If something goes wrong with an airline ticket, a credit card dispute is often your last line of defense, when airline customer service otherwise breaks down. So here’s an interesting example of that, where a passenger filed a credit card dispute with Emirates, only to later be banned from the airline, and told that he was on the hook for the amount disputed.
In this post:
Emirates cancels flight, refuses to refund ticket
A new FlyerTalk member shares a situation that he’s currently dealing with involving Emirates. Last year, he was scheduled to fly Emirates first class roundtrip from Birmingham (BHX) to Dubai (DXB) to Tokyo (HND) and back, as part of a guided tour of Japan.
He took Emirates’ chauffeur service to Birmingham Airport and went to the check-in counter, only for the airline to announce at that point that the flight was canceled, and advise passengers to contact the airline to rebook. The airline even arranged a taxi for him to go back home.
It’s worth noting that this happened during Dubai’s major floods in April 2024, which destroyed Emirates operations for several days. However, he couldn’t get through to the airline by phone, web chat, etc., presumably due to the volume of people trying to rebook.
Without any rebooking options on Emirates, he decided to book an alternative one-way itinerary on Air France, in hopes that Emirates would refund him for the outbound journey. Eight days later, he was finally able to get in touch with Emirates, and the agent explained that they would reissue the return ticket so that it’s still valid, in light of circumstances. The agent advised him to fill out a refund request form after he returned home, to get a refund for the outbound portion.
Upon returning back home, he filled out the refund request form with Emirates. After a few days, he received a notice that his refund request had been rejected. Long story short, he sent multiple more emails to the airline, but had no luck, as the airline insisted he utilized all sectors of the ticket.
Eventually he wrote that he’d give the airline 21 days to solve this problem, and if he didn’t hear from them, he’d initiate a chargeback through his bank. So that’s what he did. During the dispute, the airline tried to challenge the chargeback, claiming the ticket was fully utilized, which obviously wasn’t the case. The card issuer sided with the traveler, so he got his appropriate refund of around £4,000 (based on the cost of the outbound portion of travel).
Fast forward nearly a year, and the traveler received an email demanding that he pay the amount disputed, or else he’s banned from the airline going forward:
In connection with your ticket XYZ, under booking reference XYZ, we have received a dispute through your bank and the same was also received through our acquirer World Pay. Having reviewed the ticket history, I noted that it was reissued and utilised.
You are required to settle the payment for your ticket in order to enable your travel with us in the future. In such cases, recovery is made only in cash. Please contact our contact centre or the nearest office in order to resolve the issue due to high order value and utilisation of service.
He responded, but heard back nothing. Obviously he’s concerned, not only about being banned from Emirates, but possibly being on some watch list if he enters the UAE, and being accused of fraud, or something.
This is a situation where airline customer service fails
This traveler did absolutely nothing wrong. Emirates canceled his flight due to a natural disaster, and it’s no surprise that he couldn’t get through to an Emirates representative for days. So he (smartly) booked a ticket on another airline. In these situations, airlines absolutely should be willing to refund a portion of the ticket, to reflect the part that wasn’t consumed.
I suspect what’s going on here is pretty straightforward oversight that no one is actually empowered to fix — the ticket was reissued, so when the refund department saw that both of the segments on the reissued ticket were used, they assumed that the ticket had been fully consumed, and this guy was trying to scam the airline, or something. After all, airlines get tons of refund requests, and a lot of them aren’t legitimate.
This is one of the situations where consumers lack the ability to get in touch with a human who is actually empowered to apply logic and fix a situation. Honestly, I don’t know what exactly I would do in this situation, because I don’t think any frontline employee will actually apply enough logic to actually fix this.
Maybe try to file a complaint with UK regulators, in hopes that it gets the attention of a more senior person at Emirates? Or start Googling email addresses of more senior Emirates executives, and send them an email with the subject line “first class passenger accidentally banned from Emirates,” or something? I hate recommending that last idea, since it just clutters up inboxes, but what are the alternatives?
Bottom line
Emirates has banned a first class passenger, after the airline canceled a flight during last April’s storms, with no ways to get in touch with a customer service representative for days. So he booked a separate outbound ticket, and the return was reissued, and he was told to fill out a form to get a refund.
