Emirates enhances refund capacity to meet present demand
Emirates has ramped up its capacity to process refunds to its customers and travel trade partners influenced by travel disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With nearly half of a million refund requests pending to control, the airline has taken proactive steps to restructure its back-end procedures and boost resourcing to accelerate the processing of refunds.
Pre-pandemic, Emirates processed typically 35,000 refund requests in per month. Now it really is gearing up to take care of 150,000 per month, and aims to clear its current backlog by early August.
Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline, said, “This is a difficult time for all of us, since it is for all airlines. We are dipping into our cash reserves when you are proactive in processing refunds, but it is our duty and responsibility. We would like to make sure our customers and trade partners that people will honour refunds, and that we are doing our better to speed things.”
Emirates offers three options to its customers afflicted by flight cancellations and travel restrictions:
Simply keep their existing ticket for up to 24 months, and also to reschedule their flight if they will be ready to fly. Emirates has extended this program to use to any ticket booked on or before June 30, 2020, for travel on or before November 30, 2020.
Exchange the unused part of their tickets for a travel voucher equivalent to the amount paid for their original booking. The travel voucher could be utilised for any Emirates service or product, with no change fees, providing customers more overall flexibility to reschedule if they will be ready to travel again.
Customers who've opted to keep their ticket or chosen a travel voucher can still obtain a refund, if they're unable to travel. You will have no refund penalties.
Customers who want to request travel vouchers or refunds may easily do so via an online form on Emirates’ website, or contact their travel booking agent for assistance.
