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For the first time I am writing this article in favour of Travel Agents-those who are Not-IATA agents.
Many travel agents who make our traveling very easy, takes all the burdens of Canceling, Rescheduling tickets and provide other support , are most of the time taken for granted by their Customers and so called Air-Travelers.
It is a common practice for air borne travelers of Andaman that they will check many travel websites for flight fares and then approach a travel agent. One difference what a common person surfing the travel websites over internet, do not understand is that there are two types of travel sites, so called the B2C (Business to customer) and the other B2B (Business to Business).
Travel Agents come under B2B types. All Travel portals in India like Yatra, Makemytrip, Cleatrip etc are basically B2C Portals but they also have B2B portals which is only for their agents. When a person surfing the internet, types www.yatra.com , he is actually looking at the B2C portal of Yatra. Now the Main difference between a B2B & B2C is, that , in B2C - a person can book tickets by using Credit/Debit Cards and Internet Banking. These customers may or may not be charged extra fees for using Debit/Credit Cards or Net banking.
The disadvantage in B2C portal is that 1) They fares are not guaranteed until your payment is successful. 2) Payments may get debited but Ticket wont generate. 3) Fares are not updated or refreshed frequently. 4) If tickets are cancelled, the Refunds take longer time. 5) Some fares on B2C portals are sold as NON-REFUNDABLE even if they are actually Refundable. 6) one cannot reschedule a ticket purchased using Debit Card or Net baking, Online. then that person has to go to Airline office for such purpose. 7) B2C portals will charge Rs.300-500 per passenger extra for Cancellation and Rescheduling above the Normal Cancellation Charges. 8) you do no get coupons and agent special fares on B2C portals. 9) Cancellation / Rescheduling time limit is 12 or 24hrs prior departure for tickets done from B2C portals.
in B2C portal, one may get a Fare which may be 20 to 100 rupees less or discounted than what he/she is getting from a B2B Travel Agent. But when it comes to providing Services, B2B Agents are far better than B2C portal. One must understand that Travel is a Service Industry. and every service comes at a cost as Service Fee. Moreover a B2B agent has to pay TDS too. so if on b2c a fare is 5146, the same would be 5177 or 5200 with B2B agents or at times same as 5146. Also, one must understand that B2B agents , specially in Port Blair do not charge extra service fees for bookings, whereas if you go to Chennai or any other city, agents will charge you minimum Rs.400 per passenger for flight tickets. This , I am talking from personal experiences. Most B2B Agents are very fair in Selling tickets and also people must understand that they do not get high commissions from the Travel Agencies of which they are agent.
So, understand this - a b2b agent selling a Kingfisher ticket of 5180 will get hardly a commission of Rs.190 out of which Rs.20 will be deducted as TDS. then Customers will ask him for discount. Say the b2b agent gives Rs.50 as discount, then what he is left with Rs.120 only. Then also, he will provide almost 24x7 service for his customer free of charge by making calls to his main agency, to passenger etc. And finally he is left with almost nothing. So, how does he make his livelihood?
So Travelers, just Try to do the same practice in Chennai or other cities- they won’t give you discounts, services etc instead they will charge extra fees.
So, a traveler must never compare B2C and B2B in terms of service and also in terms of Fares displayed at times. One is free to buy tickets from B2B or B2C. So, its upto them whether to buy from B2C by paying less and bear all the headaches thereafter or to buy from B2B Agents and feel comfortable and free from all worries.
Active Indian
Many travel agents who make our traveling very easy, takes all the burdens of Canceling, Rescheduling tickets and provide other support , are most of the time taken for granted by their Customers and so called Air-Travelers.
It is a common practice for air borne travelers of Andaman that they will check many travel websites for flight fares and then approach a travel agent. One difference what a common person surfing the travel websites over internet, do not understand is that there are two types of travel sites, so called the B2C (Business to customer) and the other B2B (Business to Business).
Travel Agents come under B2B types. All Travel portals in India like Yatra, Makemytrip, Cleatrip etc are basically B2C Portals but they also have B2B portals which is only for their agents. When a person surfing the internet, types www.yatra.com , he is actually looking at the B2C portal of Yatra. Now the Main difference between a B2B & B2C is, that , in B2C - a person can book tickets by using Credit/Debit Cards and Internet Banking. These customers may or may not be charged extra fees for using Debit/Credit Cards or Net banking.
