VietJet sold tickets worth lakhs from Bengaluru, but there was a problem: There were no flights!

Travelling is fun until you have to deal with all the transport issues and airlines. But even then, the worst experiences wouldn't involve booking flights from non-existent routes, because why would it even show up in options... right? But that's exactly what VietJet Air passengers from Bengaluru and Hyderabad are now claiming.

Remember the too-good-to-be-true advertisements where Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet Air was offering flights from Bengaluru to Hanoi in Vietnam for Rs 9?

Turns out it is too good to be true. 

What's happening? VietJet Air is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The airline sold several flight tickets from Bengaluru and Hyderabad, with attractive discounts and offers, only to tell passengers days before their scheduled travel that the flights have been 'cancelled'.

Plot twist: There were no flights in the first place, let alone them being cancelled!

• The icing on the cake was that some passengers got to know that there were no flights from their take-off destination when they reached the airport. 
• What's more shocking is that most of them complained about not receiving their full refunds for the flight cancellation. 

• Some claim they were denied the refund, others couldn't get in touch with customer service, more were offered the option of rebooking but at an additional cost, etc. 

Context: VietJet Air had announced that they will be launching new flight routes from Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the first week of November 2022. 

• But we are already into December, and these routes have not yet been launched. 
• Due to various reasons, reports say there's been a delay in the launch of the routes and it may only come sometime in December. 

However, several passengers who booked their VietJet Air flights via popular travel booking platforms are now staring at heavy losses. On the one hand, VietJet Air is not responding to their calls, outright denying them refunds; while on the other hand, those who booked hotels and stays for their vacation are looking at bigger losses. (talk about ringing in the New Year by the Ha Long Bay!)

With the rush at airports and now the VietJet scandal, it seems like flying this holiday season is similar to being in a horror movie. 

After this story was published, VietJet Air responded to us with the following message: 

Due to operational reasons, Viejet announced to cancel its all flights from Bengaluru and Hyderabad since October 08, 2022.

Passenger affected by the changes were notified via emails/phone contacts registered in their booking. Furthermore, to ensure the passengers’ rights, Vietjet has implemented refund policy within 30 days for all passengers affected by cancellation of who seek to cancel their tickets.

For further details, passengers can contact Vietjet via:

Email: 19001886@vietjetair.com;

Vietjet’s  Indian Call Center: +91 11- 43640490.

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(This story has been updated with VietJet's response)

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