Emirates has been… a little tardy to the party in issuing refunds. It seems that’s changes with the airline planning to ramp up its capability to manage the outstanding refunds.
And there’s a lot of them.
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER at Hamburg Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Emirates note that nearly half a million refund requests are pending to managed. As such, the airline is taking steps to restructure its back-end procedures and boost resourcing to accelerate the processing of refunds.
It is funding this refund effort by going into their cash reserves to pay customers.
Before COVID-19, the airline handled an average of 35,000 refund requests in a month. Now, it is gearing up to handle 150,000 refunds per month and aims to clear its current backlog by early August.
So if you’ve got a ticket with Emirates and have requested a refund, you’re going to be waiting for some time to come.
In Quotes
Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said:
“It is a difficult time for us, as it is for all airlines. We are dipping into our cash reserves by being proactive in processing refunds, but it is our duty and responsibility. We would like to assure our customers and trade partners that we will honour refunds, and that we are doing our best to speed things up.
“The situation was dynamic in the early weeks of the pandemic, but we have since re-written our COVID-19 waiver policy into a simple, globally-applied approach that puts customers first. We’ve also proactively contacted those of our customers who had submitted earlier requests for refunds or booking changes, to let them know of the new options available to them.
“We sincerely hope that our customers and trade partners will choose to book and fly with Emirates again at a later time. For those who have opted to hold their tickets or exchange it for travel vouchers, we look forward to welcoming you on our flights again soon. Announcements will be made whenever we are able to resume services.”
And if you want that refund…
If you need to refund, you’ll need to head to an online form on Emirates’ website at https://www.emirates.com/ae/english/help/refund-request/, or contact your travel booking agent for assistance.
If however, you don’t want a refund, Emirates offers two other options to its customers:
- Keep their existing ticket for up to 24 months, and call to reschedule their flight when they are ready to fly. Emirates has extended this option to apply to any ticket booked on or before 30 June 2020, for travel on or before 30 November 2020.
- Exchange the unused portion of their tickets for a travel voucher equivalent to the amount paid for their original booking. The travel voucher can be utilised for any Emirates product or service, with no change fees, providing customers more flexibility to reschedule when they are ready to travel again.
The full policy is at https://www.emirates.com/ae/english/help/covid-19/ if you need to start digging.
But that refund is going to take some time to arrive, no matter how hard you push…
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Kevin,
Can they not ask their credit card company for a charge back?