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

Westin

Kevin1978 said:

Hi Weston you are now making an assumption that I booked a non refundable ticket. You are correct in the fact that OTB booked a non refundable ticket. This was at never pointed out at the time of booking not during and Emirates have said if OTB had booked a refundable seat we would have not had an issue. May I have your thoughts on this

Simply because this is what these online agencies sell. I don’t believe OTB sell anything else but the cheaper restrictive tickets.  A fully flexible schedule airline ticket which allowed for a full refund for your routing would likely cost five, six or seven times as much.  The price alone would flag up that this was not going to be a flex flexible fare and I suspect if you read through your booking paperwork you will see the conditions attached.  Asking at time of purchase would also have flagged this up.

Westin

bagand96 said:

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.

100% agree.

With hindsight you probably realise you goofed up here, but I also know you only want to look after your family.  If this can be unravelled then there will likely be a cost attached. First accept that. Amendment or cancellation fees might be the penalty for such a waiver.  

Now is the time to eat humble pie and politely negotiate with OTB/Emirates. Accusatory internet threads stating that they are ‘happy to put my son’s life in danger’ and similar conversations with the companies you want a concession from are not going to help.  In fact the opposite outcome is likely.

I would personally appeal politely to EK Customer Services again.  Tell them that you know you need to deal with the booking agent but ask if they would grant a concession to cancel the flights without penalty if OTB actioned this. Try to get them to put this in writing or at least get the name and contact of the person you spoke with.  Also ask that they add comments to your booking PNR if a fee waiver or cancellation is approved.  With this then approach OTB.  Ask that they then make the flight cancellation if that is what you still wish giving them details of the approval from EK.  OTB will still likely charge you some administrative fee or charge. I would accept that.  Best recovery position I think.

Alan_Bowen

Westin is absolutely right. OTB is an online discount agency that depends on no human interaction at all and was definitely not the right place to go to book long haul flights with such an important issue at stake. Emirates cannot, and will not change the meal options on your particular flights, from Heathrow they service 3000 meals a day and it is unrealistic to expect them to ask the caterers to change 500 of those for your flight. They are completely upfront about the nut issue and the only option is to cancel and learn from this situation.
Anyone who has special needs of whatever sort is best to deal with a real agent, in person or on the phone when issues such as this can be discussed, investigated and confirmed. That means it is probably not best to book online with an anonymous computer screen, ABTA will not be able to help in this situation as you chose the airline, and airlines are not members of ABTA. I am sympathetic to the position you find yourself in, but it is no one else's fault.

Pollycat

Alan_Bowen said:

Westin is absolutely right. OTB is an online discount agency that depends on no human interaction at all and was definitely not the right place to go to book long haul flights with such an important issue at stake. Emirates cannot, and will not change the meal options on your particular flights, from Heathrow they service 3000 meals a day and it is unrealistic to expect them to ask the caterers to change 500 of those for your flight. They are completely upfront about the nut issue and the only option is to cancel and learn from this situation.
Anyone who has special needs of whatever sort is best to deal with a real agent, in person or on the phone when issues such as this can be discussed, investigated and confirmed. That means it is probably not best to book online with an anonymous computer screen, ABTA will not be able to help in this situation as you chose the airline, and airlines are not members of ABTA. I am sympathetic to the position you find yourself in, but it is no one else's fault.

I guess the OP is planning to complain to ABTA about OntheBeach as any complaint to them about Emirates will be rejected pretty quickly.

gingerdad

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. 

Fair play doesn't come into it, Emirates Policy is clear- which you clearly didn't research or get propper checks done by OTB before you booked.  

Emirates are not showing competent they are sticking to their clear policy, you're in the wrong for not doing the research and possibly OTB, but buggar all to do with the airline.

mattyprice4004

There's little use complaining to OTB - they've done nothing wrong. As pointed out, online travel agents buy the cheapest tickets (usually) and they don't allow refunds. 

Sorry but the first result in Google for 'Emirates nut policy' is a detailed but frank page about their take on this - and that's clearly 'nope, we serve them and that's that'. 

I can appreciate how it's frustrating, but 30 seconds of homework would have given you the answers you needed before booking - there's no use being angry at OTB or Emirates as it's not their issue. Be angry at the chap who didn't do their homework if anyone  

NoodleDoodleMan

The Buck Stops Here

Looks like the concensus has identified where this applies