However, the computer rejected the refund request, presumably due to how the ticket was reissued. Therefore he was left with no choice but to file a credit card dispute, which worked out in his favor. Well, at least that was the case initially, as now the airline is coming after him for the remaining ticket amount, and has banned him until he pays.
What do you make of Emirates banning this first class passenger?
The world of customer service is full of many people with little to no deductive reasoning. Im an accountant so I spend my days tracing, unwinding, reconciling and explaining what happened with a certain transaction. It's tedious and actually requires uninterrupted quiet time even for basic things. So imagine a low paid agent who ain't gonna spend any mental effort. It's shocking. But if you "prove your work" then it's hard for them to ignore...
The world of customer service is full of many people with little to no deductive reasoning. Im an accountant so I spend my days tracing, unwinding, reconciling and explaining what happened with a certain transaction. It's tedious and actually requires uninterrupted quiet time even for basic things. So imagine a low paid agent who ain't gonna spend any mental effort. It's shocking. But if you "prove your work" then it's hard for them to ignore or argue. I often times have to literally meet with clients in person and walk thru an issue by holding their hand... that's when I realize that some people are even overwhelmed by logginto their bank account. Sigh...
Had a similar problem with Emirates during the pandemic, refused boarding despite all the staff saying I could fly but team leader wasn't aware of the rules even after reading them on their own website
Complained, got a ticket and email saying will refund after se ding banke details
Despite sending them over and again and opening new cases I never heard back and was out the £1000 rebooking fee
This sounds like a typical Emirates customer service interaction. Remember, you're dealing with the 'most best' Gopi in the call centre who follows the step-by-step instruction without any concept of common sense. Sad to see that Emirates hasn't improved their customer service overall and instead chooses to focus on only enhancing their First Class soft product. At least their executives will be well taken care of an happy!
Emirates staff being lazy or incompetent? If all details are true, they should be able to determine what was booked originally, what was reissued, and what was later flown.
This anecdote does not make for trusting them...
This traveler should never travel to the UAE or a close ally for fear that there might be an arrest warrant.
Lol and the moon is made of cheese. Stop being such a conspiracy nut. UAE is a beacon of safety and civility. The government is one of the most upright and honest of all governments in the world.
You plainly aren't familiar with reality there. If a Govt organisation, such as Emirates is, says you owe them money and have been disreputable in paying them
Your life can and will be debtors prison hell
Written in Dubai
People keep suggesting charge backs and that is certainly your right but understand that many airlines, hotel companies and car rental agencies will put you on their "do not travel" list as a result (and some will close your frequent flyer/stayer account and take back the miles/points since they don't actually belong to you). Whether or not you feel this is right or fair they are not obligated by law to do business with you...
People keep suggesting charge backs and that is certainly your right but understand that many airlines, hotel companies and car rental agencies will put you on their "do not travel" list as a result (and some will close your frequent flyer/stayer account and take back the miles/points since they don't actually belong to you). Whether or not you feel this is right or fair they are not obligated by law to do business with you and if they feel there is a financial risk (since you initiated a charge back once you could do it again) they are fully within their discretion to ban you.
Sorry and, again, you may not think that is fair but you really have no recourse. Think about that when you consider doing a charge back (which I have NEVER done in 50 years of having credit cards except in the cash of outright fraudulent charges which I report as such and the card company reverses them then issues me a new card)
He better not ever even transit/connect in a uae airport and otherwise face arbitrary arrest
Baffles my mind the low level thinking of people. The UAE is not vindictive nor would they do anything against the law or seek to do that to anyone.
Get a grip and stop smelling markers
You've no concept on which you write, the OP is correct
Written in Dubai
Sue in small claims equivalent for the 4k gbp - that would force someone from their legal team to look at the situation. Either the situation will get resolved, or he will win (which he can then pay the demand with)
I agree with your point to get through via another channel. But I would think this passenger’s patience would have been exhausted
Did the passenger receive the tier miles for the full journey or only return portion? That would be my starting point.
I would advise the passenger not to travel to UAE, these people are screwed in the head and would arrest him.
