Cancelling a booking with Emirates

[futago flyer]

Hi I just wanted to know if this seems right .

I have a trip booked with Flight Centre, which includes an airfare with Emirates. (Sydney-Dubai-Rome) > (London-Dubai-Sydney).

It was $2443 - brought as an early bird fare at their expo fare in November last year.

My circumstances have changed and I'm weighing up my options about going on the trip. The decision will be based on what I get back from what I've already outlayed.

I asked what the cancellation fee would be (having not received any fare conditions information to work it out myself) - they said it will cost $930, then an additional $150 which is a non-refundable flight centre fee. So $1080 in cancellation fees.

However, they said it could be more... they said they won't know the exact cancellation fee until I actually cancel the ticket.

The thing is I don't want to cancel the ticket if I get nothing back and say they hit me with more fees.... I may as well go if this is the case.

Is this right - can they confirm the fee before I cancel I would of thought that they could? It seems a bit weird.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Dave Noble]

When you cancel they should be able to tell you exactly what the airline/consolidator cancellation fee is and what their agency fee is.

Dave

 

[stryker]

Surely they can advise exactly what the cancellation charges will be.

What kind of amateur operation is the OP dealing with?

 

[JohnK]

However, they said it could be more... they said they won't know the exact cancellation fee until I actually cancel the ticket.

The thing is I don't want to cancel the ticket if I get nothing back and say they hit me with more fees.... I may as well go if this is the case.

Is this right - can they confirm the fee before I cancel I would of thought that they could? It seems a bit weird.

I have had a similar experience a few years ago. We purchased an airfare from a travel agent for my mother SYD-SKG for ~$2400 on TG and a month or so from departure she could not go as my father was scheduled to have a heart operation. Good enough excuse one would think.

Anyway the travel agent did not know how much of the airfare we would get back and I called Thai and they also had no idea how much they refund. Put the refund claim in through travel agent and after what appeared to be a long time go back the refund less $300 cancellation fees. I thought under the circumstances it was unreasonable but not much you can do about it.

 

[Travel Guru]

I think you'll find your "friendly" FC agent is inflating the "airline" cancellation fees in order to bump up his commission on the booking.

I went back into the archives and checked Emirates earlybirds (which is generally the same fare FC offer at their expo, just discounted a little less), and the cancellation fee on that was A$330 (interesting they both end in 30 ).

I would ring the agent back, tell them you've spoken to someone at Emirates who advised you the cancellation penalty on your fare should be $330 and ask them to explain why they're quoting you $930, you should find they quickly take a step back and reassess their quote.
Given they've quoted you an agency cancellation fee already they can't very well come back and say the difference is agency fees, so you're likely to find if you take a confident stance with them that they quickly admit to making a mistake.

It's always worth being on your guard when cancelling an airfare, especially through FC, as their agents are pushed agressively to hit targets so see cancellation fees as an easy way to make more commission.

If you have any problems with it, feel free to send me a PM, i'll be happy to send you an email with the cancellation fee spelt out.

Good luck

TG

 

[AlphaVictor]

This will be an ongoing issue, especially over the next few weeks. With people locking in $2500+ tickets to London / Europe late last year for travel in peak season 2009 and then seeing the same deal for $1000 less per person (e.g SQ / QF / EK) just released.

I know of at least 3 - 4 families now trying to calculate the difference minus cancellation fees to save a few hundred bucks. Only problem is that they have to fork over the extra $$ while the TA / airline take close to 2 - 3 months to refund them the money.

If the ducks line up, for a family of 4, swapping over is saving them close to $1500 (taking out the cancellation fees etc)

 

[Travel Guru]

Only problem is that they have to fork over the extra $$ while the TA / airline take close to 2 - 3 months to refund them the money.

It's not the TA who takes 2-3 months to refund the $$ to them, its the airline, TA's have no incentive to delay paying out a refund once received, and from my experience, even the bucket shop TA's do so promptly.

Thankfully with e-ticketing we've seen a slight reduction in refund turnaround times, though i'd like to see the industry get to the point where it could be done in 5 days or less.

Following on from the OP's query about not being quoted a cancellation fee, there's no reason why they couldn't, if you deduct the cancellation penalty from the fare paid you'll be pretty on the mark, though no agent is going to guarantee it when a third party like an airline is involved, though they should be able to give you a fairly firm indication.

TG