Has anyone got a holiday booked to Dubai with emirates?

[Mesbee]

We have a holiday booked for the end of May this year. There is no way we would even consider going now (for obvious reasons). Even if things calmed down, we wouldn’t feel safe or comfortable travelling there.

I have tried to get in touch with Emirates but no-one answers the phone. I have also emailed but had no response. Is anyone else in this situation? What are our rights? we are obviously very relieved not to be stranded there like many others, so it could be worse. However it will definitely be a kick in the teeth to lose all of the money we have paid so far.

thanks xx

No, but as Emirates change at Dubai for China, I wonder how many people who travelled to or from China for the New Year / Spring Festival will be stuck? The Chinese New Year holiday ends this week.

I think that you may need to wait until all the others that are stranded or have holidays coming up very soon have been sorted, they are the ones that they’ll be trying to deal with . We have a holiday to Thailand booked to fly on Sunday and haven’t heard anything yet .We have hoping to transfer to the Caribbean .
TUI have said on their website that they are contacting in date order at the moment so this is probably the same for Emirates .
I’d give it another couple of weeks then try again to change your holiday to another destination .
Good luck, i hope you get some answers soon .

I agree that they'll be prioritising people who are stuck out there or due to travel imminently.

We had a holiday booked when Covid happened and everything at our destination shut down in a hour. Since we weren’t leaving for 36 hours, we had to wait to get dealt with for about a week.

Just to give you an idea of the timescale of where you might be in the queue. They will get to you, but you aren’t a priority at all. Even if you get someone to pick up a phone, don’t be surprised if they tell you that they can’t deal with your issue for now.

I honestly would just sit back and give it a few days at least, maybe even a week.

Yes i know they will be contacting people who are there or due to fly sooner than us. That goes without saying. It’s just annoying that they had an option to cancel the booking on the ‘manage booking’ section of the website, and now that seems to have disappeared. I don’t need patronising comments I am simply wondering if anyone is in a similar situation. It’s nowhere near as bad as the situation some people are currently in, and im not looking to get into a competition about that. But we have paid over £8000 and won’t be able to afford another holiday so i’m understandably concerned.

Do you have travel insurance? Your only hope will be if the Foreign Office recommends not travelling. You can claim then. Otherwise you won't be covered for 'not wanting to go'. Emirates may allow you to change flights, but they are not obligated to.

Why on earth can you not travel if you are not due to go until the end of May? Dubai will not be at risk then.

In all honesty, you are not the priority at the moment. I am supposed to be travelling via Dubai on Good Friday and have had an email saying please don't get in touch at the moment, they are prioritising customers currently in the Middle East (fair enough) and are then looking to prioritise those travelling in the next 2 weeks.

I would not even try and get in touch with Emirates at the moment - most of their call centre staff are in UAE.

Have you got travel insurance? I think it is going to be a case of waiting to see what happens....

Who are flying you with? A friend flew Sat night to Thailand with Thai from LHR without any problems, but did not route via the ME.

They are prioritising people either stuck where they are or due to travel within the next 72 hours. You need to wait at this stage.

If you're trying to cancel at this stage because you don't want to go then you are unlikely to be able to recoup costs beyond those in the T&C's on your tickets (i.e. some will refund you if you cancel more than a week in advance, some are non-refundable). So first and foremost check the T&C's you booked under.

The end of May is over 2 months away and everything could well have calmed down by then. So you're not likely to have any joy with your travel insurance unless the situation changes significantly, and it's not likely the airline will be looking to cancel or refund anything more than a week out at this point. As others have said, the airlines will currently be prioritising sorting out stranded passengers and passengers whose flights were supposed to be imminent.

Beyond that all you can do is sit tight.

They need to prioritise getting people home who are on holiday there now or got stuck changing planes on Saturday, May is a long way off so leave it for a couple of weeks at least

Will travel insurance cover this, doesn't this fall within war exemption?

We have flights booked with Emirates that involve changing planes in Dubai in the next few weeks and holiday is in Sri Lanka.

How have you booked - is it all via Emirates? We booked Emirates direct and then hotels, trips, driver, car parking all direct with those places. Today I've cancelled all hotels, trips, driver, car parking as all are free cancellation. So just the Emirates flights.

When you got the flight tickets /holiday tickets there should be terms and conditions attached and cancellation charges will apply (unless fully flex and free cancellation on hotels) if you cancel. So for us there's only flights remaining but there's around £1,000 that would not be refundable for us if we cancel now as seat bookings are not refundable as well. Travel insurance won't normally help as its due to war unless you have a cancel for any reason clause - check your policy. If Emirates cancel its unclear what happens as they are asking people to fill a form agreeing to pay cancellation charges and also they are giving this very last minute. But it looks to me as if in theory if they cancel as the flight starts from London based on CAA rules it should be fully refundable but they seem not to be doing this until the day of the flight. Be careful if you don't want to go but they are operating flights to cancel at least 1 hour before departure time otherwise the no-show fee is triggered.

If you booked hotel and flights at same time with Emirates you may well be covered by package holiday rules.

I'm in Thailand - not many issues here at all with flights in or out other than those going to UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain etc.

So you’re trying to contact them now, with a terrible situation ongoing and thousands of people actually caught up in it, when you aren’t going until may?
JFC get a bloody grip

Just a small point - it really is worth paying a little extra and flying with BA - they have to try to get you home at some point and are usually very flexible over issues like this. They were absolutely brilliant when we were stuck when covid broke out so we try to use them or Singapore Airlines (also brilliant).

Um, no more or less than any other airline ! BA are not special in that regard. It's all down to t&cs on the ticket.

😂 all airlines "have to try to get you home at some point" it's kind of their business model!

Just saw on Emirates website so looks like flights may be operating again before too long so it will be a voluntary cancellation.

Emirates will begin operating a limited number of flights commencing on the evening of 2 March. We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority, and those who have been rebooked to travel on these limited flights will be contacted directly by Emirates. Please do not go to the airport unless you have been notified. All other flights remain suspended until further notice.
Emirates continues to monitor the situation, and we will develop our operational schedule accordingly. Updates will be published on our website and official social media channels.

Yes unfortunately we won’t be covered by our insurance. It says on our booking that if we cancel now we would only lose our deposit. However, we have since paid three further voluntary instalments to chip away at the cost. So im not sure how that works. The final balance is due in Just over a week so we were looking for advice about that.

I would have thought they would refund everything but the deposit but check what the deposit is - TUI have a low deposit scheme and they have small print to say actual deposit is more. Sometimes you can change a holiday for free, I've seen some people shifting locations.