Middle East Airspace Diversions/Cancellations

[2tall4Y]

A couple of days after posting the above, I noticed in Manage Booking that one our inbound flights (EK44 FRA-DXB on 24 July) had been cancelled and received an email from Emirates yesterday with proposed alternative flights.

I rang Emirates this morning and despite the warning about higher than usual call volumes, I got through to a rep straight away. The first rep had to transfer me through to the disruptions team but that only took about a minute, and then my eligibility for a full refund was quickly confirmed and I was asked to complete the online form at www.emirates.com/refund to get the refund processed. I received a confirmation email shortly after submitting the refund form and the booking has already disappeared from the Emirates app.

I am positively surprised how quick and easy the process was. I will follow up here with a data point on how long it takes to actually receive the refund.

Closing the loop on my recent Emirates refund experience.

After requesting the refund on Monday, I received an email to say it had been processed early Wednesday morning and the money hit the credit card overnight.

Pretty happy with how it all played out, given Emirates told me the refund could take up 15 business days.

 

[pauldab]

I had noticed a few of those - especially those linked to credit cards,

Yep, same underwriter (Allianz) on my complimentary insurance exclude "Do Not Travel" and "Reconsider Your Need to Travel" countries but purchasing a plan from them direct only excludes countries marked "Do Not Travel".

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yep, same underwriter (Allianz) on my complimentary insurance exclude "Do Not Travel" and "Reconsider Your Need to Travel" countries but purchasing a plan from them direct only excludes countries marked "Do Not Travel".

Yeah it’s interesting.

My ANZ CC has the same purported exclusion for ‘reconsider your need’… but it’s phrased as follows:

[excluded if] you not following an advice or warning that a reasonable person would have been aware of:​

- by the Australian government (when a ‘Reconsider your need to travel’ or ‘Do not travel’ alert is in place), which can be found on www.smartraveller.gov.au;​

‘Do not travel’ doesn’t leave much room for discussion. But ‘reconsider your need to travel’ perhaps does?

It just says ‘you not following the advice’ will exclude cover. But if you *did* follow the advice… ie you *did* reconsider your need to travel, and given all the other information at hand it was deemed safe… I reckon there’s wriggle room there.

And if they cover it on a paid policy but not a complimentary one?

Food for thought.

 

[pauldab]

Yeah it’s interesting.

My ANZ CC has the same purported exclusion for ‘reconsider your need’… but it’s phrased as follows:

[excluded if] you not following an advice or warning that a reasonable person would have been aware of:​

- by the Australian government (when a ‘Reconsider your need to travel’ or ‘Do not travel’ alert is in place), which can be found on www.smartraveller.gov.au;​

‘Do not travel’ doesn’t leave much room for discussion. But ‘reconsider your need to travel’ perhaps does?

It just says ‘you not following the advice’ will exclude cover. But if you *did* follow the advice… ie you *did* reconsider your need to travel, and given all the other information at hand it was deemed safe… I reckon there’s wriggle room there.

And if they cover it on a paid policy but not a complimentary one?

Food for thought.

I have ANZ and HSBC cards and they are both underwritten by Allianz, the wording is the same, but you'll be in for a battle trying to prove this train of thought.

The way I see it, depending on your itinerary you don't specifically need to declare stopover/transit countries and as travel warnings have been downgraded it's worth purchasing the insurance to have proper coverage for a trip on a ME hub carrier.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have ANZ and HSBC cards and they are both underwritten by Allianz, the wording is the same, but you'll be in for a battle trying to prove this train of thought.

The way I see it, depending on your itinerary you don't specifically need to declare stopover/transit countries and as travel warnings have been downgraded it's worth purchasing the insurance to have proper coverage for a trip on a ME hub carrier.

Or, for an airside transit, self insuring. Unless you think you’re going to have a medical incident during transit… in which case it could be excluded anyway as a potential pre-existing condition

 

[transpactraveller]

The UK has removed all travel warnings to the UAE and Qatar now, I wonder if Australia will follow.