waitlist priority
 

Hi members. I wish to know what wait list priority means.
A little knowledge of my booking . I first booked my flights paid to emirates.com then i cancelled that booking and asked for a refund on all tickets in that booking ref 3 persons intotal. I recieved a email 2 days later to say from centralrefunds emirates to say that my tickets were non refundable . So i straight away emailed back stating i never knew they were non refundable tickets and i wish to cancel the refund and wish my tickets returned to me. Centralrefunds stated that a refund was already issued and my booking was cancelled and that was it. I and Emirates exchanged emails for another 7 days and in the end Emirates ordered a reversal from my bank of the refund of tax they had gave me and informed me to contact my local Emirates reservation office to confirm my booking.
So i contacted london Emirates and was informed after along phone call explaining my case to them that centralrefunds have now reversed my booking and i wish to confirm it. I was informed that there is no more availabilty on my outward flight ncl to bkk and i have been put on a priority waitlist . I understand that at present there is no seat available in my class but my question . i fly july 2015 if Emirates cannot get me on my flight with my family . will they offer me a full refund, or another flight. I have said to emirates that im willing to travel aday before as i see online there is availabilty aday before my original booking same price as my original booking and flight times. But they said if i change anything i must pay 100.00 GBP each persons for that change total 300.00 GBP. So i did not make any change to my original booking. any advice on this waitlist priorty would be welcome am i garunteed to fly on my chosen day. regards paul

Welcome to FT, leekman and our corner of the forum!

Just to straighten out your timeline:

1 - booked flights, then cancelled
2 - two days later, when refunds are calculating how much to give you, the tickets turn out to be non-refundable and therefore only tax is due to be returned
3 - at this point, you cancel the refund
4 - 7 days later, EK try and confirm the original booking but the original fare class is sold out, so they have put you on a waitlist

In airline reservation systems, each fare class has a limited number of seats, and an associated waiting list. If by any chance the revenue managers decide to increase the number of seats in a particular fare class for sale, they will be able to see that you are on the waiting list and confirm your booking/seat at no additional cost.

In practice, generally revenue managers have very limited discounted seat capacity (as your ticket was, as it was non-refundable). Once the discounted seats are gone, they are usually gone. If it turns out on the day you are not able to fly as your fare class is still not available, you will have the option of a refund - which in your case will only be the tax paid - or changing the fare to class to one which is available, which will incur the change fee.

In order to have the best possible chance of getting on the flight, or at least, receiving compensation in the event you are denied boarding, you will have to pay to upgrade your ticket to the new fare class (which will be the fare difference plus the change fee). Do check the cost of making a brand new booking, which might turn out to be cheaper than the fare difference and change fee!

Also, I do recommend you check the fare conditions before purchasing for the full list of change/refund penalties!

Thank you for your swift reply. I understand your reply clearly. My best chance like you say is to pay for a change 1day earlier at same price as my original booking. And then there will be only change fees to pay. regards paul:)

Indeed - if I was in your position, I would lock in the cheap price, pay the 100 GBP change fee and chalk it up to one of those travel things, if you need to travel around then. The problem with travelling on a carrier with a transit stop is that to snag the cheap fares, you don't only need to have cheap class availability on the first sector, but also the second sector - which is fed from a lot of source markets!

thank you ^:)