Dubai’s Emirates processes nearly 650,000 refund requests, returns over Dhs1.9bn to customers

Dubai carrier Emirates has processed nearly 650,000 refund requests in the past two months, returning over Dhs1.9bn to its customers after the Covid-19 pandemic wrecked travel plans of millions of travellers worldwide.

In April, Emirates had announced that it would ramp up its refunds capabilities to clear its backlog by August, which at the time stood at nearly half a million requests.

Read more: Dubai carrier Emirates expedites processing of refund requests

The airline crossed its target by early June, having expanded its processing capability from a monthly average of 35,000 requests to nearly 200,000.

Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ chief commercial officer said: “This pandemic is a black swan event no-one expected, impacting travellers and hitting the airline and travel industry hard. It is tough times for everyone, but we are committed to doing what’s right by our customers. That’s why we ringfenced cash to honour refunds, and invested resources to expedite processing. Our average processing time for refunds has reduced from 90 days to 60, and as we see lower volumes of new requests we expect this rate to further improve. We still have over half-a-million refund requests to manage, and expect to clear these within the next two months.”

Emirates’ network of destinations currently totals 52 cities, facilitating additional travel options through a connection in Dubai.

Read: Emirates announces flights to more cities in July; network grows to 52 cities

Tourists will also be able to travel to Dubai following the announcement that the city will be open for business and leisure visitors from July 7.

Read: Dubai to welcome tourists from July 7, unveils new travel protocols for all residents and citizens

As the borders gradually reopen, Emirates has revised its booking policies to offer customers added flexibility.

Customers who purchase an Emirates ticket by July 31, 2020, for travel on or before November 30, 2020, can enjoy flexible terms when they either book a Flex or Flex plus fare, or have to alter their travel plans due to Covid-19 related flight or travel restrictions. These terms are applicable to all bookings are:

• Free date change for travel in the same cabin to the booked destination, or to/from Dubai
• Free rebooking to any alternate Emirates destination in the same region, or to/from Dubai
• Extended ticket validity for two years from the purchase date for future use
• Convert the ticket value to a Travel Voucher that may be used as credit towards future travel purchases with Emirates, providing flexibility to reschedule when they are ready to travel again

Emirates’ customers whose travel plans are disrupted by Covid-19 related flight or travel restrictions, can request travel vouchers or refunds via an online form on Emirates’ website, or by contacting their travel booking agent for assistance.

Read more: Next few weeks to be a ‘big test’ for aviation industry – Emirates’ Sheikh Ahmed