EY and EK Stuck in Holding Patterns for 75 Minutes
 

I don't normally post in this forum as I'm from the dark side (EY frequent flyer ;)), but I thought it would be useful to copy my post in here as it's also relevant to you guys:

Both EY and EK planes were kept in a holding patterns for around 75 minutes, Tuesday 10th March from around 03:30 to around 04:45 UK time (07:30 to 08:45 UAE time). Please see screenshots below. I managed to grab these while I was on an international phone call.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c4b5afbef8.png
EY Holding Pattern

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...63837ee5e4.png
EK Holding Pattern

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f1d1b73788.png
Both Airlines Given Clearance to Land

I'm not sure what was going on but something must have been happening on the ground. I've not had chance to research further. Probably a bit stressful for the passengers. I imagine the planes are carrying more spare fuel than usual at the moment.

Mike

Moderator Note
 

Thanks to all for keeping this thread fairly cordial in what is an unprecedented, unpredictable and concerning time. Particular thanks to BA Humbug for his factual and helpful updates that have been for the benefit of the community, sometimes being outdated before the blink of an eye, but showing how dynamic this situation is.

Please continue to use this thread for information sharing and to find ways of getting assistance. As a community, this is what we are best known for!

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Saltire74
Co-Moderator EK Forum

Those of us on the ground seem to see a bit of a correlation -- if planes start holding (like this morning in AD, or yesterday morning + evening in UAE time), we get a missile alert on our phones about 3 - 5 minutes afterwards, so I suspect with anything incoming all planes will temporarily hold in Oman. The good news is that usually there are "safe" alerts 15 - 60 minutes after the initial warning, and planes also start (re-)entering the airspace. I agree that inbound planes definitely need to calculate a bit more fuel than necessary!

I sensed it must something along those lines. Thank you for the additional context, much appreciated. :tu:

Case in point, many planes have turned back despite being near landing:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2d82f44148.png

... with this having showed up a few minutes ago:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...02c17d25d9.png

they had many more incomings in the morning and the intercept rate them decreased:

Thank you so much

Not to worry, all is fine in DXB.
:rolleyes:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...3FB_normal.jpg
Dubai Media Office
@DXBMediaOffice
"Authorities confirm that two drones fell in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport (DXB) a short while ago, resulting in minor injuries to two Ghanaian nationals and one Bangladeshi national, and moderate injuries to one Indian national. Air traffic is operating as normal."

As an Etihad flyer, I feel AUH is slightly safer at the moment.

Yes, I agree it’s quite fair but hopefully they’ll start rolling that date forwards soon. Many of us don’t have the risk appetite for our holidays via Dubai that we had several weeks ago and would be very keen to cancel without penalty sooner rather than later. Obviously Emirates have a business to run.

Hi all, booked with Emirates on the 24th BKK>DXB>STN but the STN leg was cancelled. Confirmed by doing a dummy booking. Got through to live chat and have been moved to BKK>DXB>LHR. Confirmed on the flights that are actually running today, and can see bookings still open for the 24th on the new flights. However, in the app, I still see Status: Disrupted. and "New Flight Schedule" on the new flights. Is that normal, as in, yes, these are your new times, or are these new ones also not running? I got through to chat earlier today very quickly but not having so much luck now to confirm. Anyone else have the same experience?

Double check that you have the new flight numbers -- it should say "Confirmed".

There are a lot of schedule jigs going on at the moment -- it appears that EK has pushed the rollout of its pre-attack schedule for European & Asian destinations back by another 2 weeks -- previously I had seen full schedules loaded from 15 March, now they appear to be 29 March. From now until the 29th many non-key destinations with multiple flights per day only have one skeleton flight per day (e.g., MXP, BCN, KUL, CGK, etc.). Key markets (UK, BKK, etc.) remain with multiple albeit reduced overall frequencies.

Thank you, I have new flight numbers, and on the website it says "Confirmed" but in the app it says Disrupted. On hold with live chat again to try and work things out.

Update: Just spoke to Emirates, apparently the disrupted message has been put on every booking. My new flights are still scheduled, obviously a while away still and anything can change but thought it was worthwhile to mention!

Interesting, thanks for reporting back. Mine in the app just say "Confirmed" or "Rescheduled", I've never seen "Disrupted" on my own bookings although I do read about it showing up a lot on other forums -- many seem to have been able to fly so I guess it just means a delay or some such.

there’s a little arrow on the flights in the app if you click it, that’s where mine says distrupted. Above shows. Lots of people flying betweeen Bangkok and UK with minimal issue. I’ll just head down there on the day of my flight and see how I get on. Not much else I can do really.

Would be interested to know if the frequency of London Stansted flights will be increased. Currently they either do or don't fly.
I'm booked to fly from STN - AKL, with a one night's stopover in DXB, in 18 days' time.
I've been advised to contact EK 5 days before I'm due to travel.
As STN is closer to me I arranged the pick up when I made this booking in F last year. If LHR replaces it, will I be charged the extra mileage or will this be waived?
Also if this trip does go ahead, I'm beginning to wonder if I should abandon the local hotel booking I made and just stay at the airport. (Also booked cars to/from the hotel.)
Any advice, please?

It was showing as both running from the 16th onwards, but now I can only see the later afternoon flight in/out of STN starting today. Sorry, I don't know the answers to your other questions!

Thank you for getting back. No worries, perhaps someone out there will know the answer to the other questions.
Meanwhile, in Manage Booking, I've been trying to enter my mobile details and there seems to be some sort of technical difficulty. Has this been going on for some time or is it just a temporary thing?

