airlines charge convenience fee if I am booking on their webpage, using my data, sitting at home? What for?…Convenience would have been if they would have come to my home, booked the ticket.”

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