I dont expect any positive outcome to this query, but I just had to have a moan !

On Sunday evening I booked and paid for, an economy flight, on the Emirates web site to fly to Hong Kong and back in November. The Cost breakdown was Ł311.00 for the out bound and Ł212.00 for the return leg.

On Monday, having already booked my flight, my client in HK said that he would pay for an upgrade to Business Class on the return leg. According to Emirates web site, the cost of the return had I selected Business at time of booking was Ł806 - a difference of Ł694.00.

I called Emirates on Monday afternoon, less than 18 hours from when I made the original booking. The told me that as this was a change of class request, for just the return leg, the normal Ł100 change fee would be waived.

Great I thought in my naivity, it will only cost Ł694 to upgrade. Then Emirates told me how much the revised would be - an additional Ł1,426 !!

Why I asked - fare rules came the reply. I find it unbelievable

Why do you find it unbelievable - did you read the T&C's?

I guess Emirates are only following the terms agreed when you booked your original ticket and not actually doing anything wrong.

What I find unbelievable is the fact that Emirates, and no doubt other airlines, can justify a Ł700+ difference over the quoted fare. As I said, I do not expect any positive outcome, I just wanted to moan.

Regarding Ts &* C's, I guess I must be pretty dumb, since I have better things to do with my life than to read through a set of clauses that are couched in such a way as to make them undecipherable to most people

Thing is , you didn't need to read through any terms from what I see

You made a booking in economy class
You subsequently chose to make a change to the booking
The agent calculated the fare difference at which point you had choice to purchase or not

It doesn't read that you were purchasing the economy ticket with the intent to make a change to business class later ( where knowing terms would be useful ) , just a post purchase choice to do so

What is the cancellation penalty on the original fare ? perhaps could just rebook and cancel the original

Looking at the cheapest option, it looks like the cancellation penalty may well be GBP200 . GBP694+GBP200 will be only GBP894 which is cheaper than the GBP1426 to upgrade

There is also a chance that the agent may have incorrectly selected the class / auto pricing didnt pick up the lowest possible option and it might be worth a 2nd call and see whether another agent can successfully get the lower of the fares before going for cancel and rebook

Thank you very much for that most constructive suggestion. I will certainly follow it up with a second phone call. I don't hold out much hope, but its certainly worth a try.

Check whether the first pricing you saw is still available by doing a dummy booking on the website first.

If you can check the fare buckets too even better, as you can state their on line availability when putting your case for getting the lower pricing.

Update to this

Complained to Emirates saying that I thought it was unfair, even if it was strictly correct under the terms of the fare rules. They have relented and said that I can have the upgrade for the return leg for Ł700

It pays to persevere

Well done!!! ^