Have you ever booked a ticket in one of the no-frills airlines in India and you had to cancel the ticket for some reason, and then you are told by the customer care that you will not get a refund, but they will keep the money in a credit note to be used for booking a flight with the same airline within an year?
The fact is - Directory General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gave a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) in May 2008 which mandates all airlines to refund the amount remaining after cancellation back to the traveller's credit card (if card is used for booking) and few more requirements. Read it in this link.
But even though this was reported widely in news papers, the next time I did the cancellation, there was no option in the website to request for refund. So I called the customer care and they repeated the same stuff about storing it in credit note. Thats when I started using the "CAR" word to them. And it works like magic. With Spicejet, its very simple - when the customer care tells you that you will not get a refund, just tell them that there is this Civil Aviation Requirement which says that the airlines should refund money and they will say that they need to raise a ticket with their accounts department. This has worked fine so far and I have got the refund back to my card within few days.
It was slightly tricky with indigo. The customer care was adament that there will not be any refunds, so I asked to talk to a senior person who gave me customer relations email id to send a mail to. I sent a mail to that email id giving link to the CAR and explaining why it is mandatory for them to refund the money. I got a reply in couple of days that the customer care has now been informed to refund my money and to contact the customer care by phone. I called them again and they again said they wont refund. Then I told them the mail I had got from the customer relations and finally they said they will inform their accounts department and I will get a refund in few days. I did get the refund from them in few days.
So, the next time an airline in India refuses refund, use the power of CAR section 3 Series M Part II.
Gmail themes
Okay - so gmail now has themes. But there are hardly couple which I liked - pebble being one and summer ocean being other. Terminal is an interesting theme, but if there is an option to change the colour scheme in this theme, it would be good.
Cricket matches - 20 Nov 2008
Another day in office, and there are two matches going on today. How did I forget the Aus - NZ test? Otherwise could have seen some in TV before leaving for office. It feels so nice to see Australians under pressure at 152/7 at tea. Well done NZ.
For the India England ODI - I will keep updating this post with my thoughts as the match goes on. At toss, MSD had an interesting thought after he lost the toss. He said the light would deteorate early and DL would come into play. Thats an intelligent reading of the situation. Time will tell if he was right and do Indians adapt their game keeping this in mind.
10:57 AM - So after second powerplay England is 80/1. A very good start for them and KP is in now. It will be interesting to see how he handles the part timers and more interesting will be when he choses the third powerplay.
11:10 AM - This is brilliant. Yuvraj already under pressure 17 of his 2 overs. MSD would continue with him for atleast one more over. But if he bleeds run in that over too - he would be under pressure
11:11 AM - Okay - this gets interesting. KP gone trying to hit Bajji out. May be he should have targetted only the fifth bowler. Now damage control time for England. And if its earlier times, bowling team would have taken the powerplay - not anymore. So this new rule is fun.
11:20 AM - Collingwood also gone. Good thing for England is that brings Freddie in. If he can put his head down and keep rotating strike - they can pick the right time to take the third power play. Meanwhile Aussies lose their 8th. I am loving it.
11:30 AM - Well played Ravi. It was a joke to have coming at 8 in first 2 ODIs. He has now made use of the opportunity at the top. Atleast from following the match in cricinfo, looks to be me that Bajji is in the zone today. May be India should keep few overs of him for third powerplay.
11:50 AM - Eng 149/4. I think India should save Bajjis last two overs for later and get in Sehwag or Yusuf to bowl few.
12:06 AM - Eng 166/4 in 36. What happened to third powerplay? I think they would take it immediately after this drink. By the way, Yuvi bowls his 10 and then a substitute field for him??? Didnt ICC talk about being strict regarding substitutes?
12:14 AM - And now the one man who can kill India during the third powerplay is gone. Seriously, did they forget about the third power play? On my earlier comment, cricinfo says Yuvi is back on field. Good.
End of Play - Office work and personal reasons meant I could not update this. But it was fun and let me try this may be for 5th ODI. Dhoni showed his smartness in the way he handled the situation knowing DL will come into play and took the batting powerplay at the right time. What is with Ishant Sharma? He bowls so well in tests and then he comes up with this performance today? Was he really fit? Or does he reserves his best for tests? Whatever it is, hope this does not affect his test match performance. Thats very crucial for Indias quest to Test No 1. It will be interesting to see what the selectors do with Raina and Rohit Sharma.
Meanwhile Aussies fighting back against NZ. The thing that is separating India from the rest when playing against Austalia in the recent past is the intensite which Indians have maintained when they are on top. NZ are 143/7 and Aussies on top. This might turn out to be an interesting test if NZ manage to get Australia out for around 200 (which might be too much for NZ to chase).
For the India England ODI - I will keep updating this post with my thoughts as the match goes on. At toss, MSD had an interesting thought after he lost the toss. He said the light would deteorate early and DL would come into play. Thats an intelligent reading of the situation. Time will tell if he was right and do Indians adapt their game keeping this in mind.
10:57 AM - So after second powerplay England is 80/1. A very good start for them and KP is in now. It will be interesting to see how he handles the part timers and more interesting will be when he choses the third powerplay.
11:10 AM - This is brilliant. Yuvraj already under pressure 17 of his 2 overs. MSD would continue with him for atleast one more over. But if he bleeds run in that over too - he would be under pressure
11:11 AM - Okay - this gets interesting. KP gone trying to hit Bajji out. May be he should have targetted only the fifth bowler. Now damage control time for England. And if its earlier times, bowling team would have taken the powerplay - not anymore. So this new rule is fun.
11:20 AM - Collingwood also gone. Good thing for England is that brings Freddie in. If he can put his head down and keep rotating strike - they can pick the right time to take the third power play. Meanwhile Aussies lose their 8th. I am loving it.
