Increasing demand leads Emirates to enhance refund capacity

Emirates ramped up its capability of processing refunds to its customers and trade partners impacted by travel disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With nearly half a million refund requests pending to manage, the airline has taken steps to restructure its backend procedures and boost resourcing to accelerate the refund process, said a press statement on Monday.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, the Dubai-based carrier had received 35,000 refund requests on an average in a month. Now it has increased to 150,000 per month, and the company has planned to clear its current backlog by early August.

Sir Tim Clark, president at Emirates airline said, "It is a hard time for us as it is for all other airlines. We are dipping into cash reserves by being proactive in processing refunds, but it is our duty and responsibility to customers."

"We would like to assure our customers and trade partners that we will honour refunds, and that we are doing our best to speed the process," he added.

In this regard, Emirates offers some options to its customers affected by flight cancellations and travel restrictions including, simply keeping their existing ticket for up to 24 months and reschedule their flights when they are ready to fly. 
This option will be allowed for those who will book tickets on or before June 30 this year for travel on or before November 30 the same year.

Besides, customers could exchange the unused portion of their tickets for a travel voucher equivalent to the amount paid for their original booking. 

The travel voucher could be utilised for any Emirates product or service, with no change fees, providing customers more flexibility to reschedule when they are ready to travel again.

Customers who have opted to keep their tickets or opted for a travel voucher could still apply for a refund if they are unable to travel. There will be no refund penalties in this regard.