Good Customer Service Experience With Spicejet

This year end I am looking forward to spend my vacation in Sri Lanka. The ticket was booked by my friend through Cleartrip.com. We got a pretty good deal of around Rs 6500 for return trip to Sri Lanka. But he had entered my nick name as my first name. So the name on the ticket and the name on the passport/visa would have been different. This caught me quite sometime after we bought the ticket. I called up Cleartrip support and requested them to rectify my name. Cleartrip told to contact the airlines directly in this regard. So I called Spicejet 24 hrs Customer care (Mobile) : +91 987 180 3333, +91 965 400 3333. The agent over there told me that it is not possible to change the name. If it is typographical error involving one or two letters they can do it but name change is not allowed. It was a rude shock. But I did not wanted to change my name and just wanted to rectify my name to reflect the name I have on the passport. I told him that my last name and my passport number remains the same and I am the same person who will be traveling. When I was angry, he offered to transfer to his senior. After keeping me on hold for sometime, he told they are unable to do anything and to write to: custrelations@spicejet.com. I went to Spicejet website to find the rules in regard to name rectification. I found name change is strictly prohibited. Seeing no other way wrote to the email he provided as follows:

Excerpt of the email:

I have a ticket for Chennai – Colombo on — date —-. I found that the first name has been wrongly entered and I need to rectify it as per my passport. Please note that this is just a rectification and not change in the person. The passport # ********* still remains the same with which the ticket was booked. Which means I am the same person who will be travelling. Please amend this.

I already talked with the customer care and they told name cannot be changed. Please note that I am not changing my name, I am asking to rectify my name as per my passport. Please help. I am asking for legitimate and genuine rectification of name.

As of now the name on the ticket is ” ********** ” and it needs to be “**************”.

Airline PNR: ******
Ticket # : ******
Flight # ****
Passport # *********

Please look into this and help me. Awaiting your quick reply.

They replied back telling name change cannot be done. I will have to cancel the ticket and book it again if its available with the correct name. Also, they will charge me cancellation fee of Rs 1850 per way. I found there is a escalation process if one if not happy with answer received from customer support. So I wrote to Nodal Officer (NodalOfficer@spicejet.com) stating all these details. Also, I told them some airlines take a penalty and change the name. If they would like, they can charge a penalty and amend this. On this the Nodal officer asked me to send a scanned copy of the passport. Sent a scanned copy of my passport and visiting card keeping my fingers crossed. Next day I was informed the needful has been done and the ticket will now reflect the name as per my passport.

I really appreciate the help and experience with the SpiceJet escalation team. SpiceJet as a low cost airline would definitely not like to allow laundering of tickets which was purchased much earlier. But genuine name rectification should be allowed where the same person will be travelling. Below is the support matrix of Spicejet:

1st contact: 24 hrs customer care: 91 987 180 3333, +91 965 400 3333

2nd contact: write to – custrelations@spicejet.com

3rd contact: Nodal officer – NodalOfficer@spicejet.com

4th contact: Appellate Authority – AppellateAuthority@spicejet.com