Damson

I booked online for us to do several legs of our journey to Melbourne in July (Birmingham to Dubai - overnighter. Dubai to Melbourne. Returning Melbourne to Singapore - stopping over 3 nights then direct back to Birmingham.

However, I hadn't realised that when you book online the Emirates website, once you reach the 25th of each month it automatically (helpfully) assumes you want to return the following month and brings up August dates. Unfortunately I wanted the last leg ie Melbourne 26 July to Singapore and then onward to Birmingham on 30 July 2009. I didn't notice that I was actually filling in 30 August instead of 30 July. Luckily OH noticed!

My problem is, for the simple error of pressing 30 August instead of 30 July I ended up paying £300 -'amendment fee'. I rang up as soon as I noticed the error (the next day) and they basically said rules is rules and tough luck. The chap made the amendment while I was still on the phone, so it's hardly a massive effort. Also, with the flight 5 months away (and there still being loads of seat not booked) it's hardly a biggie for Emirates. To add insult (and a shedload of money) to injury, as we had then booked for August the price had gone up by £800! So for clicking on the wrong button I ended up paying an extra £1100. Also, when you search on the above criterior for the journey (ie the 4 legs, it brings up the option of flying Economy from Bham to Dubai, dubai to Melbourne, Melbourne to Singapore, up to Dubai, down to Singapore and then on to Bham for the total price of in excess of £26,000! WTF). Only glad I didn't click on that by mistake). When I queried why, given the search criterior I did, it came up with this load of garbage and they couldn't answer it.

I would say that this was my fault completely and I don't dispute that. However, what happened to the days of accepting that keyboard errors do occur and being a bit compassionate? When I sent an email begging for a reduction the response I received was full of typo's and they even got my surname wrong (and I helpfully/gratuitously pointed out how easy it is for mistakes to be made when using the internet).

This is the sort of stunt you expect from Easijet, but Emirates!

My advice is to either go through a travel agent, phone Emirates and book that way or, check and quadruple check your booking.

It's sad that before I even get on the plane I already have a downer on Emirates - just hope they are really good. Out of principle I will never fly with them again.

Thank you for reading!

bcworld

That really is very unfortunate......I think you should try and pursue it further. What I find odd about the change fees as well is that on fares purchased in Aus, even the lowest of the low fares the change fees seem to be either waived or zero in the first place, whereas from the other side people are consistently charged GBP75.

As for the behaviour you have described the Jetstar website here in Australia does it too......OH once booked flights for a weekend which ended up being something like 27 July - 29 August.......and yes had to pay the change fees & differences in fare for the amended flights.

I'm not sure if there is some accessiblity issue with the way these websites are working, as I say you should take your complaint with Emirates to the highest level you can. Don't expect a speedy response though....I waited 3 months for them to get back to me on something! In the air I can't fault them (flown many sectors) but their customer service on the ground has a very poor reputation.

360life

Probably wont be much help but I flew with Emirates last year. I thought they were very good and the IFE was excellent. Whilst there I decided to come back earlier than planned and popped into the Emirates office on Collins St. Staff super helpful and changed my itinerary there and then free of charge - even asked if I needed free transport to the airport (and yes it was economy ticket).
I agree you should get on the phone and tackle it - got to be worth a few calls for £1100. Good Luck

louie

Check the terms of your original booking. I booked economy and it clearly stated that one change was permitted free of charge. Like 360life I changed the date whilst in Oz so I could have an extra day in Sydney and that was only one or two days before my original flight date. No charge, no dramas.

If Emirates have changed their conditions, I might choose to fly with someone else as that was one of the attractions of Emirates for me.

kiran m

Hi, i too have bad experience with Emirates. we booked 4 one way tickets & was told wud get extra 50kg if i became moving planet member & yes i'm still not allowed the extra weight because i directly booked with Em on line than booking via moving planet link ???? Load of rubbish.... its Emirates plane carrying the suitcases or moving planet put extra plane ..., very annoyed with my mistake.
Kiry

Damson

Thanks all for your replies. So far I have telephoned them twice (which didn't go well) and emailed them and got bundled to different departments culminating in a 'we are so sorry etc .....' and 'we will be taking up the issue of the searches at our next board meeting'. Hum, cheers then. It's interesting that you say that you don't pay charges coming the other way. I'm being led to believe that it's an Emirates policy that is universal and cannot be challenged. I am going back to them though, to be honest, I do think it's pointless but at least I'll be hacking off the people who have to sit down and respond. They can't get away with standard 'Here at Emirates, we believe .....' rubbish as I have asked specific questions which require more in-depth responses. I do have the satisfaction (as in the old picture of a tiny mouse sticking the V's up to a massive cat that's about to eat it kind of a way) of eating into Emirates' profits by them having to pay people to write back to me - they must already have exceeded my £300!