He'd have better luck finding the office address of the appropriate executive and sending a FedEx with signature required, ideally overnight as it's more "dramatic".
It's almost guaranteed someone will open it and read it. The downside is having to pay for the mailing but I have personally used this to great affect when there is a legitimate issue that is not being addressed properly.
I have as well and it's not only inexpensive but it does get a response !
I am only guessing, but there's probably some weirdness with the pricing on a one-way vs a return at issue as well. Not that the airline should be able to claim that since they canceled the outbound...
I'd go with contacting regulators. Frankly, Emirates /should/ be told "You are going to resolve this with the passenger or you can drop LHR from your network"...
...but this isn't the first time Emirates should have been told...
I am only guessing, but there's probably some weirdness with the pricing on a one-way vs a return at issue as well. Not that the airline should be able to claim that since they canceled the outbound...
I'd go with contacting regulators. Frankly, Emirates /should/ be told "You are going to resolve this with the passenger or you can drop LHR from your network"...
...but this isn't the first time Emirates should have been told that (and I've wanted the UAE arresting pax for having alcohol in their system - which has happened a few times - to be met with "Well, then I guess your London routes are all dry flights now").
Technically, I think this is what happened:
The original ticket hat 4 unused coupons when the passenger finally got through over the phone in the middle of his journey. And indeed, trying to use only the third and fourth coupon of that ticket would mean trouble when trying to check in. So it was adisable and correct to reissue that ticket into a new one containing only the return flights.
Yet, apparently a so-called even...
Technically, I think this is what happened:
The original ticket hat 4 unused coupons when the passenger finally got through over the phone in the middle of his journey. And indeed, trying to use only the third and fourth coupon of that ticket would mean trouble when trying to check in. So it was adisable and correct to reissue that ticket into a new one containing only the return flights.
Yet, apparently a so-called even exchange was processed, which is pretty easy and works automatically in most cases, especially when an airline reissues their own flights on their own ticket stock.
It would have been correct (and important), though, to also issue an EMD for the residual value of the unused first and second coupons. This EMD would then have to be refunded. If that was not done, even a partial chargeback would trigger a fraud warning. From this point on, it takes quite some effort from a human to sort things out, which obviously never happened.
What I don't understand is how the passenger could get a partial refund through his bank. How would they process it? Just reclaim 50 % of the original charge? Sounds strange to me.
My bank has issues a partial if you show them the breakdown of the ticket. They did this when I had fraud on my Southwest account. Southwest refunded only part of the charge due to the scammer asking for a refund and utilizing it before I saw it. In my communications with Southwest they admitted it was fraud but said they were not responsible for the refund of the remaining amount. Sent this to Amex and they refunded the partial amount after like 3 weeks.
"This is one of the situations where consumers lack the ability to get in touch with a human who is actually empowered to apply logic and fix a situation." "Start Googling email addresses of more senior Emirates executives, and send them an email with the subject line “first class passenger accidentally banned from Emirates,” or something?"
Exactly the main problem of most businesses nowadays. Last year I flew KLM from Rome to Amsterdam and they...
"This is one of the situations where consumers lack the ability to get in touch with a human who is actually empowered to apply logic and fix a situation." "Start Googling email addresses of more senior Emirates executives, and send them an email with the subject line “first class passenger accidentally banned from Emirates,” or something?"
Exactly the main problem of most businesses nowadays. Last year I flew KLM from Rome to Amsterdam and they left all my checked bags behind. They never loaded them on the plane although they told me they were in AMS. Well, I had AirTags on all my bags and could see them in Rome. I filled a missing baggage complain with KLM. Next day I boarded my flight back to the US still with no bags. Fast forward 15 days of me trying to get someone to help me without any responses I contacted a top executive at Delta (a KLM partner) that I know and this person sent a note to a top KLM executive on my behalf. Guess what? Within 12 hours I had an email on my Inbox that my bags had been found (well, I knew where they were) and placed on the first flight to be delivered to my home. Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to contact a top executive to solve issues that should be easily solved by normal employees.
Sounds like this is a similar situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/emirates/comments/1efyh4l/denied_compensation_emirates_dubai_floods/
So that outbound flight was actually cancelled by Emirates? Or was it like the passenger was told it might be cancelled but in the end the flight in fact was not cancelled, therefore in the eye of the airlines it could be seen as the passenger did not show up for the flight?
