Emirates Holidays

[Rocco Poppy]

Emirate Holidays -

We have been trying all year to telephone, WhatsApp, we have written letters and emailed but no one has replied.

 

I put a complaint in on Trustpilot a few months ago in May explaining this but just received a generic email back 3 MONTHS later apologising no one has got back to me.

 

As we haven't heard from Emirates Holidays since last September, we were very worried about paying for our holiday to Dubai at the end of October. We have tried EVERYTHING to get in touch but to no avail.

 

As we couldn't get hold of them, we contacted our hotel in Dubai at the weekend and they confirmed our booking and because on Emirates Holidays website on 'manage your booking' we could still pay the outstanding balance (with no increase indicated)

 

we very reluctantly paid it even though we haven't been able to get hold of them all year.

 

It sat extremely uncomfortably with us as we have just been desperate to speak to someone.

 

We just needed clarification our holiday was still going ahead, confirmation of the cost and that there were no other changes we needed to be aware of.

 

We felt nervous handing over so much money to a company we couldn't get hold of for over 9 months.

 

The day after we paid it, my husband had a phone call from Emirates Holidays to say, because we hadn't paid it 10 weeks prior to our departure date, our flights had been cancelled, so we needed to pay nearly another £2,000 to rebook our flights. What a joke!!

 

We have copies of emails from Fran last year confirming that if we decided to go last October (we should have gone prior to the pandemic) we had until 25th Sept to pay the balance but we decided to postpone it for another year, until October 2022.

 

If this was an option then, then due to us not being able to get in touch with you all year, we had to assume the same would have applied this year.

 

We have been unable to get clarification on the matter so had to make our own assumptions based on previous information we had been given. We have a copy of this email from Fran upon their request.

 

Emirates Holidays has told us they have sent numerous emails chasing us for the outstanding balance and notification of the increased cost incurred.

 

We have received no such emails. We have asked for proof they have been sent but we has not received this.

 

I have sent copies of emails where my husband has tried to contact Fran this year, even though she has said she hasn't received them.

 

We have proof they were sent. I can also send proof we have sent emails to Emirates holidays general email address, with no response desperately asking for someone to contact us. Any email, Emirates Holidays needs proof of, we will happily send them.

 

We would absolutely not ignore any emails from them when all we've tried to do is contact them all year and this is a holiday of a lifetime for my husband's 50th which has had to been rearranged several times due to the pandemic.

 

We have been treated appallingly and it has been incredibly stressful.

 

Would appreciate advice from someone, so we know where we stand legally?

 

Many thanks

[dx100uk]

Goto your your email providers online webportal. Log in and check that their emails are not gone in the spam folder or trash folder 

 

Dx

[Rocco Poppy]

We have checked and nothing in Spam. Thanks for the message.

[Kyosanto]

Hi Poppy, appreciate you sound frustrated with what's happened. In the current form it's rather hard to make out what happened exactly. Can you do a recap in bullet points please, in chronological order, using simple language, simply stating what happened, when you booked, what were your original flight dates, until when you had to pay, when you actually paid, how many times your flight was cancelled/postponed etc... This will help us understand.

 

One thing that definitely sits wrong with me is this that they asked for more money to rebook you after you had already paid, if I understood correctly. That alone is grounds for a refund imho.

 

Another thing that sits wrong with me is that you made assumptions. That never goes well. Make sure to come to CAG before making assumptions!

Finally don't worry about it you're not alone. I'm taking my 20th wedding anniversary trip 2 years after the originally planned date because of this wretched pandemic. Many in the same boat, but we'll get there eventually!

[Rocco Poppy]

Hello, 
Thanks for your message. 

. We booked a holiday to Dubai with Emirates Holidays for October 2020. 

. It was postponed until last October 2021, due to the pandemic, but we had the option to move it to 23rd October 2022 which we decided to do.

.  We have been trying all year to telephone, WhatsApp, we have written letters and emailed but no one has replied. I put a complaint in on Trustpilot in May but just received a generic email back in August apologising no one has got back in touch. 

. We just wanted to liaise with someone to answer numerous questions we had regarding our holiday and reassurance the holiday was still going ahead, with no changes to flights or any extra costs.

. We were very worried about paying for our holiday to a company we couldn't get in touch with for over 9 months.

. Emirates Holidays told us they have been sending emails since August chasing the balance and advising us of the increased cost of £2k, as they had cancelled our flights, as we hadn't paid the balance 10 weeks before we due to go. 

. But we haven't received any emails from them, we have checked Spam - only generic sales emails from them. 

. I have asked them to send proof and copies of the emails, but to date, haven't received this information.

. I contacted our hotel in Dubai this weekend and they confirmed our booking and because on the Emirates Holidays website on 'manage your booking' we could still pay the outstanding balance (with no increase indicated) we very reluctantly paid it, even though we haven't been able to get hold of them all year. It sat extremely uncomfortably with us as we have just been desperate to speak to someone all year. 

. We had an email from Emirates Holidays last Sept confirming if we went Oct'21 we could have until 25th Sept'21 to pay the balance which is 5 weeks before we were due to go. 5 weeks prior to our departure date was this Saturday, 19th Sept.  We frantically tried to continue to contact them this weekend, but decided to pay the balance on Monday which initiated the call from them on Tuesday.

. They have advised they will give us our money back, minus our £1.5k deposit. 

