Emirates : A warning

[Tunafish]

In January this year I booked and paid for 2 business class tickets for BKK > LHR > BCN >BKK.
In March I received a message by E-Mail informing me that all of my flights had been cancelled, and offered me the choice of re-booking or a 90% refund. I choose refund.
Today, 5 months later I have received nothing. I am fed a line of weak excuses, but no refund.
I will NEVER again fly Emirates and I advise you not to either.

[HHTel]

My daughter who is stuck in the US got 400 USD refund for her return portion and took several months.
Her cost of getting back on a repeated flight is costing over 2,000 USD. That was applied for 3 months ago and she's still waiting for a flight which the embassy has said should be in September.
There's people much worse off than you!

[Dannie Boy]

Not sure there are lots of people worse off in pure monetary terms - I would imagine that two Business Class tickets would be 6-7000 US§ so he is waiting for quite a large refund!!

[HHTel]

It' also depends on whether the tickets were booked direct with the airline or through a booking agent.
If the latter then the complaint is with the agent and not the airline.

[REEM]

We bought Emirates return Manchester Dubai Bangkok last November for travel to Thailand in November and returning to the UK in April. At the end of Feb. we decided to return early to the UK when lockdowns and travel restrictions were starting to take effect. We were unable to contact Emirates to rebook because their phone lines were too busy and their offices not functioning so we cancelled the return leg online and booked an expensive one way ticket back to the UK on one of the last scheduled flights with Thai airways before they stopped flying.

On our return to the UK we claimed a refund online for the unused portion of our ticket from Emirates, the process was simple and took less than 5 minutes, we were offered
credit against a future ticket or a refund, we chose the refund. An e mail informed us it would take around 90 days to process, after 90 days I called their help line to enquire about the refund and they told me it would be refunded to my credit card within a week. A week later we had our refund.

Considering the millions of claims they must have had to process, I thought they did a good job, they did not ask for reasons for our cancellation and did not raise any objections quoting obscure terms and conditions, we were kept informed about the refund, it was easy to contact them by phone and we will certainly use them again when air travel to Thailand resumes next year.

Our original return tickets cost around £800 each and the refund after deductions was £290 on each ticket. Surprisingly we were also refunded the cost of the Thai airways tickets by our travel insurance company.

[Kraka's Dad]

In January this year I booked and paid for 2 business class tickets for BKK > LHR > BCN >BKK.
In March I received a message by E-Mail informing me that all of my flights had been cancelled, and offered me the choice of re-booking or a 90% refund. I choose refund.
Today, 5 months later I have received nothing. I am fed a line of weak excuses, but no refund.
I will NEVER again fly Emirates and I advise you not to either.

We have had the same experience with Etihad we will never fly with them again. We had flown with them for over 10 years. Our complaint has been escalated to the CAA!! They have offered no refund at all.
Never fly with them the customer service is awful. They didn't tellus our flights were cancelled .

[pharvey]

The same worries me with Thai Airways. Our flights next month were cancelled and I've been trying to contact TA since I received their Email a couple of weeks ago - but zero response.

I would think many if not all airlines are playing the same game.

[Dannie Boy]

No excuse, but many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy so paying cash refunds could put them under - why many of them are trying to get you to take a flight credit to use at a later date.

[dtaai-maai]

No excuse, but many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy so paying cash refunds could put them under - why many of them are trying to get you to take a flight credit to use at a later date.

That's also why it's a good idea to get the cash refund!

[pharvey]

No excuse, but many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy so paying cash refunds could put them under - why many of them are trying to get you to take a flight credit to use at a later date.

That I fully understand DB and I would gratefully accept a "Flight Credit" - however hearing nothing (and I'm sure many are in the same position).

[EDIT] Crossed post DM - Not much chance of a "Cash Refund" from Thai Airways I feel.......

[Dannie Boy]

No excuse, but many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy so paying cash refunds could put them under - why many of them are trying to get you to take a flight credit to use at a later date.

That I fully understand DB and I would gratefully accept a "Flight Credit" - however hearing nothing (and I'm sure many are in the same position).

I did begin with “no excuse” and you have my full sympathy, but a full refund (or credit) would be a lot better I know. I had a flight to the UK with BA that was cancelled but full marks to them, I got my “credit note” sorted within the first two weeks following cancellation

[pharvey]

I had a flight to the UK with BA that was cancelled but full marks to them, I got my “credit note” sorted within the first two weeks following cancellation

Fair play and good for you. To be honest I'm surprised as it's BA - many bad experiences with them over the years and certainly not my (or my company's) preferred airline.

Airlines are of course in dire straits at the moment but I just hope ticket holders can get the majority of their money back or a credit note. I just wonder to what degree the airlines are insured against this type of thing.... Is it "An Act Of God"? Always a great excuse for insurance companies.