Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   Air India Refunds: Real or Scam? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/241490-air-india-refunds-real-scam.html)

I had booked a flight to Toronto. It was canceled due to flight suspension.
I tried to cancel the booking through Air India website which was the original booking source, however, the website asked to contact customer care.

After a long wait to connect the call, the customer care did cancel the flight ticket and promised full refund. They provided a case Id on call and gave 7 days to process it.
I asked for SMS and email confirmation to which he told there is no such procedure in place.

To be sure, I went to local Air India Office, and they asked me to write to
ecommerce@airindia.in for ticket cancellation.
Interestingly, they did not have any details on the cancellation status or perhaps they did not disclose much.

It has been over seven days, and I am yet to hear anything over email or recieve the refund.

The concern over here is the twitter feed of Air India and experiences of people which I have heard lately.
Some of the folks have not recieved refunds for over 30 days.
Some folks recieved a message that their refund has been processed but it does not reflect in their bank statement.
Such cases for refunds are pending from 2020

Any pointers that can help expedite the process for refund, and the money gets credited into account as well.

Thanks!

I am in the same boat. Yet to get a refund for a domestic flight which was canceled in Jan 2021. I have written multiple emails to AI and also called their customer care. No acknowledgement or communication from AI so far. Only empty promises, apologies and the usual corporate jargon.

Only two things worked in my case. 1) Write an email with your booking details to the email address they have mentioned. And follow it up after a month via both email and call. 2) Have good patience. For me it took more than 4 months to get the refund processed, and after that another 1 month to get it credited to the bank account.

For sure - if the fare T&C permits a refund, then you will definitely get it one day. When will that one day be, is anybody's guess.

@procratinator. Errant airlines can be reported to the DGCA. They handle all aspects related to airlines in India from resolving consumer grievances to air accidents. You can post your issue on their Twitter and Facebook handles. They should revert back. Have you tried putting the issue on Air India's Twitter and LinkedIn handles? If not, kindly consider doing so. Naming and shaming is a strong deterrent in nearly all cases. You can go through the link for further information if interested! :)

https://clap.nls.ac.in/wp-content/up...inesSector.pdf

Another redressal mechanism is cpgrams. Here's the link https://www.pgportal.gov.in/

I have been using this for quite some time and it worked.

It's a different matter altogether that Air India is yet to refund for my domestic cancelled flight. And I have been following it since February 2020. But they did always respnded on Cpgrams.

I had also tweeted to Air India on refund status.
They did reply as below.



*Fingers Crossed* :)

I was in the same boat when I had my flight to Toronto cancelled due to the flight ban and then my visa expired as well. Took me about 45 days to get the refund, where nothing happened for the first 40 days, but then found a contact at Air India's office in Delhi, who personally intervened and got it done. Refund was processed in 5 days flat after that.

Hope you get it soon, it is really a shambles on how our national carrier handles customer refunds

Akhil

Is it only Air India related problem? Last year during Wave 1, we had to cancel a few pre-booked flights. GoAir (or probably Spicejet) it was I believe. We followed up with the airline(s) for a while but the refunds never came. Left it after a while while we had to focus on other aspects (= the pandemic).

I had a domestic flight in second week of March, 2020 which was volunatarily canceled due to uncertainity of lockdown and spread of COVID-19.
The fare was partially refundable.
When the ticket was canceled through HappyEasyGo, they promised INR500 as refund. This amount is 6.7% of ticket cost, but it was never credited in account.

It was decided not to follow up as HappyEasyGo offered more discounts in past than other travel booking websites.
Perhaps they recovered the extra discount which was given.

The Air India refund amount is big. It is 20 times than what the aforementioned domestic flight had costed.
I hope they credit the amount within given timeframe.

I had an Air India Domestic Flight, which got cancelled, due to lockdown.

After 6months of relentless follow-up, I received the refund.

I have had a pretty bad experience with Air India. They never refund tickets. I was never refunded for my 2 tickets earlier (not during pandemic). They keep giving one excuse or the other. After a few days, they even told they have already refunded it while I did not receive any money. Very poor ethics and policies.

Agree. Had two flight tickets cancelled due to lockdown. Air India & Indigo.
Both initially mentioned giving credit points, which can be used with lots of conditions (same sector, same passengers etc). Meaning it was almost useless.

Then came the court order, been following up on refund, but no luck still.

I had a refund problem with IRCTC. Didn't get the refund on time after cancelling a ticket and there were no proper responses to my queries. Filed an RTI and got the refund pretty soon.

Would suggest doing the same with Air India.

Interesting to know about IRCTC.

This is what I found for Air India.
I hope we do not have to use it to obtain the refund status,
but as the transparency in communication and status updates is less, it may have a use for many.

I filed RTI on September 16. The confirmation for RTI submission came on September 17, 2021.
The refund was credited in bank account on September 16 after filing the RTI.

I can confirm, the AI Refunds are real.