LONDON – As the world is once again looming in the fear of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, the UAE flag carrier Emirates has issued fresh guidelines to ease upcoming holiday season travelers across its network.
Up to this point, the UK has only reported an estimated 140 cases of the new variant with zero fatalities at the time of this article.
With many European countries imposing a new set of restrictions for vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers, and with the emerging chaos of high travel demand ahead of the holiday season just around the corner, Emirates has gone the extra mile to make their valuable customers aware of these new regulations allowing their customers a more seamless and stress-free connection and travel service.
The UAE carrier has announced that it would be increasing its offer of a free flight or ticket changes to 36 months, an increase from the original 24 that Emirates had opened in October 2020.
The policy allows customers who have booked flights with the carriers to change or cancel their flights with no additional charges outside of the required service costs on all flights booked between 1 April 2021 and 11 October 2021, 1 October 2020 and 31 March 2021, and for tickets issued on or before 30 September 2020, with a travel date on or before 31 May 2022.
Under this COVID-19 policy, the airline allows the free transfer of that ticket onto another flight before 31 May 2022 as long as the ticket is used on the same class for a flight to the same region or destination.
For all passengers traveling to the UAE or into the UK, the UK Government recently announced a change in their travel requirements, with all travelers globally being required to take a mandatory pre-departure test on all flights, with the policy coming into effect from 7 December.
Currently, the UK has not announced any plans for the requirement of isolation beyond the previous two days of a negative PCR test, however, the government will review current travel protocols and restrictions on 18 December which may see additional changes brought in between countries like the UAE and the UK as we had in the last 18 months.
Emirates from 1 December 2021 has offered its passengers Covid-19 medical travel insurance cover from its previous Free multi-risk travel insurance.
The airline applies this policy to any booking that operates between 1 December 2021 till 31 March 2022 with coverage up to USD175,000 related to Covid-19 medical costs, including unexpected quarantine expenses for up to 14 days with a daily cap of USD115.
Overall, it can be said that, when it comes to treating their customers with more care and services, Middle Eastern carriers leave no stone unturned and make sure their passengers get to their destination, in comfort and style, with the focus always being on customer satisfaction.