Dubai: Emirates airline has processed nearly 3.3 million refund requests since the start of the pandemic. The carrier also extended its booking waiver for travel through May 31, 2022.
The airline said it has bolstered its capabilities to manage refunds for tickets, resulting in a “speedy” turnaround time for its travel agency partners and customers. “As demand gradually grows for international travel, customer assurance and seamless booking flexibility will remain central to our strategy,” said Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer.
Since March 2020, the airline has enabled over 2 million customers make multiple date or destination changes, or exchange their tickets for vouchers to be utilised for future travel. More than 92,000 customers have exchanged their tickets for travel vouchers, and more than 38,000 of them have flown and are planning to fly with their redeemed vouchers for tickets.
Emirates, which was the first airline to offer free COVID-19 medical cover, expanded its multi-risk travel insurance coverage late last year. The carrier said over 7.2 million customers were protected under the insurance, which covers COVID-related medical expenses, among other things.
Emirates Skywards – the airline’s loyalty programme - has extended the tier status for over 630,000 silver, gold and platinum members until 2022. It has also extended the validity of 51 billion Skywards Miles, allowing members to hold on to them for future flights, upgrades and other partner rewards.
“Ensuring we have the most customer-friendly booking policies has helped build confidence amongst travellers when deciding to fly with us, giving them more control over their travel plans when uncertainty hits,” said Kazim. “This means empowering them to make stress-free changes through our generous waiver policy, allowing easy redemption of vouchers, ensuring faster refund processing times, all coupled with our industry-leading multi-risk insurance cover, and the extension of tier status and Miles for our Skywards members”