He was at the airport and they turned him around, is very clear in the article. They even paid for a cab home
when the bank processed the chargeback, was it for full amount paid or half the amount? My bank would certainly process only the full amount as on the statement, not partial. In which case of full refund, if the inbound was flown, the passenger would owe the airline for the one day flight.
That's exactly what I was thinking when reading the story. Never heard of such a thing as a partial chargeback. How would a credit card issuer be able to calculate the correct amount? They sure can't, and I doubt they'd just process a chargeback for 50 % of the original amount.
Amex can 100% refund a partial amount. I had this happen on a Southwest fraud case. Southwest refunded only the amount they were able to recover from the fraud. Even though they admitted it was fraud, they said they're weren't liable for the remaining amount. Sent it over to Amex and they refunded the remaining like $260 from the $500 initial charge since Southwest. You just need to have good documentation, and the fact Southwest...
Amex can 100% refund a partial amount. I had this happen on a Southwest fraud case. Southwest refunded only the amount they were able to recover from the fraud. Even though they admitted it was fraud, they said they're weren't liable for the remaining amount. Sent it over to Amex and they refunded the remaining like $260 from the $500 initial charge since Southwest. You just need to have good documentation, and the fact Southwest admitted the entire charge was fraud, it was an easy win.
I've had this done. Like, if you order two boxes of chocolate and only get one, you can file for a partial on the one. Same thing with a pricing error, etc.
Sometimes, however, the CC just sends through a chargeback for the one. I had this happen with a mess with a movie theater a few years back. I wanted to file a chargeback for the value of a set of bonus gift cards...
I've had this done. Like, if you order two boxes of chocolate and only get one, you can file for a partial on the one. Same thing with a pricing error, etc.
Sometimes, however, the CC just sends through a chargeback for the one. I had this happen with a mess with a movie theater a few years back. I wanted to file a chargeback for the value of a set of bonus gift cards they rendered as unusable via T&C that weren't indicated at the time of the transaction, but they just refunded the whole thing.
If you tell your bank that you are chargingback an amount different than the full amount paid, your bank will issue a partial chargeback.
Depending on the bank, part of the chargeback process is to enquire on the amount the cardholder intends to chargeback.
Assuming the passenger is a UK resident with citizenship/permanent residency, I'd just simply not worry about flying Emirates ever again. There's plenty of other airlines that can get you from the UK to just about anywhere else in the world on a one-stop.
It sucks that Emirates is banning him over essentially a refund for a flight they never operated, but the silver lining is that he got his money for that back and still...
Assuming the passenger is a UK resident with citizenship/permanent residency, I'd just simply not worry about flying Emirates ever again. There's plenty of other airlines that can get you from the UK to just about anywhere else in the world on a one-stop.
It sucks that Emirates is banning him over essentially a refund for a flight they never operated, but the silver lining is that he got his money for that back and still got to take the return as originally ticketed. I don't feel like that's a common outcome when airlines cancel on you.
Ben you wrote: "...I suspect what’s going on here is pretty straightforward oversight that no one is actually empowered to fix — the ticket was reissued, so when the refund department saw that both of the segments on the reissued ticket were used, they assumed that the ticket had been fully consumed..."
That is not how airline revenue accounting systems work. At least they didn't, when I managed both that department and the refunds department...
Ben you wrote: "...I suspect what’s going on here is pretty straightforward oversight that no one is actually empowered to fix — the ticket was reissued, so when the refund department saw that both of the segments on the reissued ticket were used, they assumed that the ticket had been fully consumed..."
That is not how airline revenue accounting systems work. At least they didn't, when I managed both that department and the refunds department of an airline many moons ago. The cpn would show reissued, but it would not show used, unless it was uplifted and used. And the refund staff working the claim, can see this and could also validate if the pax flew, by looking at the PNR and flight details which would show the checked in flight info and passport scanned information etc, to confirm that the pax did not or did fly the segment.
Lol bs bs.
Airlines have historical data from DCS systems to check.
Even if the outbound was transformed into F when inbound was reissued, the original flight did not operate it’s a mismatch.
