I know not an EK topic unless someone booked a package holiday in the UK with EK as carrier but interesting article in The Independent on refunds in the UK travel industry because of Covid-19- and its planned suspension..

Package holiday refund rules to be suspended
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-a9417261.html

Dubai Airports closed to the traveling public:
https://m.khaleejtimes.com/coronavir...navirus-spread

That's interesting. My mum had her holiday cancelled, and is awaiting a refund. It will probably be her last (her dementia is getting worse), so vouchers would be no good. Unfortunately, she insisted on using her own debit card rather than my credit card :mad:

If she paid by debit card, still has a level of protection called Chargeback Scheme, it relies on reciepent having funds in the account it was paid under, so EK having money in the bank, only works if case raised within 4 months of payment. Again have never done but understand it does exist and most call centre agents are not aware.

Seems EK is in breach of EU261 rules about cancelled flights so I would say to anyone paying by credit card, do a chargeback or ask EK first, if they refuse advise you wil do a chargeback. Sooner or later the fees will start to add up and like Boris, they will eventually react. It's beggers belief had airlines decided to stop flights a few weeks earlier for 2 weeks, they would be flying again now. EK definatly like others hold a degree of responsability

It's very specific, but I think this thread is a perfect fit.

I have/had booked via Emirates 4 flights, where 2 of them are done by FlyDubai. Recently I have got information that my flights to/from Dubai with FlyDubai are suspended, so I requested full refund instead of travel voucher (by modifying a little bit template mentioned in this thread, as the beginning of the journey is in EU).

The thing is, if they would not approve full refund I will probably run out of time for chargeback (120 days). I am not sure if the period is 120 days from payment date (as for the other payments) and shouldn't be 120 days from outbound/inbound date.

Does anybody has any experience and can recommend me solution? I was thinking of starting chargeback right now, just in case.

chargeback is from payment date. I can relate from experience with a different item

was it debit card or credit card?

Debit, Master Card.

Emirates refunds to take 3 months now!
 

Just to give heads up to everyone on what seems to be the latest stealth change to the Emirates refund policy.

I used the automated website link (not the refund form, but the actual link that lets you automatically process refunds according to the original fare conditions) to request refund for a fully flexible economy fare, meaning that the fare conditions permit 100% refund and the Covid-19 situation should be irrelevant.

When I did not get the money refunded after a few days (money has usually appeared back in my card within at most a week), I called the Emirates elite line and was told that there is a new policy according to which all refunds will take 90 days to process. Not quite as ridiculous as the Swiss policy of forcing you to wait for 9 months to get your refund, but still it looks like one will be forced to wait to get their cash back for 3 months.

Just bear that in mind if you book Emirates tickets, even a fully flexible fare is apparently not safe as Emirates can and will simply hold on to your money without shame or apology. As suggested above, chargeback seems to be the only option at this point, whatever the fare conditions and your contract of carriage is not worth the paper it is written on.

Emirates Refusing EU261 Refunds for Cancelled Flights
 

I got an email today that my flight VIE-DXB had been cancelled: "Dear customer, The following flight(s) have been cancelled in light of current health concerns globally..."

Online, the only option was to get a voucher/refund with deductions. Called Emirates. The person who answered the call refused the refund and said there are only vouchers. When I quotes EU261, he started screaming at me (no kidding!). He refused to transfer me to a supervisor. He said there are no supervisors. Waited for him to finish and then asked him if I can show him something on the website. Guided him to the Travel information -> Rules and Notices -> European Union Notices -> Cancellation Notice. He then told me fill up the refund form online and put in comments the EU261 rule so that they don't deduct the fees.

Unsure if the above will work but have done as requested by him. Let's see if I get the full refund or they deduct the refund fees. Will update once I hear back from Emirates.

Has anybody else called for a refund per EU261? What has been your experience?

Using your credit card may have been worse. Your mother would have lost the debtor-creditor-supplier link by using an intermediary (you) which removes Section 75 protection. A bit like using Paypal.

Plenty of discussion about this in the coronavirus thread so your post may well get moved there. If EK deduct charges from the refund amount you should have the options to reclaim from your payment provider, or from EK in the small claims court.

Don't get in legal arguments with front-line employees. Just fill in the form, make the request, and if you don't have a refund -- or at least an acknowledgement that one will arrive shortly -- within 7 days, initiate a charge back with your card issuer (bank). Make sure you screen shot or save everything and then provide copies with your chargeback.

Don't waste your time calling and speaking with supervisors. Either you will receive a refund from EK or not and if not, you will be made whole by the card issuer which will then fight it out with EK.

I know I am off track and this is the EK forum, but thought I share as this is now not only the UK where this happens. There is an interesting article in today’s NZZ (in German) how Lufthansa/LX apparently have taken measures to protect their liquidity.

Travel agents in Switzerland now report that the airline would not refund them monies for cancelled flights within the appropriate deadline. It appears LX wants to push out the deadline as far as possible to make refund payments to them.

https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/die-sw...gen-ld.1548111

Could someone give me some advice please? I have a multi-city trip booked for late May. Emirates have cancelled the onward and return portion and only left me with flights from LHR-DXB and DXB-LHR. They've cancelled DXB-HAN and HAN-DXB. This makes my holiday pointless as the main part of it was in Hanoi.

I booked Saver fares and seats for all legs. Would I be entitled to a refund in this situation? As it's still a few weeks away, I don't want to burden the Emirates helpline just now but am looking for useful advice to be armed with when I do call them.

The outcome I'm looking for is a full refund.

I wish to select the travel voucher option but under the form checklist it says
- I understand the fare conditions for my ticket / document as advised at the time of purchase. I understand that if my ticket/document is non-refundable I will only receive a travel voucher or refund of the applicable unused taxes.

Anyone have any idea on this? Do they really mean they'll only issue travel voucher for the unused taxes or the full amount that I've paid for the ticket? Seems unreasonable if they only refund the taxes when they suspended all flights even though it is not their fault, but it is not the passengers' fault as well.