Emirates change of policy is leaving us £500 down. What are our rights?

ohglobbits

I'll keep as short as possible. Whilst we totally understand the huge difficulties faced by airlines and how they had to respond so quickly to the virus we are now being treated very unfairly simply due to the timing of the virus and our original flights...

In super short summary - we booked 2 return flights (outgoing March - return July) at £1050 (for both). Travel advice said not to travel so we contacted Emirates who told us to take a voucher for the full amount as this would be better than requesting a refund which would incur a $200 cancellation fee. The problem is that NOW there is a new system which allows tickets affected for C-19 to be left 'open' so they can simply be transferred to a new date with no extra fees and even if new ticket is higher there is no difference to pay. But because we have voucher we HAVE to pay any fees and differences in ticket price. Very unfair as the tickets for new dates are £1500! All people have been affected by the same thing - the virus - yet half are having to pay extra simply because the original bookings were earlier in the pandemic, and the people with later bookings are lucky and don't have to pay extra. 

We spoke to a very polite lady who understood our situation and transferred us to her supervisor. He also said we have a good point but there is nothing he can do and that once a voucher is issued it is un-reversible. We then said that if that is the case please can we rebook flights and have a discount applied to make up for the higher fee (i.e. give us £500 or near enough off). He checked but could only offer £10 per ticket. 

Every system has an override and I've no doubt that a higher reimbursement or discount can be offered. I also think it is HUGELY unfair that the early bookings are being penalised in such a way that they now have to pay SO MUCH MORE, compared to later bookings which get like-for-like. Also, we could now ask for the voucher to be refunded but ONLY AFTER THE YEAR HAS PASSED. So if we wanted to book with another airline we could but we'd be out of pocket our original £1050 until a year passes and we'd qualify to request a refund! 

• Is there anything you know that we can do in this situation?
• Are we within rights to get tickets transferred like for like?
• Is it fair to be penalised in this way?
• Can we go public?

Would be interested if anyone else is in same situation or similar or knows of any leverage. 
Thanks in advance

[Deleted User]

All fares seem to have varying conditions attached.   Not all people will pay the same price to the same destination on the same day.   Its a bit of pot luck. If for instance you found out that the person sat next to you on the journey had paid £500 less, you wouldn't have grounds for a claim or refund.      No idea what terms you bought your tickets under but those will be the ones you are stuck with. I think you will find that those being offered 'open' tickets will be paying more and they may also be the people who booked knowing that their flight might be in jeopardy (to encourage people to continue paying?)

I can't see there is a lot you can do about it?  Sounds like you cancelled your flights before they were actually cancelled anyway (as you were told of a cancellation fee)?   If your flights had been cancelled you would have been able to claim a refund (eventually) but you choose to accept the vouchers and if, as you are saying, you can trade the vouchers in for a cash refund after a year then it would probably be considered fair by insurance companies and banks?   (you can try as not 100% sure, just logic says so).   

fifeken

Emirates have only released Flex and Flex Plus tickets on a lot of routes.  Pretty soon it's likely they'll release Saver fares which might take you back to near enough your original price, so hold off if you can.

I just received an email from Qatar promoting cheap fares from the UK to various destinations so Emirates may well act in response to this.