How to complain about a train or flight

Use RailMadad or call 139 during the journey. This is the whole design of the system: a complaint raised with the PNR while the train is running is routed to staff who can act on that train, and coach cleaning, water refilling, air conditioning faults, catering overcharging and security issues are commonly resolved within the same journey.

Register with the PNR, the train number and the coach and berth. Attach a photograph where the complaint is about condition — a dirty toilet, a broken window, unserved food that was billed.

Keep the complaint reference. RailMadad issues one and it is what you use for any follow-up, including if you later escalate.

For a medical emergency, security threat or harassment, use 139 rather than a written complaint. The helpline routes these to the escort and to the next station rather than into a queue.

For catering, note that overcharging above the printed rate is a specific and easily proved complaint. Photograph the bill or the absence of one. Vendors without a bill are the standard fact pattern.

For a complaint about a station rather than a train — cleanliness, touts, accessibility, parking overcharging — the same system takes it, categorised against the station.

After the journey, RailMadad still accepts complaints, but the leverage is lower and the useful outcome shifts from a fix to a record. If money is involved, move to the refund rules or to a consumer complaint instead.

The comprehensive refund rules were notified in 2015 and took effect from 12 November that year, replacing a patchwork that had built up since 1998. They set out cancellation charges by ticket class and by how far ahead of departure you cancel, and they govern what happens when things go wrong.

Confirmed tickets cancelled well ahead of departure attract a flat per-passenger cancellation charge by class. Cancel closer to departure and a percentage of the fare is deducted, rising as you approach the scheduled time, and beyond a defined point before departure no refund is due at all. The specific windows and charges are in the rules and have been revised, so check the current position rather than relying on remembered figures.

Waitlisted and RAC tickets are treated differently, with a clerkage deduction rather than a percentage.

If the railways cancel the train, e-ticket refunds are automatic and no Ticket Deposit Receipt needs to be filed. This has been the position since 2015 and remains the single most useful thing to know, because passengers still routinely file TDRs they do not need.

Counter tickets are cancelled and refunded at a reservation or booking counter within the prescribed time limit, and can also be cancelled through the ticketing website or the 139 helpline with the refund collected at a counter on surrendering the original ticket.

E-tickets are cancelled online, or a TDR filed online within the prescribed time limit, with the refund credited back to the account used for payment. In exceptional circumstances defined in the rules, a TDR can be filed beyond the normal time limit.

Station masters at nominated stations have powers to allow cancellation and grant refunds in exceptional cases, which is worth knowing when something happens at the station itself.

If a refund is not received, the complaint goes through RailMadad with the PNR and the TDR reference. If it is refused and you think it is due, that is a deficiency in service and the consumer route opens.

The governing document is the DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirement, Section 3 Air Transport, Series M Part IV, on facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights. Its stated purpose is to ensure appropriate protection for air travellers where flights are disrupted without due notice.

Denied boarding — being offloaded from a flight you hold a confirmed booking on, typically because the flight is oversold. The requirement obliges the airline to seek volunteers first, and where you are denied boarding involuntarily, to provide an alternative flight and compensation on a scale linked to how quickly it can re-accommodate you.

Cancellation. Where the airline cancels without the notice period the requirement specifies, it must offer an alternative flight or a full refund, and compensation. Where sufficient notice was given, or an alternative within a defined window was offered, the compensation obligation changes.

Delay. Long delays trigger obligations to provide meals and refreshments, and beyond a longer threshold, hotel accommodation and transfers where the delay extends overnight. Beyond a further threshold the passenger is entitled to a refund of the ticket.

The exemption is the part that decides most disputes. The airline is not obliged to pay compensation where the cancellation or delay was caused by an event outside its control — the requirement calls these extraordinary circumstances, and the airline carries the burden of establishing it. Weather, air traffic restrictions, security events and political instability sit inside this; a technical fault or crew shortage generally does not.

Where the airline offers an alternative airport or terminal, it must bear the cost of transferring you, unless you were told of the change sufficiently far in advance.

Airlines are required to publish their policies on compensation, refunds and facilities for denied boarding, cancellation and delay on their websites. That published policy is what you quote back at them, and finding it is the first step in any serious complaint.

For international journeys, a separate liability regime applies to death, injury, baggage and delay under the international carriage convention given effect in Indian law by the Carriage by Air Act. Baggage claims in particular are governed by that regime and by short time limits for notifying the carrier.

Complain to the airline first, in writing, through its own grievance channel. The requirement contemplates this as the first step, and skipping it weakens everything after.

State the flight number, date, PNR, what happened, what the published policy says the airline owes, and what you want. Attach the boarding pass, the ticket, the cancellation or delay notification and any receipts for expenses you incurred.

Ask specifically whether the airline is claiming the extraordinary circumstances exemption, and if so on what basis. Making them state it in writing changes the conversation, because the burden of establishing it rests with them.

If unresolved, escalate to AirSewa, the ministry's grievance portal and app for air travellers, which routes complaints to the airline and to the regulator and tracks them.

Complaints about regulatory non-compliance — an airline systematically ignoring the requirement rather than disputing your specific facts — go to the DGCA.

In parallel, the National Consumer Helpline registers the grievance and produces a docket number, which is frequently enough to move a stuck case.

If none of that works, file a consumer complaint. Air travel is a service, failure to provide what the requirement mandates is a deficiency in it, and consumer commissions decide these cases regularly. You do not need a lawyer, filing is online, and the fee is tied to the claim value.

Watch the limitation period: a consumer complaint must be filed within two years of the cause of action. Long correspondence with an airline is the standard way that period gets used up.

Use the operator's own system when you want the problem fixed and the fix is still possible. Use the regulator when the operator is ignoring a rule. Use the consumer commission when you want money and the operator has refused it.

Those are genuinely different objectives and the systems are built for different ones. A consumer commission will not clean your train coach. RailMadad will not award you compensation for a missed connection. AirSewa will not decide a disputed factual account of what the ground staff said.

Document at the time, not afterwards. For rail: PNR, coach and berth, photographs, the RailMadad reference. For air: boarding pass, the notification of delay or cancellation with its timestamp, photographs of the departure board, and receipts for anything you had to buy.

The timestamp is the thing people lose. Compensation obligations for both cancellation and delay are keyed to how much notice was given and how long the delay ran, and a screenshot of the notification showing when it arrived is worth more than any later description of it.

Get the refusal in writing. An airline or a railway office that declines a claim verbally has not created a record; one that declines in writing has given you the document your consumer complaint is built on.

Do not accept a voucher in settlement without reading what it closes off. Vouchers with expiry dates and route restrictions are routinely offered in place of a cash entitlement, and accepting one can be treated as settlement of the claim.

Finally, remember that a booking made through an agent or an online travel platform does not remove the operator's obligations, but it does add a second party who can be complained about separately — and platforms that hold your refund after the airline has released it are themselves a consumer matter.