Hugely disappointed
 

I am writing this message in a state of anger and disgust.

We live in Australia but we are originally from the U.K. We are Emirates Skyward Gold members as are a number of our family and friends who frequently visit us.

In September 2017 my Mother came to visit us here in Australia. She flew from Newcastle via Dubai then onto Brisbane business class with a return ticket. The cost of the ticket was £3895. Sadly during her visit she died. I have over past few weeks been sorting out her affairs and one of the tasks was to cancel the return leg of her flight back to the U.K. I did this via the agent she used to book her flight through. I have just been informed from the agent that Emirates are willing to refund £580 for the return leg of the journey she never made! I fully accept that there will be admin charges but seriously??? I am also 100% certain that her seat was resold as we notified Emirates a week prior to her departure date that she would not be using it.

I am disgusted at the lack of compassion and sheer greed.

In such a situation, the airline does make a refund on the unused portion of a ticket ; what does happen though is that the one way fare is charged for the outbound and then the rest is refunded

Looking at current time of year, the one way fare currently starts at around £3,331 , so the refund amount would be around GBP564, so GBP580 seems correct and would indicate that there is no fee being charged by Emirates or the travel agent but is giving a full refund of the return flight

There is no greed , just a business transaction calculating based on the standard method of calculating fares

I am sorry to hear about your loss.

I suspect that EK did refund the value of the return segment and likely waived administrative fees. It is very common for a return ticket to cost very little more than the single (and sometimes even less). Thus, the GBP 580 would be the difference between the single she did fly and the cost of her return ticket.

The only way to be sure of this is to call the travel agent your mother used and even EK and ask for a breakdown of the GBP 580. If there is a different between EK's breakdown and the TA's breakdown, then the TA is charging you its own fee to process this.

If indeed you are being charged any fees beyond minimal ones which may not make this effort worth it, those are likely claimable from her travel insurance.

Hi Alison,

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Before saying too much I'd just like to ask what reaction/refund you were hoping for from Emirates? No one here wants to get into an argument over right or wrong, corporate greed, etc. when there is such grief and such a sad situation underlying, but we can provide some insight into how Emirates likely arrived at the amount it refunded, but it would be helpful to first understand your thoughts on how they should've calculated the refund amount.

EDIT: I see two other responses have popped up, essentially what I was going to say as well. While booking one often sees outbound and return pricing which seems to indicate a roughly equal or close to equal split of the flights, i.e. you'd expect it to be GBP1,800 or so each way. This is purely for the benefit of the user and not reflective of actual pricing. Airline pricing is very complex and intricate and there is no way for Emirates to re-calculate the fare to refund you 50%, as that isn't how it works, a refund of the difference between a one-way and a return, or if there is indeed a higher fare for the one-way purely the taxes of the return portion, would be appropriate in such a case. I'm quite certain Emirates would not have charged any administrative, cancellation or change fees. When my father passed away suddenly last year my sister had to cancel her flight (no segment flown yet) and received a full refund with no cancellation fee which ordinarily would have applied.

Firstly sorry to hear about your mother, that is very sad, hopefully she died peacefully ? We had a friend in a similar situation with EK , he was randomly brutally attacked in broad daylight by someone with a machete in Cape Town. To cut along story short , after 2 weeks in ICU along with the trauma of going through such an event he was thus unable to travel on his EK flights and requested a full refund due to what happened. EK really stuck their foot in it and said they would only refund him if he was dead- which really hit home for him. A bit like in your case no compassion or any regard for feelings , a pure copy and paste response that was not thought through. Even thou he knew he would not get a refund due to the contract in place , it was worth a shot for him , but he was not expecting such a blunt reply.

While understandably frustrating I'd like us to differentiate this. From the OP's post, and we don't have all details yet, it is not clear that EK has done anything wrong or contrary to their terms, in fact some might be surprised there was a refund at all as a one-way could easily have cost more. Your friend's case while sad is a case for travel insurance and EK did nothing wrong, you can't expect them to be able to empathize with emotional trauma when they have tens of millions of pax a year. EK's conditions of carriage and fare rules explicitly reference and make provision for refunds in case of death or death of a direct relative, not so for injury or physical inability to travel.

Emirates
 

Thank you for your response and explanation. I must admit I did think that the refund would have been 1/2 of the entire fare.