The disadvantage in B2C portal is that 1) They fares are not guaranteed until your payment is successful. 2) Payments may get debited but Ticket wont generate. 3) Fares are not updated or refreshed frequently. 4) If tickets are cancelled, the Refunds take longer time. 5) Some fares on B2C portals are sold as NON-REFUNDABLE even if they are actually Refundable. 6) one cannot reschedule a ticket purchased using Debit Card or Net baking, Online. then that person has to go to Airline office for such purpose. 7) B2C portals will charge Rs.300-500 per passenger extra for Cancellation and Rescheduling above the Normal Cancellation Charges. 8) you do no get coupons and agent special fares on B2C portals. 9) Cancellation / Rescheduling time limit is 12 or 24hrs prior departure for tickets done from B2C portals.
in B2C portal, one may get a Fare which may be 20 to 100 rupees less or discounted than what he/she is getting from a B2B Travel Agent. But when it comes to providing Services, B2B Agents are far better than B2C portal. One must understand that Travel is a Service Industry. and every service comes at a cost as Service Fee. Moreover a B2B agent has to pay TDS too. so if on b2c a fare is 5146, the same would be 5177 or 5200 with B2B agents or at times same as 5146. Also, one must understand that B2B agents , specially in Port Blair do not charge extra service fees for bookings, whereas if you go to Chennai or any other city, agents will charge you minimum Rs.400 per passenger for flight tickets. This , I am talking from personal experiences. Most B2B Agents are very fair in Selling tickets and also people must understand that they do not get high commissions from the Travel Agencies of which they are agent.
So, understand this - a b2b agent selling a Kingfisher ticket of 5180 will get hardly a commission of Rs.190 out of which Rs.20 will be deducted as TDS. then Customers will ask him for discount. Say the b2b agent gives Rs.50 as discount, then what he is left with Rs.120 only. Then also, he will provide almost 24x7 service for his customer free of charge by making calls to his main agency, to passenger etc. And finally he is left with almost nothing. So, how does he make his livelihood?
So Travelers, just Try to do the same practice in Chennai or other cities- they won’t give you discounts, services etc instead they will charge extra fees.
So, a traveler must never compare B2C and B2B in terms of service and also in terms of Fares displayed at times. One is free to buy tickets from B2B or B2C. So, its upto them whether to buy from B2C by paying less and bear all the headaches thereafter or to buy from B2B Agents and feel comfortable and free from all worries.
Active Indian
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To
The Editor, Andaman Chronicle
Your news item “IRBn men break convoy rules to interact and mingle with Jarawa girls” is a routine affair. I traveled by STS bus to Rangat the very next day of the incident. During the mandatory stop at Jirkatang, a group of regular commuters were discussing the incident over a cup of tea. I learnt JPP two wheeler pilot (read police) on his motorcycle led the convoy at walking speed that day (12/05/2011). To add insult to the injury, the two wheeler pilot even stopped his motorcycle midway to further delay the convoy. Starting at 0630 am from Jirkatang, the convoy reached Middle Strait at 0820 am taking 1 hr 50 min to cover the distance of 50 Km. Meaning the convoy proceeded at an average speed of 27 kmph against the stipulated speed of 40 kmph.
The next day (13/05/2011) when I traveled, our convoy took 1 hr 45 min to reach Middle Strait, at an average speed of 28 kmph. At few places the convoy proceeded at walking speed, tempting enough to get down, attend natures call and board the bus once again. Though all of us in the Bambooflat express were islanders traveling for bonafide reasons, none of us got down, but what the tourists were doing while the convoy was progressing at walking speed through the Jarawa reserve, perhaps I do not want to hazard a guess. But what I saw during my return trip on 15/05/2011, was far more horrible. If such scenes are reported, it may not go well with the so called guardians of the tribals. Moreover the matter is relating to Jarawas and everything relating to Jarawas is sacrosanct.
Those officials, who rose to the occasion, took the unconventional step of reporting the facts deserve praise. Our country men ought to know “who” is doing “what” to “whom” in the ATR in the cover of convoy. Novel tactics are being applied to harass the general public in the name of convoy, whereas the elite few, enjoy free ride in the ATR through tribal reserve. I thank Andaman Chronicle for placing the matter in the public domain.
