Emirates & On the beach - Happy to put my sons life in danger

Kevin1978

a a few of you here are missing the point. Nobody’s safety is guaranteed whether driving a car on the motorway or walking through the streets of London but what you can do is take all reasonable precautions. Ie adhere to speed limits, service your car, stick to well lit roads. Likewise the airline may stop serving nuts and make an announcement and possibility remind any individual who is eating nuts of the announcement then I’d hope that any decent person would do the right (a bit like if you have ever queue jumped and not realised). I’m not suggesting any airline can or should do anymore. An airline

Kevin1978

An airline cannot monitor what any passengers behaviour will be from good to abhorrent. 

To be clear the advise from OTB is to go to the plane and I quote (explain the situation to the air hosts people are often more helpful than you think) 
is that helpful advice? 

NoodleDoodleMan

Surely advising OTB before progressing the booking constitutes a "reasonable precaution" in this scenario ?

If it wasn't - that is the point.

bagand96

Airline ticketing, and the business models for it are very complex.  Whilst on the face of it Emirates could refund you and move on - the tickets are restricted and they appear to be sticking to their terms.  And their business model relies on this - especially to sell the cheaper fares.  Nearly all airline tickets sold are not flexible - cheapest tickets are always non-flexible.  As a comparison, return flights to Dubai on Emirates for random dates in October: £423 cheap/inflexible - same flights are £1117 for the same seat on a fully flexible ticket.  If you booked online with OTB it would have been mentioned in the T&Cs about fare restrictions.

Booking via an agent also complicates things.  If you'd book direct with Emirates they offer a 24 hour cancellation period - even if you booked inflexible tickets.  Any refund now is subject to Emirates fees with OTB fees on top.  I know much of this advice is in hindsight and doesn't help now.  Your best hope is to try and appeal to Emirates again to see if they will make an exception - it sometimes happens - although accusing them of putting your childs life in danger probably isn't the way to go about this.

Pollycat

Kevin1978 said:

a a few of you here are missing the point. Nobody’s safety is guaranteed whether driving a car on the motorway or walking through the streets of London but what you can do is take all reasonable precautions. Ie adhere to speed limits, service your car, stick to well lit roads. Likewise the airline may stop serving nuts and make an announcement and possibility remind any individual who is eating nuts of the announcement then I’d hope that any decent person would do the right (a bit like if you have ever queue jumped and not realised). I’m not suggesting any airline can or should do anymore. An airline

I really don't think people are missing the point.

The point is:

you booked a holiday assuming something and have now discovered that you were wrong to assume.

you want an airline to change their pre-stated, obviously well-considered policy specifically for you.

I could understand it if it was a recently changed policy.

But it isn't.

Kevin1978 said:

An airline cannot monitor what any passengers behaviour will be from good to abhorrent. 

To be clear the advise from OTB is to go to the plane and I quote (explain the situation to the air hosts people are often more helpful than you think) 
is that helpful advice? 

I think this ^^^^ advice is not helpful at all.

Why would you expect cabin crew to over-rule a clearly stated policy by their employer?

Why would you expect passengers not to consume nut products when the airline they are flying with has a policy that says they serves nuts on flights?

Do you think it's helpful advice? Do you think it will work?

I know why OTB have suggested that's what you do - they want you out of their hair and that's the easy way for them to do it. It's called a fob-off.

As suggested earlier, have you asked OTB why they didn't tell you that they were buying non-refundable tickets for your party?

Kevin1978

Polly cat we have an now assume having being pleasant with both emirates and OTB the other option is taking it to abta. I have a business and generally want to create a feel of fair play and always act with integrity sometimes this means making a decision the t’sand c’s cover. In virtually every circumstance there is an opportunity to show discretion and get to a common ground and go back to the point is £340pp showing anything other than contempt to the customer. 

Pollycat

Kevin1978 said:

Polly cat we have an now assume having being pleasant with both emirates and OTB the other option is taking it to abta. I have a business and generally want to create a feel of fair play and always act with integrity sometimes this means making a decision the t’sand c’s cover. In virtually every circumstance there is an opportunity to show discretion and get to a common ground and go back to the point is £340pp showing anything other than contempt to the customer. 

Good luck with taking it to ABTA.

Do let us know how it goes.

It really doesn't matter how you choose to run your business.

You do not have a say - not even a tiny one - in how Emirates choose to run their business.

Again - you are not Emirates' customer.

Your contract is with OTB.

And you don't have a say in how they run their business either.

NoodleDoodleMan

Playing the Devil's Advocate ......................

ABTA's first question is likely to be - "Did you advise your booking agency of your son's allergy condition in advance of concluding the airline reservations ?"

heatherw_01

Quite simply every airline has a different policy on nuts, but they all mention this on their websites.

You should have investigated before booking, especially as because as you state it is a severe allergy.

Emirates are not remotely to blame and they make it very clear they use nuts on all their flights.

Not sure what you are hoping ABTA will do?

TELLIT01

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Playing the Devil's Advocate ......................

ABTA's first question is likely to be - "Did you advise your booking agency of your son's allergy condition in advance of concluding the airline reservations ?"

And the second question would be "Did you read the section on Emirates website about allergies"