HappyFares Booking Terms: booking, changes and cancellations

These terms explain how a flight booking with HappyFares works, from the fare you pick to your trip. When we add other travel services, their booking terms will be shown before you book them. The Refund Policy explains how refunds are worked out and how long they take. The Terms of Use and the airline's own conditions of carriage also apply to your ticket.

HappyFares is run by Travelogy Online Private Limited. We are a travel agent: the airline flies you.

1. Before you book: what we show you

For every fare we show the airline, the flight numbers, departure and arrival times and airports, terminals where the airline gives them, stops and changes of aircraft, baggage, and the airline's fare rules: what it charges to cancel or change, and when.

Our own HappyFares fee for a cancellation or date change is shown in the same fare rules, before you book. It is Rs 400 per traveller, or Rs 600 per traveller on an Easy Refund fare. Where the law caps a charge, the cap applies and takes priority over these terms.

2. What you pay

You pay:

• the airline's fare and its taxes and fees;
• any seats, meals, baggage or other extras you choose;
• any HappyFares service or insurance you choose to add; and
• our convenience fee, which depends on how you pay. The fare details on the results page say "Plus a convenience fee for your payment method, shown before you pay." The booking page says any convenience fee shows on the payment step, before you pay. The amount appears on the payment step once you choose how to pay, and you see it before you pay.

The total on the payment step is the amount you pay, and nothing is added after it without your agreement.

You can use one eligible promo code per booking. A fare-discount code takes money off the fare, and the convenience fee still applies. Code HFNCF (one-way domestic trips) or RTHFNCF (domestic round trips) waives the convenience fee instead. It is not a fare discount, and it cannot be combined with another code, so compare the total before you choose. These two codes do not apply to international bookings.

3. Booking: the fare check, your choices and your confirmation

Fares move all the time. When you continue to book, we check the fare with the airline again. If it has changed, we show you the new fare and you choose whether to continue.

Sometimes a seat or meal you pick costs less, in total, on the airline's more flexible fare than on your fare plus the extra. Then we show you both totals, the saving and the new fare's lower cancellation and change fees, with a "Switch to this fare" button. We never change your fare without your tap. If you do not tap, nothing changes and you keep your fare. If you switch, your picks are included in the new fare. We only offer a switch that gives you a lower total.

Seats, meals, baggage, HappyFares services and insurance are your choice. None is selected for you: you add each one yourself, you see its price and main points before you choose it, and you can remove it before you pay. Accepting these terms does not select a paid service.

Before you pay, we show you a summary of the trip, the travellers, the extras, the fare rules and the price. When you press Pay, you confirm you have reviewed them and accept them, these Booking Terms, the Terms of Use, the Refund Policy and, for any service you added, the Add-on Terms, as the line just above the button says. There is no separate tick box; pressing Pay under that line is your acceptance. If you book through one of our AI assistants, it reads the main points to you, acts only on your clear yes, and we send the full summary in writing. If the airline has an important notice for your flight, we show it and ask you to confirm you have read it.

4. Trips on separate tickets

Many round trips, and any trip we build from two flights that the airlines do not sell together (a self-transfer), are booked as separate tickets, one for each leg, in one HappyFares booking. Before you pay we show a note saying so and ask you to tick that you understand it. Each ticket has its own fare rules and is confirmed separately. Changing or cancelling one ticket does not automatically change or refund another.

• Each airline confirms its own leg. Rarely, one leg is confirmed and the other is not, for example when the last seats sell out or the fare rises while we book. Then we refund everything you paid for the leg that was not confirmed, including its convenience fee, within 24 hours, and the confirmed leg stays booked.
• On a self-transfer trip we may offer instead to rebook the leg that failed on the next suitable flight, and we pay up to Rs 500 per traveller of any fare difference. The refund remains your choice.
• If you then cancel the confirmed leg, its own fare rules apply.
• On a self-transfer trip you may need to collect and recheck your bags, change terminal or airport, and meet entry or transit-visa rules. Allow enough time. The second airline does not have to carry you if you miss it because the first flight was late, and may treat you as a no-show. Where we offer help with a missed connection on a trip, the trip's page says so, and what it covers, before you pay.

An international round trip can also be booked as one ticket ("Combined trip"), with one set of fare rules. The page tells you which kind you are buying before you pay.

