India, like many other countries, was under lockdown since late-March due to coronavirus pandemic. The government is now starting to relax the lockdown norms as India has entered the Unlock phases. With flight operations resumed, people are starting to get back home or continue with other travel plans they had made before Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a total lockdown without prior notice.

The airline industry, which was worst-hit by the pandemic, had to deal with ticket cancellations. The biggest challenge was to issue refunds to everyone canceling their tickets due to the lockdown. As a way to overcome that challenge, the airlines created a credit shell, which could be used by customers to book tickets once the flights started operations.

Aircraft takeoff
A airplane just after takeoff [Representational Image].Pixabay

How to use credit shell balance to book flights?

If you had to cancel your flight due to the lockdown and got your amount refunded into a credit shell, here's how to use that to book your next flight.

Credit shell is an amount provided by airlines for all impacted bookings with travel from 25th March to 31st May which can be used for future bookings by the same passengers. The credit shell is valid for bookings for one year from the date of creation. All flights that provided customers with credit shell have the same process of utilizing it.

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Booking flight ticket using credit shelltwitter

Step 1: Search for your preferred flight, complete with date and time

Step 2: Once you select the flight, when you proceed to payment, you will get an option to "Use My Airline Credit" or a similar option.

Step 3: Check the airline credit option and enter your PNR

Step 4: Review the details and proceed to book

Customers must make sure they use the same email address used for a previous booking for the new flight. It's also worth noting that the new booking must be for the original traveler and with the same airline that issued the original ticket.