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

May is 3 months away. This situation isn’t just going to magically resolve. It would be very risky to travel there in the near future, especially with young children. Are you actually on this planet?

I'd expect to lose all/nearly all the money if you cancel now unfortunately.

Your holiday insurance is unlikely to help unless travel is not advised for Brits at the time of your departure, and is unlikely to cover disruption due to war anyway.

You may be able to get a refund on some portion of the flights - I was surprised on a group holiday recently that people were able to change some of their flights up to a couple of days before with very little in the way of charges (they wanted to stay longer than planned). However other carriers were far stricter and offered very little in the way of cancellation refunds.

If my flight was taking off, and the UK was not advising against all travel on my departure date, then I'd still go on a holiday/trip. But I've been in some interesting places in some interesting times and some people are more risk adverse.

Very much this.

If you have booked as an Emirates holiday this is online though best to check what you have been sent. It refers to AED which seems to be 1 is 20p or so.

Cancelling flights cost per flight 200 AED so c £40 per flight
Cancelling hotels or changing them 350 AED per booking so c £70

www.emiratesholidays.com/terms/agency

Human nature to want answers NOW but you will just have to be patient. It doesn't make any difference to your arrangements if you get answers today or tomorrow or end of the week, whereas they are currently trying to prioritise people due to travel tonight or tomorrow or who should have come home yesterday!

@khaa2091we were flying with Qatar and having a stop over in Doha then on the Thailand . It’s ok now he’s just been to tui and swapped the holiday to Jamaica so all’s good .

@Mesbeedepending on where you are in the uk , there was an emirates travel shop in London , is it possible you could go there with your booking and see if you could switch your holiday to somewhere else ?

Why was my objection to the Karen reference deleted?

We cancelled a holiday to the Far East in Feb 2020 , just before Covid lockdown .. Our flights were with Emirates.At that time we were told that we would get a refund if Emirates cancelled the flight or if the Foreign office advised against travel. Otherwise we would lose our money. We were told that it would be better to wait till as near the point of travel as possible. But by that time we would have been unable to cancel accommodation and transfers , and we would have paid the final instalment on our flights. So we just took the hit .
It’s a difficult decision to make. We decided that we wouldn’t have enjoyed the holiday anyway in the circumstances.

Travel agent here! Standard terms and conditions apply. So if it says loss of deposit then thats what it is and they have to refund you any extra that you have paid. Once you fall into cancellation charges then it is a sliding scale.
You are not entitled to a full refund as, at the moment, it is too far away and if they government advice is that it is safe to travel then there will be no refund.
Try on manage my booking again, the websites are being bogged down with people on them so its causing problems.
You will struggle to get through at the moment and this must be understandable, Ive been working 14 hour days trying to get customers home and Emirates will be the same, they are the priority.
Send them an email asking to cancel and say you understand it is loss of deposit but would like a refund of the extra that you have paid. Give them a few days to reposnd through please. it is a nightmare at the moment and im sorry, you arnt a priority

You don't know that

May travel is not priority.

Sorry what's the issue?

Apparently flight cancellations cover it but it usually depends on the actual insurer

Thanks for the reply. This is what i wanted to know.

And just to reiterate. I don’t think, nor have I ever said that i’m the priority. This post was simply to ask if anyone in a similar position had any more clarity on the situation.

People saying it would be a voluntary cancellation if Emirates are still flying, this is irrelevent if FCDO advice is not to travel.

Good travel insurance will cover cancellations if FCDO advice is not to travel. People get confused here - travel insurance will not cover you if you travel against FCDO advice but if advice changes AFTER booking insurance will likely cover for non refundable expenses.

Either way you have to wait though. We travel at Easter to Abu Dhabi, so in same boat.. we'll probably not pay accomodation and hope to claim back flights.

No they don't. It's actually down to the and it depends very much upon what country's law applies.

Edited to say sorry, I've quoted the wrong person.

YABVVU trying to clog up the phone lines when thousands are stranded, so that you can ask a question that is completely hypothetical (as you don't know at all what the circumstances will be).

YABVU to not understand that what is likely to happen will depend on things like the official travel advice at that time.

No they don't actually it's a case of what law applies, and who do you think is going to make more of an effort? Ryanair?

We were stranded at an airport during covid and BA got us home. Lots of people were having to rebook with different airlines - our friends were charged £2500 to change flights- BA charged us nothing extra.

I've went to lots of FCDo countries with insurance

As my previous post (that’s been deleted my Mumsnet) mentioned. I am keen to find a resolution to the situation because my father has been diagnosed with a degenerative condition that will worsen over time. This will probably be the last holiday he can go on. So others may not think it’s important which is fine, but it means the world to us to make memories with him while we still can. Not that I should have to explain myself but there we are.

Travel insurance normally excludes acts of war which this will come under.

www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/02/what-to-do-flight-cancelled-us-israel-war-iran-uk261-compensation

I have sent an email and made one phone call when it first kicked off before the air travel was even suspended (so didn’t know anyone was stranded). Hardly clogging up the phone lines is it. Plus it isn’t hypothetical because we don’t want to travel there now after what’s happened. I don’t care for your uneducated opinion. You must be very bored with your life.