'I'm owed a Covid refund but 6 months on, my airline is still dragging its heels'
After the deluge of Covid-19 refund claims, some cases seem to have slipped through the net – and the results aren't always satisfactory, warns Gill Charlton
Robert MacShane writes
When the world locked down in March, my wife and I were in Dubai where we have relatives. Emirates cancelled our return flight on March 28 and moved our reservation to May 9. This was also cancelled on April 17.
We managed to book a repatriation flight for April 26 for which we paid ￡1,127 (our original flights cost ￡898). I applied for a refund of the return portion of our unused tickets on April 30, which was acknowledged. In May, my insurer, M&S, said it would cover the cost of the repatriation flight, but would deduct any refund from Emirates for the return portion of the original flight.
My problem is that I cannot get this information out of Emirates. On May 20, when I contacted the airline, I was told it would pay me within 90 days of submitting my claim. After 120 days had passed, I was told my claim had been expedited and I should hear in days. On Sept 19, I was told it had not begun to process my claim until July 8 and I’d have to wait another 90 days from that date. Emirates insists that it has paid all the refund claims submitted in April.
Please can you get some action from the airline to speed up my claim?
Gill Charlton replies
Emirates told me that by Sept 7 it had completed more than 1.4 million refunds representing 90 per cent of its backlog of cancelled flights up to the end of June. However, it admits that requests from customers that involved a manual review are taking longer.
Following my intervention, the airline sent Mr MacShane an email confirming that he will get a refund of ￡215 for the two unused sector fares. This seemed on the low side and is due to the convoluted way in which Emirates calculates refunds for part-flown journeys.
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Several readers have complained about refunds of around 25 per cent of the amount paid for the return ticket. A half-flown itinerary does not mean a 50 per cent refund because the outbound sector includes higher taxes and charges – but even so, Emirates is clearly calculating refunds in its favour.
On the plus side, Emirates is offering free global travel insurance cover for Covid-19 for flights departing this year, whether bought direct from the airline or through an agent. The policy is valid for 31 days after the first sector is flown and covers Covid-19 medical expenses up to €150,000 (￡135,000), and up to €100 per day for 14 days for expenses associated with quarantining abroad.
You can also get a refund if you have to cancel a flight due to a positive test.