So then I’d just ask EK ‘when did I fly with you? Date and flight number.
Here EK will simply not find any check-in record with passenger PNR/name/ticket number.
So strange story hard to believe…
Similarly, Marriott bans people from Bonvoy, forfeits all points and cancels all reservations for any charge backs, including legitimate ones.
In my experience, Emirates also has terrible, rude, and defensive phone agents, so something is definitely wrong in the EK customer service department. An agent screamed at me when refusing a refund for a within-24 hour cancellation to me under U.S. DOT 24-hour cancellation protection, which I only was able to secure after complaining to the DOT. These agents are not well-trained, follow a bad script, and are not empowered to make decisions.
Not sure of UK is any different that EU:
Correct approach (in the legal sense) for a flight departing from the EU would’ve been:
The passenger should have first sent Emirates a rebooking request in writing with a reasonable deadline.
After the deadline had expired, the passenger would have booked a new flight. The departure and arrival airports must be identical to the original ticket booked.
The passenger would then have had to...
Not sure of UK is any different that EU:
Correct approach (in the legal sense) for a flight departing from the EU would’ve been:
The passenger should have first sent Emirates a rebooking request in writing with a reasonable deadline.
After the deadline had expired, the passenger would have booked a new flight. The departure and arrival airports must be identical to the original ticket booked.
The passenger would then have had to claim the costs of the new flight from Emirates in writing.
1. Hire a lawyer 2. Welcome to the world of the future where customer service are bots that often can't handle your request. I listen to all these "tech gurus" talk about a "more human AI for good" and it's laughable.
Most likely they reissued the ticket including and “capturing” the outbound, when the customer flew the inbound, the ticket showed “F” on both portions. I think inexperienced customer service agent was unable to read the history of electronic ticket, hence they stated that ticket was used in full. When irregularities occur, sometimes ticket agents are overlooking the final ticket status. I am not familiar with EK procedures, but I’m pretty positive this is what happened....
Most likely they reissued the ticket including and “capturing” the outbound, when the customer flew the inbound, the ticket showed “F” on both portions. I think inexperienced customer service agent was unable to read the history of electronic ticket, hence they stated that ticket was used in full. When irregularities occur, sometimes ticket agents are overlooking the final ticket status. I am not familiar with EK procedures, but I’m pretty positive this is what happened. Hence, the passenger was right.
I'm confused - there's no point in the story where the ticket is reissued? Just said he was turned away in Birmingham and then booked Air France one way (which I don't understand why one way? You can't use a return portion of a RT ticket if you don't fly the segments getting you there...)
@ Super -- The ticket was reissued, as I explained in the post:
"Eight days later, he was finally able to get in touch with Emirates, and the agent explained that they would reissue the return ticket so that it’s still valid, in light of circumstances. The agent advised him to fill out a refund request form after he returned home, to get a refund for the outbound portion."
I loath airline customer service and wish regulators would be more empowering.
KLM stole $750 from me a few years ago that I will never see again, from double charging me for an itinerary and refusing to admit they had done so. I charged back the "duplicate" charge but by the time i went to take the original flight, they'd cancelled it because of the charge back and it was too late for me...
I loath airline customer service and wish regulators would be more empowering.
KLM stole $750 from me a few years ago that I will never see again, from double charging me for an itinerary and refusing to admit they had done so. I charged back the "duplicate" charge but by the time i went to take the original flight, they'd cancelled it because of the charge back and it was too late for me to file another claim on the original ticket. Absolutely helpless. DOT claim did nothing.
Don’t believe
Lot of articles these days about aggrieved passengers...
Yeah, and being denied boarding is now a 'human rights violation' apparently... with so many armed conflicts around the world, genocides, and annexation threats, some people seem to take a very liberal approach to what human rights entail.
"Lot of articles these days about aggrieved passengers..."
I know, right?! And there are still morons out there who think shoving lights up their asses and drinking bleach will cure their Covid, so they don't bother with the scary vaccines...
"shoving lights up their asses and drinking bleach "
What an idea!
You forget your meds today?
Perhaps it’s because airlines are doing lots of things that result in aggrieved passengers…