LouiseR

We had to postpone my mum and dads flight with Emirates as my mum was taken ill and admitted into hospital. Emirates were great, they did charge a admin fee of about £100 but in the grand scheme we weren't that bothered by that. They didn't even request evidence that she was ill only something to say that she was fit to fly when she eventually got around to being able to make the flight.

Sorry about your situation Cresta. Hoping Deb's brother has a speedy recovery.

cresta57

They tried to postpone them for 6 months in the first instance, no deal, then tried name change, no deal. The airline cancelled, then the travel agency wanted a cancellation fee.
Sometimes you end up to pre-occupied to try & fight this kind of crap service.

Kooky.

You do, which is why I suggested you try to kick some arse.

I never did get a refund for the Istanbul-Milan flight that got cancelled at the last minute during my epic volcano trip. Tried quite a few times. I bet they made a few bob out of us all that day.

Pollyana

Not all tickets can have the name changed, depends on the original booking small print - cheaper the ticket, the less likely you are to be able to change the names. The small print would've said what the position was with refunds as well; one reason why I don't always buy the cheapest tickets going; pay a bit more you get greater changability.
Also you can't really blame the airline for the travel agents commission thing, or the hotel rooms.

It stinks and I sympathise, but its not really down to the airline

OzSheila

Early 2010 I bought cheap Emirates tickets for Xmas that year. As you would expect they were non-refundable and no changes permitted. OH was not able to travel in the end and they refunded me in full.

Heard a classic with travel insurance yesterday. This Christmas our flights between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were cancelled (actually travel agent omitted to inform us of change in schedule). We had to arrange a land transfer at last minute at a cost of USD$70.

Travel insurer advised that the original flights and the land transfer are "separate benefits" and given the policy excess of $100 we could only claim the cost of the flights less the excess.

cresta57

Missed this earlier. The tickets were business class so they could have one last visit in comfort, with out splashing out for first class just how much more could they have paid?
I don't hold the airline responsible for the surcharge, that would be a bit silly, they visited the travel agents where they had booked & the travel agent rang the airline direct while they were there. No flexibility on dates or names just cancelled tickets. Within 10 mins of leaving the agents they rang to say about the surcharge.

Anyway that's all irrelevant now because when Deb's mum sat & thought about it she was seriously pissed off so she contacted the local paper [where my mate works]. Upshot was they rang the travel agents and asked for a quote for a story they were doing about a young lad with a brain tumour, wanting to check a few facts.
Within an hour the travel agents had rung back to apologise for their mistake. They have sort of struck a deal I'm not sure why but the tickets are miraculously un-cancelled now & booked for later in the year. They have lost the 900 quid they'd paid for the hotel rooms in Dubai altogether & had to pay a further 58 quid to change the dates. So instead of losing the price of the tickets & getting back a % of the hotel rooms less the surcharges they now have flights straight through no hotel rooms & the whole deal has cost them close to a grand and the loss of 8 days in Dubai. Not much of a win IMO but better than a kick in the balls