Prasad N.

We recently flew with Gulf Air from Dubai to Goa last 23June 2023 with our turning to be 3 year old child, prior to departure we pre-book our seats on the site by paying AED 70 per seat so total we paid for seat was 210 AED.
However, when we were at the counter our seats were changed from 15DEF to 23ABC. We are very much disappointed on this event for we pre-paid the seats and suddenly being pushed back at the very back.
We reached to consensus with the ground crew namely Ms.Aouatif wherein she advised us to send an email to Gulf air and seat amount will be refunded for Bahrain to Goa trip.

Our flight number was Flight number: GF286 wherein we travel in the month of June 2023.
We accordingly raised a refund request via mail. However we got reply from Gulf air after 20 days of sending mail which was very slow informing that they cant refund the amount seats that you booked for you and your family should be only assigned to Able Bodied Passengers (Adults only) as this is their policy. Further they wrote This is in accordance with IATA Conditions of Carriage with state: 'Carrier does not undertake to provide any particular seat in the aircraft. The passenger agrees to accept any seat that may be allocated to him on the flight, in the class of service for which his ticket has been issued. In addition, while booking your pre-reserved seats, terms and conditions of seats/emergency seats will be showing, and you will need to accept it before reserving it.

I was very disappointed with this reply and wrte back to them If this is their policy then why is your website allowing us customers to pre book seats of passengers choice by paying extra amount for those seats?
Secondly, when we had pointed out our concern at the time of check inn. Your site counter supervisor Ms Aouatif informed us that we will be getting a refund provided we send mail to your help desk. We did the same but got nothing more than disappointment and frustration with your given clarification. This indeed highlights that either you don't want to process our genuine refund or your counter staff has a lack of knowledge, who makes a commitment, over which they have no control.

Indeed they never refunded our money back. Very disappointing and worst airline policy.