. We are desperate to go on the holiday but simply don't feel it is fair we have to pay £2k more for the flights:
     - when we haven’t been able to contact Emirates Holidays all year (we have proof of emails)
     - they have told us they have been sending emails when we haven't received any.
    - we paid what was on our account. There was no indication we had to pay for our flights again.

Not sure where we stand and if it's worth pursuing -  thanks for looking into.

[Kyosanto]

*If I understand correctly, you paid £1500 deposit, then you paid your balance in full (£XXXX), but they are still asking for £2000 extra. So now you need to either pay that £2k extra and go on the holiday. Or you need to ask for a refund but they refuse to give you the deposit back (which is a lot of money...). The reason they gave you for charging you extra is because "you did not pay within 10 weeks of your trip" Is this all correct?

 

*Are you still in a position where you can decide to go on the trip or not? There's only 5 weeks left until the date. Do you have a deadline that you need to respond them by or things will get worse for you?

 

*How did you pay your deposit. Credit card or debit card or transfer?

 

*What did the conditions say at the time you paid your deposit, about how to settle your balance and how to get a refund. Do you have a written record?

 

*When were you given the option to move it to 23rd October 2022? Did you save that email? I am very confused because it says you chose to move it to Oct 2022 but in that case why did they expect you to travel in Sept 21 if you never took up that offer?

 

*Were you given a reason as to why the repricing was so expensive?

 

*You did good asking them to send proof that they sent you those emails. Did you save a record of you making this request? If not, request it again in writing and save it.
 

What I recommend you do, for now:

-If you have any looming deadlines, make your decision fast. Are you still thinking about going on this trip or not?

 

-Do NOT accept that they keep the £1500 deposit if you decide to get a refund. If you do decide to get the refund, I would recommend you take the £XXXX refund but at the same time you make clear that you do not consider the matter settled in full quite yet and that you may get back in touch later. This will leave you fighting for your deposit but at least you have the peace of mind of getting the rest of the money.

 

-Only communicate in writing. Record calls if you must call.

 

 

[Rocco Poppy]

* Yes, that's all correct regarding the deposit and payment 

* Yes, we could still go on the trip. Emirates Holidays said we needed to get in touch by 4pm yesterday to pay the £2k. Even if we had decided to do pay it, we can't even get in touch with them. No one is replying to our emails and we can't get through on the telephone.

* We paid our deposit with a debit card

* Can't locate written record regarding deposit/paying balance

*Yes, we were given the option to move it to 23rd Oct 2022. Saved the email. We were going to go Oct 2021, but decided to go Oct 2022 which was confirmed by them. We were advised we could pay balance 5 weeks prior to departure date for the 2021 holiday. We have a copy of this email.

* Yes, we have a copy of the email we sent requesting aproof they sent the emails.

 

Thank you so much for looking into this

[Kyosanto]

Ok, well if your deadline was yesterday at 4, this is not looking good.

 

Try the 2 emails I have copied below

Try to tweet at Emirates, the airline, they seem to be affiliated to. Tweets are still the best way to get things moving.

 

 

In the meantime I have found their T&Cs which include a copy of your rights as a package holiday consumer, you can access them here:
Dubai Holidays, Holidays to Dubai, Mauritius, Maldives… (emiratesholidays.com)

 

It lists an email for Complaints, which you should add to all future emails:
[email protected]

 

In addition to their regular email:
[email protected]

 

 

As per Emirates T&Cs, if you fail to pay by the deadline they will consider it a voluntary cancellation and will charge you up to 80% of your total fee. This does not sound good, but the key is to show that the cancellation of your prior* flight was involuntary, as in it was initiated by the airline or the tour group, OR by governement regulations in place which completely prevented you to travel - which I think for October 2020 will be easy to prove. 

 

I wrote *"Prior", and not "initial" because the difference is very important, and from your above timeline I get a feeling that your initial Oct 2020 flight got changed to Oct 2021, and that you accepted this change at first. Is this correct?

 

What happened later is that you changed the flight from Oct 2021 to Oct 2022. Was this change initiated by you voluntarily, or was it offered/forced upon you by the tour group? Also if it was initiated by you voluntarily, were there government regulations in place which would have prevented you from traveling even if you wanted to. NOTE: a forced quarantine is not a valid reason, as you could still travel.

 

What happened is that there was a price hike somewhere. We have to find out when it happened. If it happened after a flight was cancelled involuntarily, then as per tour package regulations then they owe you a full refund of your entire money due to the significant price increase in the fare, which you did not agree to.

 

If the price hike happened after your 2021 flight was rebooked to your 2022 flight, and if that change was voluntary (see question above), then the price hike may have been legal, as long as you were informed properly. This information should have been presented to you clearly at the time of rebooking. If it wasn't and you can prove it, you have all the chances to get a full refund of your deposit.

 

However the tour group will attempt to claim that you were informed properly and that the changes were requested by you voluntarily. You'll have to fight this.

 

Paying the price difference and going ahead with your holiday might be the easiest solution for you here, if you want to avoid the stress of a prolonged battle with someone who doesn't respond to emails, or if you have any inkling to believe that maybe indeed you did ask for this change out of your own accord.

You let the deadline slip but you might still be able to just about salvage things if you want to go that way.

 

If you're going to ask for the refund instead I would suggest that you do this tomorrow, via signed for royal mail - since they don't reply to your calls or emails - and save the proof of postage. Do not threaten them of small claims court quite yet. Just state politely you need a refund and because it's impossible to get an answer to your emails or your calls, you have no other choice but to write a letter instead. Ask them to refund as much as they can. Their address is on the page I linked.

Keep up posted with what you decide to do!