The convenience fee for booking tickets through Online Travel Agents like Cleartrip, Yatra and MakeMyTrip has gone up significantly: MakeMytrip, Yatra and Cleartrip are each charging Rs 125 as a 'convenience fee'. The issue was brought to light on Twitter by Mahadevan Jayaram. The increase to Rs 125 is significant, given that customers were earlier being charged around Rs 40. As per an email we've received from Cleartrip, the reason behind this inordinate increase in convenience fees is that airlines have withdrawn a 'pass through' feature to save costs on payment processing. In case of credit card, debit card, net banking and cash card fees, charges levied by banks and cash card companies were earlier borne by the airlines, but they're now being passed on to customers as a convenience fee. Airlines have also started charging a convenience fee for transactions on their website too. A few things to note: - We checked three OTA's, and the convenience fee is the the same across the board. Also, the decision to pass the costs to customers appears to have been taken by all airlines. In both cases, this smells of cartelization, and there's nothing competitive about this decision. - The fees charged by the OTA's are higher than that charged by the Airlines. Indigo charges Rs 100 as convenience fee for domestic flights and SGD 3 for Singapore flights, while Jet charges Rs 105 for domestic flights and Rs 210 for International ones, in Economy class. MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Ixigo and Goibibo charge…