Rebooking via live chat- rebooked with 'mismatch fare exception'
 

I just rebooked a ticket via live chat and wanted to offer these specific words...MISMATCH FARE, EXCEPTION. We are 2pp biz flex plus ek771CPT to ek215LAX. 215 has not been flying but 225 to SFO has been so I wanted to get moved to 225. live chat said I cannot do that as there are no seats available in my fare class. I tried to offer some ideas about me paying for another fare class...perhaps that helped her think about this 'mismatch fare' exception. I think her point was one of the flights did not have any seats in my fare class...but somehow she sought an exception and we are rebooked. Also, live chat first said PLEASE HOLD, then said they were too buy to take my chat. I logged in 1 min later and the chat commenced just fine, no wait.

So if you hear from live chat you cannot be rebooked due to no seats in your fare class ask for the exception.

Any reason, why they have resumed limited flights to DFW over IAH and SFO over LAX. Especially with both IAH and LAX having higher capacity and traffic from DXB and beyond.

It now shows no flights until Mar 29th.

Due to the currently rather good prices on Emirates, as well as Ethiad and Qatar, I am thinking to book a one-way from KUL/SIN/BKK to Barcelona for the 2nd week of April. Which of these carriers would be the best bet, in terms of cancelling the ticket if not needed in the end (or not wishing to travel due to the dynamics of the situation)? I can see some cancellation being offered as 'complimentary' on Emirates bookings, but would love to know exavtly what is involved. Would I get the money back, or a voucher, or would it be depended on some other factors?!

For those looking to capitalise on a bit of this mess, upgrades seem wide open even on close-departure itineraries J --> F.

And for those interested in the game changer routes, the following flights seem to have consistent gamechanger planes during the scaled back operation period:
ORD 235/236
HND 312/313
BRU 181/182
GVA 83/84

Wish I had booked one of these destinations!

One plane with gamechanger, A6-EQM, seems to just go wherever it wants -- SZX, CMB, BOM ...

Flights are cheap for a reason. Many flights are likely to be cancelled and the situation is still unpredictable. There are people that really need to travel that will need the limited seats that are available. Save your money and go at another time.

As mentioned above, none of these airlines are a good bet It is doubtful that the situation will return to normal within less than a month.
Book another airline avoiding the ME or risk a lot of time wasting.

It is worth noting here that the B First lounge is now being separated into Business out at the front, and first at the back.

however, as a holder of a ‘C’ gate boarding pass, access was denied today due to ‘security’ reasons.

Edit: the C First lounge GM came by a second ago to apologise for which I should be accepted for entry regardless. She offered to transport the sushi platter from B. Kind gesture.

Nobody is really answering your question (“which of these carriers would be the best bet”), so I’ll give it a go. Undoubtedly EK. They’ve been the best with regards to refunds and bookings on other airlines (from my experience with EK and QR, and reading the EY forum). If you read the respective forums you’ll get a good sense of what’s happening in each airline.

That said, outside my risk appetite. Would not recommend unless essential.

I'd like some advice, please.
I'm due to fly out from STN - DXB - AKL at the end of the month and leave for home on 16/4.
As the way things are, I can't see the situation improving any time soon, so I'm seriously considering a refund.
I've read that any travel up to 30th March can be refunded. Will that refund just be my outward fare or will it be the entire trip as it's part of the same booking?
Also, any ideas how long refunds take?

The thread about EK & refunds: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emir...s-refunds.html

We were set to depart mid-end March and return back mid April.
We used the refund form as suggested in above thread + the added commentaries.
Our refund was for the complete ticket. It appeared on my creditcard in 4 working days.

Applied for mine 10 days ago and nothing received yet. I will wait the recommended 21 days before trying to contact them.

I believe you can get the entire trip refunded.

On timelines, the first week of the issues the office applied for a bunch of refunds / cancellations and those were processed (monies returned) over three days, with some almost immediately. I have seen different experiences on here so YMMV.

Thank you, yes, confirmed my thinking

Just flew out DXB today. Some more data points:

- Dubai Connect operates regularly. Spent the night at JW Marquise. Low traffic on the streets.
- DXB Business Lounges are a mess at the moment. B is still closed as written by others before. With C departure we weren’t allowed in the temporary lounge in B. C9 was closed for whatsoever reasons, C20 overcrowded.
- Overall ops at DXB are straightforward and functional. Except of major closed areas in B

Still I agree with others that I would avoid all non-essential travel via ME at the moment. Air Alert via Cell Broadcast is kind of spooky if you are not used to it. The lounge situation is even for C departures very unpleasant and not up to EK standards

Noted rebook/refund period extended to 30 April. Not looking good for my trip to Jordan via DXB. Or... flights on EK to Cyprus and Malta. Oh well.

That's useful to know about the extension to 30th April, but where did you read it?
I still see their advisory notice referring to the end of March.

Yes, me too. I was hoping for a refund of an early April flight but it looks as if it’s just the rebook window that moved, not the cancel. Shame but maybe it will change soon.

Look like all aircraft are still grounded until March 28, 2026. Here’s the video from DJs Aviation on his YouTube channel.

Hardly "ALL" aircraft. It just means they will continue with a reduced number of flights longer than they had hoped. It's understandable that airlines will constantly reassess things.

Mike

Your text is a misrepresentation of the video. DJs clearly talks about reduction of operations. Not ALL aircraft are grounded.