My pathetic experience with Air India: No refund even after 1.5 months!

I think I’ve wasted enough time, peace and money over a simple 2-hour domestic flight worth INR 7,000

BHPian Shreyas Agarwal recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I thought that Air India must be getting better, even if slowly, under the legendary Tata Group, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I chose Air India for my LKO-BOM trip as it was the only one offering me a 25kg luggage allowance with a student ID. Little did I know that the greed for a few extra kilos would cost me so much mentally and financially.

The trouble started with a series of delays, which were attributed to a technical fault in the aircraft. After more than four hours of waiting, the flight was finally canceled. During this time, not even a basic gesture, like offering water to the frustrated passengers, was made.

We were then directed to the luggage belts to collect our bags and assured that buses awaited us outside to transfer us to hotels since no flights would be available that day. They promised to share rescheduling information at the hotel. Up to this point, the situation was frustrating but manageable—flight cancellations happen, and I expected standard procedures to follow.

What ensued was an absolute nightmare. Upon exiting the airport, instead of getting people on the buses, they queued all 200 passengers, including families with elderly and infants, in front of a booking counter staffed by a single person to discuss flight rescheduling and refunds. In the scorching heat, everyone waited for hours, hoping for clarity.

While waiting in the line, I called the Air India helpline, hoping that I could maybe avoid the queue by getting a refund over the phone. But when I mentioned my flight details, they disconnected the call, saying they couldn’t hear me clearly. Seriously, even kids these days come up with better excuses.

When I finally reached the counter, I was offered a flight three days later while being informed that hotel accommodation would be provided for only one night.They might as well have offered a flight 3 months later, no? If that didn’t work for me, I could take a refund.

With no other option, I took the refund, booked a flight at 5x the price for the next day, and headed to the area where their non-AC bus would arrive—whenever that might be.

Fortunately, the hotel they transferred us to was decent, with twin-sharing rooms, complimentary dinner, and breakfast, along with an airport transfer for the next day.

I thought the worst was behind me, but I was wrong. It’s been over 1.5 months, and I’m still waiting for my refund. Despite raising tickets on their portal, calling, and emailing multiple times, I received the same canned response: “The refund will be processed in 7-10 days.” Recently, they’ve stopped responding altogether.

Even the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s AirSewa app redirects me to the same unhelpful Air India channels.

I think I’ve wasted enough time, peace and money over a simple 2-hour domestic flight worth INR 7000, and I don’t have the enthusiasm to waste more to take it to court or do something else about it. Lesson learnt: Don’t travel Air India again, and don’t rely on the Indian government to protect consumers from corporate misbehaviour.

EDIT: Came across this article (Link). Looks like this is standard modus operandi for them. Maybe paying the fines is cheaper.

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