5. When your booking is confirmed

Your booking is confirmed when the airline issues the ticket and gives a booking reference (PNR). Most tickets are issued within minutes and reach you on WhatsApp and email. If the airline takes longer, our team completes it, usually within 2 hours.

If we cannot issue your ticket, we cancel the booking and send back everything you paid within 24 hours, including the convenience fee. Your bank or payment partner may take a few more working days to show it in your account (Refund Policy, section 4). Please do not book again while a payment is being confirmed; write to us first so you are not charged twice.

If the airline changes the fare after you have paid and before the ticket is issued, which happens rarely, we call you within 30 minutes with your choices: pay the difference, or cancel for a full refund of everything you paid, including the convenience fee, sent within 24 hours. We never take more money without your clear yes.

6. Travellers, names, special fares and children

Names. Enter each name exactly as on the traveller's ID: a passport for international trips; for domestic trips an accepted photo ID such as Aadhaar, passport, driving licence, voter ID or PAN card. Photocopies are not accepted at airports.

Correcting a name. Tell us at once if you spot a mistake. Whether a correction is possible, and its cost, depends on the airline. The DGCA sets a free correction within 24 hours for tickets bought on the airline's own website. For a ticket bought through us, the airline's own rules decide, and your fare rules show it where it applies. Most airlines do not let you change the traveller to a different person; then the booking has to be cancelled and a new one made.

Contact details. Give a working mobile number and email for the booking. Airlines use them to tell you about delays and cancellations, and the DGCA rules let an airline refuse compensation if it had no way to reach you.

Special fares. Some airlines offer fares for armed forces personnel, students and senior citizens. When you choose one, the airline asks for proof, such as a service ID, a student ID or proof of age, and you must carry it at the airport. If you cannot show it, the airline may refuse to carry you or charge the difference. Not every airline offers every special fare.

Infants and children. An infant fare usually needs the child to be under 2 years for the whole trip, travelling with an adult aged 18 or over; the exact rules, and the youngest age an airline accepts, are the airline's. Children up to 12 years on the same booking as a parent or guardian are seated with them at no seat charge, as the DGCA requires. Children travelling alone need the airline's own unaccompanied minor service: contact the airline.

Special assistance. If a traveller needs a wheelchair or other help, add it at booking or tell us, ideally at least 48 hours before departure, and we pass it to the airline, which arranges it. We use what you tell us about a health or mobility need only to arrange this help, and share it only with the airline and the airport service that provides it. You tick a box to agree before you give us health details (Privacy Policy).

7. Check-in and travel documents

Check-in opening times and when counters and gates close are set by each airline and airport. As a guide, counters close 45 to 60 minutes before domestic departures and earlier for international ones, and gates close 20 to 30 minutes before. Your ticket and the airline's website give the times for your flight.

For international travel, valid passports, visas, transit visas and any health or entry documents are your responsibility. Check them with the embassy or the official government website.

8. Cancelling

How. Cancel from "Your trips" on our website or app, ask Meera or Radha, call us, or email help@happyfares.in. For an email cancellation, write at least 6 hours before departure; closer to departure, cancel online or call us. If you checked in online, undo the check-in first, or the airline may treat you as a no-show.

What it costs. You pay the airline's cancellation charge for your fare, as shown in the fare rules, and our HappyFares fee (Rs 400 per traveller, Rs 600 on an Easy Refund fare), also shown before you booked. By DGCA rules the airline's charge can never be more than the basic fare plus fuel surcharge. Our fee is shown before you book. If the law caps the total we may charge, we charge no more than the cap. Our fee is taken from the refund due to you. If the refund due is less than our fee, no refund is paid, and we never ask you to pay the difference.

What you get back. The Refund Policy shows how the refund is worked out, with an example. Government taxes and airport charges stay refundable (Refund Policy, section 2).

Part of a booking. Many fares do not let you cancel one leg of a round trip, or one traveller on a family or group fare. The fare rules for your booking say what is possible.

Cancelling with the airline directly. If you cancel with the airline, send us the airline's confirmation. Telling us within 48 hours helps us claim your refund quickly, but your right to the refund does not end after 48 hours.

