50% Cash Back With HDFC and Cleartrip?

Let me start by saying “WHAT A SCAM“. If you read the fine print of the offer, it is closed to being called a legal fraud.

Let me explain you how this works. Cleartrip advertises an “Cleartrip Exclusive: Got an HDFC Bank credit card? Get 50% cash back on flights!” and you think well… my average ticket cost would be Rs. 5000 and I can get Rs. 2500 cash back on the ticket… WOW!! That’s an amazing offer… well hold you horses, did you read the fine print yet?

Fine Print

– Book 4 tickets or more in a single booking (2 round trips or 4 one-way tickets) and get 50% cash back on the base fare or Rs. 2,500 (whichever is less).

– Book 2 or 3 tickets in a single booking (1 round trip or 2/3 one-way tickets) and get 10% cash back on the base fare or Rs 500 (whichever is less).

– Valid on GoAir, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Kingfisher Red and JetLite. Taxes and fees have to be paid extra as applicable.

I did a little experiment to see actually how much I can save with the 50% cash back offer calculating on the first clause “Book 4 tickets…”

I logged on to clear trip and book 2 return tickets from Delhi to Mumbai… Why did I choose those sectors? Because they are the most frequently flown destinations and for my experiment this would give the most valid results.

So I searched the 2 round trip tickets, which makes it 4 tickets in all and got the following results.

Total: Rs. 12,809 (Rs. 1,302 + Rs. 11,507 tax & fees)

Since the cash back will be calculated on the base fare and not the whole amount, I am left with Rs. 1,302. Now 50% of Rs. 1,302 is Rs. 651

I will get 50% cash back on the base or Rs. 2,500 (whichever is less), So my final amount is Rs. 651

To put insult on injury, Rs. 651 is not a discount which you will get instantly, but you will get it from HDFC after a certain number of days (which is not mentioned on cleartrip at all)

Offers like these are plenty, its “we” who have to read the details and then decided. Always read the fine print before pulling out your credit card.

Cleartrip Cashback Offer

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Airlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “50% Cash Back With HDFC and Cleartrip?”

  1. Now even cleartrip is becoming a farce like MMT and yatra! 🙁 sad

  2. Completely incorrect. Your card will be charged the booking amount minus the cashback amount, i.e. you will be charged lesser than what is shown on step #4 (of the booking process). Try it out and verify it for yourself.

    You can leave a post on http://www.cleartrip.com/forums for clarification and immediate resolution of such doubts.

  3. @Saurabh

    Great, that we save the money instantly… but what about the main issue of making this offer looking like a “WOW Offer!” when it is not… cleartrip advertising is not so clear afterall. Why stop at 50% cashback, why not make it 100% and then in the file print mention 100% cashback or Rs. 1000 whichever is lower. Like is said before, this is a borderline scam.

  4. @Prashant: I think you picked the wrong sector (Del-Mum return) to support your argument. That is the sector with the largest traffic in the Indian aviation industry and for some reason has a very skewed pricing split — very low base fare + very high taxes.

    However, take a look at some other sectors — Del-Goa, Mumbai-Kolkata, Delhi-Hyderabad — and you’ll realize that the cashback can save you a cool 1,500 to 2,000 bucks. So, I don’t think you are correct in blaming Cleartrip for deceptive marketing.

  5. @Saurabh
    1. I selected Del-Mum because it is the most traveled sector which means percentage of people utilizing the cash back would automatically be higher on this sector.
    2. Even if i take Del-Goa and save Rs. 2000, it is still only 12% of the ticket. You could argue that’s its 50% on base fare and not tax, if that is so, why not advertise get 5% cash back on the total fare, because if i take an avgrage, a passenger would only say 3%-5% on his tickets. This is the main reason for my calling the scheme deceptive. Not to forget the fact that I have to purchase 4 tickets to get that discount, if I purchase 2-3 tickets, then my discount drops to just 1%-2%

  6. Well said Prashant! these cleartrip guys are total jerk!!

  7. You are absolutely rite prashant even I became a prey to this offer of cleartrip and HDFC. There was only this one line highlighted on the main page of cleartrip saying GET 50% cash back using HDFC Bank CREDIT CARD and nothing else not even a * mark to highlight that there are some hidden terms and conditions attached to this lucrative offer.It was only when I got a statement from my bank I was shocked that only the mimimum amount of Rs. 2500 has been credited where in I was expecting 50% of the total amount chrged to me. I guess many ppl have suffered like me. Advertisement like this should be banned and heavy punishment should be charged to company using it to boost up thier sales.