Debkumar Bhadra
Shore Point, Bambooflat, S Andaman-744107
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Even a Labour working for on salary of Rs. 3000, a Govt. servant working on a salary of Rs.7000-30000 or a patient needing for an emergency treatment would know about the fact that Airfares between Port Blair and Mainland (Chennai or Kolkata) are out of range these days, be it peak season or off-season.
The respectable Leaders and Our Administration have been giving the statements that they were writing to the concerned Ministries about the higher airfares prevailing in Andaman sector but everthing seems to have gone in Vain and who knows how much effort has actually been put into aggressive action.
All the Airlines specially AirIndia and others operating in this sector like Jet and Kingfisher are going on increasing the airfares for this sector.
Individuals are writing, Some politicians and NGO’s are writing but it’s time for them to come under one-roof and approach jointly with a HANDSHAKE-PROTOCOL and talk directly to the Aviation Ministry as well as Chief’s of All Airlines regarding the Airfare problem. Else nothing will be achieved. All efforts will go in vain.
Active Indian
Port Blair
Port Blair
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Very impressive move by Shri Kuldeep Rai Sharma, President Pradesh Congress Committee on the serious matter of non-availibility of LTC quota tickets/airfares.
It has been a common practice for Air India and previously Indian Airlines not issuing NOC to government servants, when such LTC fares are not available.
Rather the staffs have been seen, saying the passengers or the govt. servants, that they will issue NOC only if they purchased Tickets on higher rates from Air India only.
Why are they doing such unlawful practices being govt. employee themselves? When LTC quota ticket is not available and if a passenger is getting lesser fare in Private airlines, why is the need to buy high fare ticket from Air India? And why Air India staffs do not issue NOC, so that the govt employee can buy Cheaper fare ticket in any other airline, if entitled to do so?
ActiveIndian (Fighting Against Corruption in Andaman)
ActiveIndian (Fighting Against Corruption in Andaman)
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Once again I am forced to write regarding the Extreme High Airfares between Port Blair-Kolkata-Port Blair and Port Blair-Chennai-Port Blair. It is not understandable, why there is no protest or appraoch by the local resident of these islands regarding this matter. The airfares are out of reach of a common middle class person and at times for the government servants. Its very disturbing to see that for a 2hrs journey, all the airlines are charging minimum fare of 6900 and higher whereas for the same amount of journey time from Chennai to Delhi/Kolkata, the fare ranges from 3100-7000 max in AirIndia, Kingfisher, Jetairways apart from Spicejet, Indigo, Go-Air etc.
Just because Andaman is a tourist sector, Airlines do not have to right to charge so much higher fares. The problem is actually that there is not much awakening among the people of Andaman. The reason behind this can be explained as , say a person wants to travel on April/May and he is going to purchase the ticket somewhere during April starting. He will probably get fare of 9000 or above which may not be affordable for him. He will then approach respective Airline’s office who will promise to provide them a waiting list ticket in a fare around 6500 or 7000 as per market condition. If he is not satisfied then he will approach big IATA agents, who will promise the person arrange either a lesser fare ticket or the IATA will tell the person that he will send the person on some other passengers name as he has got the advantage if being IATA or having a good connections at the Airport. So the common people gets involved in malpractices along with these IATA’s and since he got this kind of help , it does not matter to him even if there is higher fares prevailing. he will just keep his mouth shut...I know few persons who travelled on low fare cancelled tickets on the name of other passengers. See corruption is everywhere.
Coming back to the main point, its high time that our Administration and respectable M.P should take steps forward and talk to the Aviation Ministry and Chiefs of All the airlines operating in our sector to bring down the airfares and sell fares in the affordable range of atleast min 4000-7000 max. And also the IATA’s must be put under serious scanner for doing fraudulent things as they surely have more administrative privileges and access to the airlines systems and can do anything they may want to.
Also the Public must approach Honbl’e LG and the Secretary to put forward this issue.
JAGO PUBLIC JAGO ! WARNA YUNHI HIGH AIRFARES PAY KARTE RAHO !
Regards
ActiveIndian