Emirates cancelled flight to Dubai - Expedia offering vouchers

Dee19867

I booked a package holiday through Expedia that included Emirates flights and a hotel in Dubai for a group of us. The flights were scheduled for 24 March to 4 April 2026.

Recently the airline (emirates) cancelled the flights due to the current conflict in the Middle East. Because the flights were cancelled, the whole trip had to be cancelled.

Expedia refunded the hotel part of the booking correctly, but instead of refunding the flights to my card as they confirmed they would, they issued airline (emirates) credits in my Expedia account for each passenger (worth over £7,000). 

I never requested credits – I was told a full cash refund would be issued.

When I contacted Expedia about it, different agents kept giving me conflicting explanations. Some said there was no credit on my account (even though I could clearly see it), others said they needed to contact Emirates and wait for a response. Other agents said to ignore the credit and refund will be issued but at the same time another agent said they need to email emirates and I need to wait for emirates to email me.

I did contact the airline to ask if it received an email from Expedia and it confirmed it. It confirmed that refund is issued by the agent and there’s nothing it could do. Emirates said there’s nothing it could do for me.

Eventually another Expedia agent admitted the credits shouldn’t be there and said the refund will be processed back to my original payment method, but they haven’t given a clear explanation of what went wrong or how long it would take.

The booking is actually an ATOL-protected package holiday, which means Expedia is legally responsible for issuing the refund, not the airline. Because of the confusion and the amount of money involved, I’ve now raised a formal complaint to get it resolved properly.

I don’t know if I could claim a section 75 and who it would be against? Although it was a packaged holiday it seems like the flights were paid directly to Emirates (appears in my credit statement). However I was under the assumption my contract is with Expedia?

I’d appreciate any help/guidance.

Westin

You might be over thinking this.

I suspect the ‘credit’ is an internal matter, something showing on your account whilst a physical refund is actioned in their system. That seems to align to some of those comments made to you about ignoring what you saw and that a refund would be forthcoming.

Give them a little time. You won’t be the only refund being processed.

Expedia will refund.