God, reading this back I really do look bitter!

Cheers
Lorraine

EvannTel

FWIW contrary to others I have been charged here is Aus for changing flights with Emirates.

scrubbedexpat020

I would write a nice letter to

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum,
Chairman and Chief Executive
Emirates Group Headquarters
Deira
Dubai

Politely explain why you are peeved and ask for a goodwill gesture.

You could point out the excellent reputation it has on BritishExpats.

Rule 1: Always write to the Chairman.
Rule 2: Be polite but concise. Keep to the main points in the letter, expand in an attachment.

I have never flown Emirates but it's definitely on my wish-list merely because of the excellent customer service I hear about.

Ian

emylou78

hi my grandad fly's to OZ from Newcastle and always uses emirates his last 4 trips out here he has changed the return date with no extra cost, he is here now and has again changed his return date by 4 weeks ( done just last week ) with no charge on an economy ticket. If i was you I would take this matter furthur.

bcworld

Different economy fares do have different conditions though when it comes to the charges made for changes.

Typically when I have booked on Emirates the fare conditions list a $75 change fee.....but I have never once been charged....and I have made a few changes.

360life

Not biter at all - Im a firm believer in fairness whether its company poilcy or not - and that aint fair. They probably are within their rights and may well be doing this now to bolster dwindling profits (going by their prices recently).
Keep at it and make yourself a nuisance. You have nothing to lose - you never know you may end up with a free upgrade even if you dont get a refund - would be a fair swap!
Keep us updated.

louie

My booking was in the UK. But as I said, look at the terms & conditions you signed up to. I booked online as you did and you should be able to access them online. I can't bring up my booking - I presume because the flight has taken place - but it was quite clear that the first change was free. This was part of the contract I had with Emirates, it wasn't discretionary.

This is from the Emirates website;

"What are ‘Fare Conditions’?

All air tickets have Fare Conditions attached to them which determine the price of that ticket. The most common conditions to be aware of are those governing whether a ticket is refundable and whether additional charges will be imposed in the event that your travel plans change. Different fares will have different conditions, and a ticket that allows you to change the dates of your travel without charge or to receive a full refund if you cancel your travel plans will be more expensive, but still possibly desirable if flexibility is important to your plans.

Be sure to ask your reservations agent about the Fare Conditions associated with the flights you are considering. If you are booking online, simply click ‘Fare Conditions’ to view the rules relating to any given flight before adding it to your itinerary. If you do have any queries about these conditions, please contact your local Emirates office, as these conditions will apply after purchase."

See what the conditions say. That will determine whether you were "correctly" charged or not from a legal perspective. Although in your circumstances, it would be nice if Emirates waived the fee and can't do any harm to try.

OzTennis

It might be that the moral to this story is to book via an agent rather than d.i.y online because the fares are exactly the same in my experience. Let Quest, Travelbag, Lee's Travel Club, Austravel etc rep book the flights for you. We've flown Emirates 9 or 10 times now and never had a single problem with booking, flights, service, meals etc, etc. We're just back recently and like many others I can confirm that we were able to change the return date at no cost on our booking - perhaps the tickets issued by agents are different to the tickets issued by the airline? FWIW I'd keep at them too!

louie

No, I booked online and had no problems. I'd always book online because the frequent flyer points are much better. After one return to Sydney, we should be able to update to business on the Dubai leg next time round pretty much free of charge.

Either they've made a mistake or they've very recently changed their T&Cs.

OzTennis

Interesting, we've done 2 return flights recently and have over 40,000 air miles each which entitles us to a cheaper iPod, no mention of an almost free upgrade - how many airmiles do you get for UK-Oz return by booking online?