SpiceMax passengers denied seats of their choice get money back

PUNE: SpiceJet has refunded the amount it charged for pre-booked seats to at least five SpiceMax passengers accommodated elsewhere in its Kolkata-Pune flight on May 17 because of the introduction of the business class in the sector.
The Times of India had published a report on passengers having SpiceMax tickets — premium SpiceJet flight tickets — being allotted seats at random in its May 18, 2019, edition.
The family of three persons accommodated in the last row of the Boeing 737 aircraft of the carrier were refunded Rs3,597 last week. “We were refunded Rs1,199 for each seat,” said the woman member of the family, who had lodged a written complaint at the airline’s check-in counter in Kolkata on May 17.
Another woman flyer, also accommodated in the last row of the aircraft on May 17, said she had also got the refund. So did Swadesh Kumar, who had flown to Pune from Kolkata in the SpiceJet (SG 274) flight on May 17.
The woman member of the family of three said she had received a mail from SpiceJet last week, apologizing about the inconvenience caused to them.
“Sadly, this experience was not up to your expectations and certainly not as per the airline standards as well... Please accept our sincere apologies,” the SpiceJet e-mail read.
Swadesh Kumar also received an e-mail from the airline for not being able to accommodate him in the seat he had pre-booked.
The change in the seat numbers without informing the SpiceMax flyers had sparked a commotion in Kolkata airport on May 17 morning before the departure of the SpiceJet flight to Pune, scheduled at 8.35am.
SpiceJet introduced the business class in the Koklata-Pune-Kolkata sector on May 11. It is flying a Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the route at present.
The aircraft has 12 business class seats. The airline earlier had 18 seats for SpiceMax passengers.
Provided no business class tickets are purchased, a maximum of 12 SpiceMax passengers are being currently accommodated in the business class. The rest are being allotted seats as per availability, leaving some flyers flummoxed.