Getting a refund statement from Emirates Airlines

[geocro120122]

Five of us booked together on a return flight to Europe with Emirates Airlines which had to be cancelled at the last minute because of a brain tumour diagnosis in one of our travelling party. We are all related to each other so all Emirates needed to provide was a refund statement to our insurance company based on sickness of one of the travelling party who also happens to be a relative. We were told by our travel agent that airlines take between 6 to 8 weeks to get around to doing this. Our travel insurance covers us for the full amount no matter what the amount of the refund is so long as they receive the refund statement so they can pay us the difference.

I would have thought it would be a simple thing to give you a list of requirements at the beginning of the process? My issue is that Emirates keep delaying the issuing of the refund statement by coming back to us every 10 days or so asking for further different bits of information. We provided a medical certficate which they eventually came back to us and said they could not read. We sent another copy which they decided they could read and then did nothing with. After we approached them yet again after another lengthy delay they came back to us demanding that we all prove we are related to each other. We have now had to provide them with marriage and birth certificates to prove the relationships between husbands and wives, sister and brother-in-law and uncle and nephew.

Interesting how you go about proving that someone is your uncle! Not so nice when you have to get him out of his sick bed so he can find his birth certicate so that you can get him his refund which is being delayed because they want to issue the same letter for all of us as it was all booked together! Absolutely no empathy whatsoever from anyone at Emirates, just deliberate delaying tactics to make the process as difficult as possible maybe in the hope that we will give up?

No one at Emirates will take calls about as they insist you must write to them. All very well and good, I'm glad for Emirates that they have their procedures but why would they deliberately set about antagonizing a group of travellers to the extent that none of us will ever go near them again for airline travel.

Needless to say they still haven't issued any statements...

 

[Flashback]

Welcome to AFF! I had similar issues getting similar from BMI and I found the only solution was persistence. Good luck!

 

[geocro120122]

Over a month later and still nothing from Emirates. Interesting also that Emirates will not take any complaints or comments over the phone. My only avenue now is to lodge a complaint with Consumer Affairs in the hope that Emirates will take notice of that and this will force the issue of a refund statement so that the insurance company can pay out the claim which they have acknowledged that they will pay out fully anyway.

 

[tuapekastar]

Over a month later and still nothing from Emirates. Interesting also that Emirates will not take any complaints or comments over the phone. My only avenue now is to lodge a complaint with Consumer Affairs in the hope that Emirates will take notice of that and this will force the issue of a refund statement so that the insurance company can pay out the claim which they have acknowledged that they will pay out fully anyway.

Thanks for the update, and good luck with your issue, and with your relative's health.

Have to admit I was a little confused when you first posted, and still am. Are you expecting any money from Emirates? Or just a statement for you to give your insurance company to the effect that 5 people booked and had to cancel. If the insurance company is paying out then wouldn't they be the ones wanting to have proof of 'relative-ship' (and illness)? And if that was the case why would Emirates care about whether you were related? I'm not being a smartaleck or critical here, I just don't fully understand the issue.

 

[Flashback]

Thanks for the update, and good luck with your issue, and with your relative's health.

Have to admit I was a little confused when you first posted, and still am. Are you expecting any money from Emirates? Or just a statement for you to give your insurance company to the effect that 5 people booked and had to cancel. If the insurance company is paying out then wouldn't they be the ones wanting to have proof of 'relative-ship' (and illness)? And if that was the case why would Emirates care about whether you were related? I'm not being a smartaleck or critical here, I just don't fully understand the issue.

On a recent claim I had, the insurance company wanted the same. It's basically so they can see the full amount you are out of pocket. Eg. the BMI flights I cancelled, they ended up refunding me £15 (taxes minus service fee) so my claim paid out that full amount minus the refund.

 

[geocro120122]

I don't think Emirates will refund anything apart from maybe the taxes. The insurance company have told us they will refund us the full amount less anything that Emirates refund. Either way we are not out of pocket at all which is great so the actual amount of the refund is luckily irrelevant. The insurance company have been really good so no complaints with them. The problem is that Emirates just will not produce a statement outlining what, if anything, they will repay and the insurance company can't refund us the total amount until this is issued.

I have no idea why Emirates wanted us all to prove that we were related and how we were related because even if we hadn't been related we were still the one travelling party so we would have been covered anyway (which is why the insurance company didn't need that proof) Go figure! All the other arrangements that were cancelled were easy to organise and they all gave us the necessary paperwork for the insurance almost straight away. I must say though I did have a laugh when the cruise company kept the full fare less the $80 port fees and then charged a $100 cancellation fee on top of that. The insurance company would have got more money if we hadn't cancelled!

So bottom line, how come Emirates can't spit out a bit of paper even if it says no refund - that is all we need just a bit of paper and we have been waiting for it since the end of April. Also a shame my uncle didn't get to see the refund because he used to ask about it a lot but such is...