Emirates
 

Oh yeah of course and rightly so. I am not saying EK have done anything wrong in the OP's case, but in fact are sticking fairly to their part of the contract. Coming back to my friends case he was not expecting a refund , but was more trying his luck. The thing for him was he actually nearly died and suffered and is still suffering from a huge amount of emotional trauma , while EK's reply was direct and meant no harm , for him it was really crushing when they said they would only consider refund options if he was dead. I nearly am always on EK side due to EK fanboy bias , but the reply was incredibly cold when i read it even thou it was not meant to be.


OP did EK request death documents ?

For reference, fare rules of a Business Saver ticket over the Christmas season for NCL-BNE for a 1-month say, this section should be roughly equivalent for all tickets on this route, all a bit of a mess to understand but basically repricing to one-way, YQ which is carrier-imposed surcharge, i.e. a random fee EK makes up to achieve dynamic pricing is not refunded, taxes are, that is probably what you received, with more thought and attention from someone higher up perhaps they might've refunded more, it's hard to say:

CANCELLATIONS

BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHARGE GBP 500.00 FOR CANCEL/REFUND.
WAIVED FOR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER.

BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHARGE GBP 1000.00 FOR NO-SHOW.

AFTER DEPARTURE
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE IN CASE OF CANCEL/REFUND.