Free cancellation window (look-in). The DGCA's 48-hour free cancellation (look-in) is set for tickets bought on the airline's own website. For a ticket bought through us, the airline's fare rules for your booking show whether a free window applies. If the airline's fare rules give a free cancellation window (for example within 24 hours of booking) and you use it, we pass on everything the airline refunds and keep our one HappyFares fee, as on any cancellation, because we still handle the cancellation for you. Some HappyFares fares and services, such as Easy Refund, Smart Saver and 24-Hour RefundGuard, give you more flexibility and apply under their own terms instead (Add-on Terms).

If we cancel your booking. If we cancel your confirmed booking ourselves, for example because our system confirmed a booking that we then could not keep, you get a full refund and we also pay you Rs 400 per traveller, or Rs 600 per traveller on an Easy Refund booking. This does not apply when you asked us to cancel, when the airline cancelled or changed the flight, or when the booking was fraudulent or had false details. It does not limit any other remedy you have by law.

9. Changing your dates

A date change is a reissue of your ticket. You pay the airline's change charge, any fare difference if the new flight costs more, and our HappyFares fee of Rs 400 per traveller, all shown before you confirm. On an Easy Refund fare, one date change at least 24 hours before departure carries no change fee, neither ours nor the airline's, and if the new fare is lower we refund the difference (Add-on Terms, section 1). On an ordinary airline fare, any refund of a lower new fare follows the airline's fare rules, and usually there is none. Some fares cannot be changed; the fare rules say so. Change dates from "Your trips", through Meera or Radha, by phone or email, or through the airline.

10. When the airline changes or cancels your flight

The airline is responsible for schedule changes, delays, cancellations and denied boarding, under the DGCA's rules. In short:

Your rights depend on the DGCA's passenger rules and on the facts: how much notice the airline gave, how long the delay is, what other flight it offers and why it happened. For flights the DGCA rules cover:

• If the airline cancels your flight or changes it significantly, you can choose another flight or a full refund.
• Compensation is not automatic for every cancellation or denied boarding. It depends on the notice given and on whether the airline offers a qualifying other flight, and it is not due when the cause is outside the airline's control, such as bad weather, a security risk or a strike. The DGCA rules set the amounts.
• If a domestic flight is delayed more than 6 hours, the airline must offer another flight within 6 hours or a full refund.
• During long delays the airline must provide meals and, in some cases, a hotel.

Other countries' passenger-protection laws may also apply on international journeys. Nothing here limits a right you have by law.

We tell you what the airline tells us, as soon as we know, and help you get the alternative, refund or compensation, including the airline's written explanation. If you had paid for seats, meals or baggage on a flight the airline cancelled, that money comes back too. When the airline cancels, we keep one fee only, never both (Refund Policy, section 5). If the airline does not resolve it, you can complain to its Nodal Officer or on AirSewa (airsewa.gov.in).

11. If you do not travel (no-show)

If you do not cancel and do not fly, the airline usually keeps the fare on a non-refundable ticket. But the airline must refund the government taxes and airport charges (such as the User Development Fee, Airport Development Fee and Passenger Service Fee) on every fare. Ask us and we claim them for you. For a ticket bought through a travel agent, the DGCA requires the airline to complete a refund within 14 working days. Asking us within 30 days of the travel date helps us act promptly, but your right to these refunds does not end after 30 days. If the airline takes longer than 14 working days, we take it up with the airline and keep you informed. Some foreign airlines take longer, in our experience up to 90 days. We pass the refund on to you within 7 working days of the airline paying us. Our HappyFares fee is taken from the refund due. If only a small amount is due back, for example Rs 200 of taxes against our fee of Rs 400, no refund is paid, and we never ask you to pay the difference.

12. Medical emergencies

If a traveller, or a family member on the same booking, is admitted to hospital during the travel period, the airline may give a refund or a credit shell. In other medical cases the airline decides after a doctor it names confirms the traveller cannot fly. Sending medical documents is your choice, and you tick a box to agree before you upload them. We use them only to ask the airline for a medical refund or to arrange help, and share only what is needed with the airline and our authorised service providers. Please remove information that is not needed. Without the documents we may be unable to support a medical exception, but your ordinary fare rights still apply (Privacy Policy). Send us the documents and we take it up with the airline. We cannot promise the airline's decision.

13. Help and complaints

WhatsApp and phone: +91 7670070070 and +91 7099132130, 24 hours a day. Email: help@happyfares.in. If you are not satisfied, our Grievance Redressal page explains how to reach our Grievance Officer and what happens next.