Canceled, rescheduled flights fine US-bound students – Times of India

MUMBAI: Indian students with valid visas can fly to the US in August to attend their universities, but many have found their flights canceled or rescheduled in the past few weeks. Air India Sources said its collateral damage was due to the ongoing restrictions on other categories of passengers traveling from India to the US.
On May 4, the US banned the entry of certain categories of non-immigrant travelers from India. “Travellers expected the US to relax these restrictions as the number of Covid cases decreased. In view of this, they booked US flight tickets. But the restrictions have not been lifted yet and hence this class of passengers canceled their tickets. done,” said one. Air India Source

“Many of our fully booked US flights now have many empty seats and hence we were forced to cancel, reschedule. Students booked on these flights unfortunately took collateral damage,” the source said.
two weeks ago, Ajay Anand (name changed on request), purchased a return ticket of Rs 70,000 from Air India website for travel on a Delhi-New York flight on 10 August. This week, the airline’s website said it had changed its booking and sent it to its call center.
“I made several calls to the Air India call center, got stopped for more than three hours but still my ticket could not be rescheduled. So I canceled the AI ​​ticket and bought a return ticket to New York. United 1.50 lakh flight, which passes through Frankfurt,” he said. With popular transit hubs like Dubai, London closed to Indians, US travel options have dwindled and fares have skyrocketed.
Air India spokesperson said that after May 4 US President’s announcement Some of AI’s flights to the United States had to be cut or rescheduled, restricting air traffic from India.

“These were affected well in advance and the passengers were aware of the cancellation and rescheduling of their itinerary – which had to be done due to reasons beyond our control. We used to operate about 40 flights to the USA before the President’s announcement, we could operate 11 flights per week to the USA in July. The frequency is being increased from August 7 to 21. To ease passenger congestion, an additional flight per week is also planned from Delhi to Newark over and above the existing flights to the US. “With increasing frequency in the US region, every effort is being made to accommodate as many passengers as possible on our US bound flights from August,” an Air India spokesperson said.
The United States allows students with valid F-1 or M-1 visas to begin or continue academic studies on or after August 1.

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