AFTER DEPARTURE
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE IN CASE OF NO-SHOW.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
NO-SHOW -IF THE BOOKING IS NOT CANCELLED AT LEAST
2 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE
---------
CANCELLATION / REFUNDS
... CANCELLATION / REFUND FEES ARE NOT
COMMISSIONABLE.
... CANCELLATION FEE DOES NOT APPLY TO INFANT NOT
OCCUPYING A SEAT.
--------------------------------------------------
WAIVERS
1.WAIVED FOR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER.
A COPY OF VALID DEATH CERTIFICATE ISSUED BY A
COMPETENT MEDICAL AUTHORITY IS REQUIRED.
FAMILY MEMBERS AS DEFINED IN EK CONDITIONS OF
CARRIAGE OR PASSENGER AIRLINE TARIFF RULE
BOOK.
2.NO WAIVER APPLICABLE FOR ILLNESS OF PASSENGER
OR FAMILY MEMBER.
3.CONTACT EK LOCAL OFFICE FOR WAIVERS DEFINED
ABOVE.
--------------------------------------------------
CANCELLATION / REFUNDS AGAINST NO SHOW.
... A NO-SHOW FOR A FLIGHT IS CONSIDERED WHEN A
PASSENGER FAILS TO USE THE RESERVATION ONE
HOUR BEFORE DEPARTURE OF THE SCHEDULED
FLIGHT.
... FAILURE TO OCCUPY A RESERVED SEAT ON ANY
SEGMENT OF THE ITINERARY WILL RESULT IN ALL
SUBSEQUENT SEGMENTS OF THE ITINERARY BEING
CANCELLED. IN SUCH CASES ONLY NO-SHOW FEE
WILL APPLY AND NOT BOTH.
... NO SHOW FEE IS NON COMMISSIONABLE.
--------------------------------------------------
CANCELLATION / REFUNDS AGAINST UPGRADES -
IF THE UPGRADED TICKET IS SUBSEQUENTLY CANCELLED
THE ORIGINAL CHARGE WILL APPLY.
--------------------------------------------------
OUT OF SEQUENCE TICKETS -
ANYTIME TICKETS IS UTILIZED OUT OF SEQUENCE NO
REFUND OF FARE AND THE CARRIER IMPOSED SURCHARGE -
YQ.
--------------------------------------------------
A.WHEN OUTBOUND AND INBOUND FARES ARE REFUNDABLE.
WHEN COMBINING FARES THAT HAVE CANCELLATION
FEES THE HIGHEST CANCELLATION FEE OF EACH
CANCELLED PRICING UNIT APPLIES.
A1.BEFORE DEPARTURE / FULLY UNUTILISED TICKETS
... DEDUCT THE APPLICABLE HIGHEST CANCELLATION
FEE FROM THE TOTAL OF THE BASE FARE AND
CARRIER IMPOSED SURCHARGE - YQ.
... REFUND THE RESIDUAL AMOUNT ALONG WITH THE
REFUNDABLE GOVERNMENT TAXES.
... CARRIER IMPOSED SERVICE CHARGE - YR IS NOT
REFUNDABLE.
A2.AFTER DEPARTURE / PARTIALLY UTILISED TICKETS -
AFTER COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST SECTOR OF THE
JOURNEY.
... DEDUCT THE OW FARE OF EQUAL OR HIGHER
AMOUNT THAN THE FARE PAID FOR THE PORTION OF
THE JOURNEY PERFORMED IN THE SAME OR NEXT
HIGHER RBD.
... COLLECT APPLICABLE CANCELLATION FEE AND
THE CARRIER IMPOSED SURCHARGE - YQ FOR THE
JOURNEY PERFORMED. DEDUCT NON-REFUNDABLE
TAXES.
... REFUND THE CARRIER IMPOSED SURCHARGE - YQ AND
UNUTILISED GOVERNMENT TAXES FOR THE PORTION
OF THE JOURNEY NOT PERFORMED.
... NO REFUND OF FARE AND CARRIER IMPOSED FEES -
YQ IF THE UTILISED OW FARE IS GREATER THAN
THE TICKETED FARE.
... NO REFUND OF FARE AND CARRIER IMPOSED
SURCHARGE - YQ IF JOURNEY PERFORMED BEYOND
THE TURNAROUND/FARE BREAK POINT.
... CARRIER IMPOSED SERVICE CHARGE - YR IS NOT
REFUNDABLE.
--------------------------------------------------
B.WHEN OUTBOUND AND INBOUND FARES ARE NON -
REFUNDABLE.
... NO REFUND OF THE FARE AND CARRIER IMPOSED
FEES - YQ AND YR.
... DEDUCT NON-REFUNDABLE TAXES.
... IF NON- REFUNDABLE FARES REISSUED TO A
REFUNDABLE FARE THE ORIGINAL PAID FARE AND
CARRIER IMPOSED FEES - YQ AND YR WILL BE NON-
REFUNDABLE.
--------------------------------------------------
C.COMBINATION OF REFUNDABLE AND NON-REFUNDABLE
FARES.
1.BEFORE DEPARTURE/FULLY UNUTILISED TICKETS.
... DEDUCT THE NON-REFUNDABLE FARE PAID AND THE
CANCELLATION FEE OF THE REFUNDABLE FARE.
... DEDUCT NON-REFUNDABLE TAXES.
... CARRIER IMPOSED FEES - YQ AND YR ARE NOT
REFUNDABLE.
2.AFTER DEPARTURE / PARTIALLY UTILISED TICKETS -
AFTER COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST SECTOR OF THE
JOURNEY.
2.1 IF OUTBOUND FARE COMPONENT IS NON-
REFUNDABLE.
..... DEDUCT THE OW FARE OF EQUAL OR HIGHER
AMOUNT THAN THE FARE PAID FOR THE PORTION
OF THE JOURNEY PERFORMED IN THE SAME OR
NEXT HIGHER RBD.
..... COLLECT THE CANCELLATION FEE OF THE
REFUNDABLE FARE.
..... DEDUCT NON-REFUNDABLE TAXES.
..... NO REFUND OF FARE AND CARRIER IMPOSED FEES -
YQ IF THE UTILISED OW FARE IS GREATER THAN
THE TICKETED FARE.
..... CARRIER IMPOSED FEES YQ AND YR ARE NOT
REFUNDABLE.
2.2 IF INBOUND FARE COMPONENT IS NON-REFUNDABLE.
..... NO REFUND OF THE FARE AND CARRIER IMPOSED
FEES - YQ AND YR.
..... DEDUCT NON-REFUNDABLE TAXES.
..... NO REFUND OF FARE AND CARRIER IMPOSED
SURCHARGE - YQ IF JOURNEY PERFORMED BEYOND
THE TURNAROUND/FARE BREAK POINT.
--------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your response. I am so sorry to hear of the harrowing ordeal and distress that your friend went through. I am increasingly frustrated with the complexity of airline bookings and associated charges, fees and refunds. I appreciate that they do have a business to run but the lack of compassion is dreadful.

It isn't that difficult to calculate. I looked at historical fares on EF to check the one way fares for September and used ITA to confirm the taxes and charges for a one way journey for NCL-BNE
Then subtract that from the £3895

In september the lowest one way fare (ISSOSGB1) was £2,726 plus taxes/charges and ITA shows taxes at current exchange rates to be £595 ( of which the carrier surcharge is £412), giving a total of £3331

The airline is a business and the fare rules are clearly defined. It looks to me that Emirates has provided exactly what would be expected ; to say that this indicates a lack of compassion seems a tad unfair

Sorry for you loss. Must have been a difficult time.

EK are no different to what any other airline would have done in similar situation. Indeed some airlines would have refunded you nothing.

I don't know of any airline that will not provide refunds in case of death of the passenger