11:30 AM - Well played Ravi. It was a joke to have coming at 8 in first 2 ODIs. He has now made use of the opportunity at the top. Atleast from following the match in cricinfo, looks to be me that Bajji is in the zone today. May be India should keep few overs of him for third powerplay.
11:50 AM - Eng 149/4. I think India should save Bajjis last two overs for later and get in Sehwag or Yusuf to bowl few.
12:06 AM - Eng 166/4 in 36. What happened to third powerplay? I think they would take it immediately after this drink. By the way, Yuvi bowls his 10 and then a substitute field for him??? Didnt ICC talk about being strict regarding substitutes?
12:14 AM - And now the one man who can kill India during the third powerplay is gone. Seriously, did they forget about the third power play? On my earlier comment, cricinfo says Yuvi is back on field. Good.
End of Play - Office work and personal reasons meant I could not update this. But it was fun and let me try this may be for 5th ODI. Dhoni showed his smartness in the way he handled the situation knowing DL will come into play and took the batting powerplay at the right time. What is with Ishant Sharma? He bowls so well in tests and then he comes up with this performance today? Was he really fit? Or does he reserves his best for tests? Whatever it is, hope this does not affect his test match performance. Thats very crucial for Indias quest to Test No 1. It will be interesting to see what the selectors do with Raina and Rohit Sharma.
Meanwhile Aussies fighting back against NZ. The thing that is separating India from the rest when playing against Austalia in the recent past is the intensite which Indians have maintained when they are on top. NZ are 143/7 and Aussies on top. This might turn out to be an interesting test if NZ manage to get Australia out for around 200 (which might be too much for NZ to chase).
Indian in Roja
Was seeing Roja in Raj TV couple of days ago after a looong time. The scene was where Arvind Samy comes to see Madhoo's sister.. After lifting one of the pattis till home, they all settle down and in comes Madhoo and Vaishnavi where Madhoo's mother stops here from coming.. Watch for this scene when you watch Roja next, or rather hear the background music. Its the music that ARR later used in Indian "Telephone mani pol" for the lines "pengal vaasam ennaith thavira ingu veesak koodathu, annai therasa avaraith thavira pirar pesak koodaathu".. Interesting :-)
Lucky with Indica
Recently, the cheapest mode of transport in Chennai for me seem to be Tata Indica. The first instance was, when I had been to Chennai central to send off my relatives. Since it was a night train, it was almost 10:30 when I came out of the station. Nevertheless I decided to wait for bus for some time to see if I get lucky. The first to ask me was a share auto guy who said he will take me exclusively to Tiruvanmiyur for Rs 20. I declined and decided to wait for some more time. Then came a tata indica which offered to take me to Tiruvanmiyur for Rs 5.. wow .. I immediately jumped in, followed by couple of more people. So there I was in the comfort of an indica and reaching Tiruvanmiyur from Central for just Rs 5.
And couple of days back I arrived at Chennai airport and since I had only one bag, I decided to not take auto/call taxi and just got by train till Guindy and then by bus to Tiruvanmiyur. After having walked past the call taxi stand, in the road parallel to the domestic arrival road, there was an indica guy who said he will take me at Auto fare. I asked how much he will charge for Tiruvanmiyur. He said 150. I sticked to 100 and finally he agreed and so I arrived home in a tata indica (no other passengers this time) in the peak traffic time (6 PM) at just Rs 100.
I have also heard from friends that similar stuff happens at late night time if you want to go to Pune from Mumbai. You can get a ride in nice luxury cars at bus rate at Dadar since they will anyway have to return back to Pune and wont mind making some money for them.
You just got to be lucky and there could be such a taxi round the corner trying to make some money before reaching to their next location. After all, its win-win for both, right?
And couple of days back I arrived at Chennai airport and since I had only one bag, I decided to not take auto/call taxi and just got by train till Guindy and then by bus to Tiruvanmiyur. After having walked past the call taxi stand, in the road parallel to the domestic arrival road, there was an indica guy who said he will take me at Auto fare. I asked how much he will charge for Tiruvanmiyur. He said 150. I sticked to 100 and finally he agreed and so I arrived home in a tata indica (no other passengers this time) in the peak traffic time (6 PM) at just Rs 100.
I have also heard from friends that similar stuff happens at late night time if you want to go to Pune from Mumbai. You can get a ride in nice luxury cars at bus rate at Dadar since they will anyway have to return back to Pune and wont mind making some money for them.
You just got to be lucky and there could be such a taxi round the corner trying to make some money before reaching to their next location. After all, its win-win for both, right?
Light year
I read prem panicker's blog regularly and recently I read this post which I found interesting. So when I was walking back home from hotel and I saw the ad of cool-homes I got reminded of this post. The ad was for a society being built by that builder and said "Luxuries which are Light Years ahead". On seeing that.. I thought.. hello.. light year is supposed to be a measure of distance and not time.. it makes sense if someone said luxuries which are many years ahead.. but how does it sound if someone said luxuries which are 1 kilometer ahead :-)
Usha Uthup
Few days back as I was browsing channels, one of the channels was showing "Bombay to Goa". May be one Amitabh movie which has its origin in Tamil (Madras to Pondicherry). Anyway, coming to the topic, as I switched to that channel, the scene was were Amitabh and the heroine will be in a club, there will be a club singer to whom they will ask to sing their favorite songs. And when I saw the singer, I thought I have seen her somewhere and then it struck me.. yes, its Usha Uthup. Looking so young, and her mesmerising voice as it is now.. the style with which she was singing English songs one after another.. But yes, I had to add she was looking shy/awkward facing the camera.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
