Air India — Mislead and refund not processed

Address: 350 Warrigal Road, Cheltenham, Victoria, 3192, Australia

Regions / Airport Name : Delhi
Ticket Number :[protected],[protected],[protected]
Flight Number : AI 308
Flight Date :[protected]
[protected]---
Dear Sir,

I have to come to this to write my grievance here since I don't have any other options left.

We booked our India travel from Delhi to Melbourne, Australia for 26th April 2020. However, due to the unprecedented COVID situation, we couldn't travel for almost 2 years as borders were shut down and COVID situation was very uncertain. I requested for refund in 2020 as soon as I found out that we cant travel but I never received any response. I was not able to connect to AI by any mode as they all were showing not in service. AI online portal displayed notification for all COVID-affected passengers that those tickets can be used in some way again to book the tickets once the travel resumes. In 2022, when things seems normal and borders were open, we started to plan our India travel again. We tried to reach out to their customer service numbers (given here www.airindia.in/customer-support.htm) but it is next to impossible to connect to them. I raised many requests through their Feedback portal (www.airindia.in/feedback-form.htm) but all we received is acknowledgment but no resolution. Melbourne Air India office told us they cant help us since we booked the ticket online. We tried to escalate it through [protected]@airindia.in but they responded saying it cant be refunded since its been more than 15 months (I had also requested refund within 15 months window but received no response). I dropped follow-up emails but again, no response. Their phones are not connected either.

We are travelling to India almost after 5 yrs but we are not able to reuse the tickets we booked with AI. We were misled by the airlines that it can refunded/credited and now left stranded without being able to connect to them. Its frustrating and is causing undue mental stress to the family.

I have attached the eTicket and cancellation request email here but I can provide all the email communications if needed.
Any help to resolve this matter to get the refund back is highly appreciated.

Regards,
Ashish