Air India — Against refundable tkt penalty for cancellation levied

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra

I had booked for BOM-DEL flight on 4th Nov via Air India, ETD 17 hrs, Airline PNR YDMXC, E Tkt no 098 [protected], Refundable fare.

Due to change in Campus visit schedule for IIM-L Noida campus, I thought of cancelling the above REFUNDABLE ticket. But while attempting cancellation, a penalty charge of Rs 1579 was shown as deductible. It may be noted that the ticket cost was around Rs 3200 of which the taxes etc would be around Rs 2000.

As per rule, till you actually take the flight, the tax liability does not accrue on a passenger and same is refundable in full.

However, in above case, I was being offered Rs[protected] = 1621. Fail to understand the logic behind this amount as I am definitely entitled to full amount of taxes and substantial portion of base fare (since the ticket is refundable ).

The penalty portion is exceeding the base fare which is negating the REFUNDABLE fare type of ticket.
Also why there is no full refund of taxes, as I have not flown ?

Interestingly, for DEL-MUM sector for return via Indigo flight no 6E 181 ETD 9.30 hrs, Airline PNR SEFGPX, E ticket no SEFGPX, non-refundable fare, the penalty was Rs 1850.

Effectively, the difference in penalty amount between refundable and non-refundable fare was of Rs 271, which was higher in case of non-refundable Indigo tkt.

As the deductions were not palatable, I eventually settled for change in dates.

My request :
1) Air India has cheated by classifying the ticket fare as refundable fare whereas the penalty on cancellation is almost same as that of Indigo tkt which had non-refundable fare.
2) Air India should reimburse full tax amount, and substantial portion of Base fare as cancellation is effected about 75 days in advance. (Since I have switched to change of date opting Spicejet, the refund should be granted to my credit card through which I paid extra differential amount due to excess penalty)

Regards,
Hitendra Mehta
[protected]