Cancelling a Flight - please help ??!!

Anne17

My sister and I have booked a trip to Australia with Emirates through Travelbag. However, she has fallen pregnant as is now unable to go. Unfortunately we hadn't yet purchased travel insurance and Travelbag have advised us the tickets we have are non-refundable and non-transferable. They have no flexability whatsoever and I have been on the Emirates website and it says if you have booked via an agent, to refer back to them.
Does anyone have any ideas of how we could get some money back, or change the name of the ticket
I would be grateful fr any help.
Thanks

cubegame

You won't be able to change the name on them. This condition is placed to avoid block booking of cheap tickets which could then be sold on at profit.

Your sister will be entitled to a refund of taxes and charges on the ticket, although an admin fee might wipe some of this out.

jackieblack

I know it's a moot point now and you don't say why your sister can't travel but, even if you had travel insurance, if she is just choosing not to travel it probably wouldn't have paid out anyway.
Cancellation due to becoming pregnant is not usually covered as 1) it is not unavoidable, they would probably view becoming pregnant as being within your sister's control and 2) simply being pregnant does not mean she is unfit to travel,
She may have been covered if there are medical reasons why she shouldn't travel and her doctor certified her unfit to fly or she is in the last few weeks of her pregnancy.

As cubegame has said, she will be entitled to a refund of taxes and charges on the ticket, subject to an admin fee, but non-refundable/non-transferable tickets are cheaper because of those restriction.

camelot1001

I had to change an Emirates flight. When I asked about the options I was told that you lost £400 if you didn't show and £200 for cancellation (up to 4 hours before the flight leaves). Try phoning to speak to someone. The admin fee is £75.

Voyager2002

camelot1001 wrote: »

I had to change an Emirates flight. When I asked about the options I was told that you lost £400 if you didn't show and £200 for cancellation (up to 4 hours before the flight leaves). Try phoning to speak to someone. The admin fee is £75.

Alas, the OP bought this flight from an agent, so the fact that Emirates are usually helpful with this kind of thing is not going to be any use to her.

If it is of any help, I can assure the OP that vast numbers of pregnant women take long-haul flights every day, and generally do not experience any problems as a result.

Anne17

The reason she wouldn't be able to fly, is that she is due 10th december and we would be flying home on 26th November. I believe this is too late in the pregnancy.

Thanks for all your help though much appreciated.

HXDave

jackieblack wrote: »

I know it's a moot point now and you don't say why your sister can't travel but, even if you had travel insurance, if she is just choosing not to travel it probably wouldn't have paid out anyway.
Cancellation due to becoming pregnant is not usually covered as 1) it is not unavoidable, they would probably view becoming pregnant as being within your sister's control and 2) simply being pregnant does not mean she is unfit to travel,
She may have been covered if there are medical reasons why she shouldn't travel and her doctor certified her unfit to fly or she is in the last few weeks of her pregnancy.

As cubegame has said, she will be entitled to a refund of taxes and charges on the ticket, subject to an admin fee, but non-refundable/non-transferable tickets are cheaper because of those restriction.

Actually, i have found that most insurers WILL cover for cancellation of pregnancy if the due date is within the dates that an airline will not allow a person to travel. THey may also cover if the due date is before the return date of travel if a doctor / midwife reccommends against travel for any related heath problems. However as the does not have travel insurance, no point debating the issue any further.

As far as the ticket goes, it might well be worth contactin EK directly on this, as you never know. A lot of tickets we book with EK are infact cancellable for relatively decent fees, however it all depends on the specific ticket purchased. If you explain the situation to the airline, they may even be able to offer a 'stay' on the ticket where you wont be offered a refund, but may be offer the chance of delaying the trip.

HXDave

jackieblack

jackieblack wrote: »

I know it's a moot point now and you don't say why your sister can't travel but, even if you had travel insurance, if she is just choosing not to travel it probably wouldn't have paid out anyway.
Cancellation due to becoming pregnant is not usually covered as 1) it is not unavoidable, they would probably view becoming pregnant as being within your sister's control and 2) simply being pregnant does not mean she is unfit to travel,
She may have been covered if there are medical reasons why she shouldn't travel and her doctor certified her unfit to fly or she is in the last few weeks of her pregnancy.

HXDave wrote: »

Actually, i have found that most insurers WILL cover for cancellation of pregnancy if the due date is within the dates that an airline will not allow a person to travel. THey may also cover if the due date is before the return date of travel if a doctor / midwife reccommends against travel for any related heath problems. However as the does not have travel insurance, no point debating the issue any further.

My point was that if the OP's sister was choosing not to travel because she had become pregnant then insurance probably would not have been relevant.
In the OP it was not clear why the pregnancy caused her sister to be unable to travel.