Downgraded by Emirates, what should I do?

Need help with Emirates. Recently family and I (4 PAX) were involuntarily downgraded from BC on EK to EC on QF because of engine failure of the EK plane. At the airport staff were apologetic and told me to contact Emirates Customer Service and that I will be provided with a refund of the cost difference onto the Visa card that I booked with. Despite 4 separate emails I have not even had the courtesy of a reply from Emirates let alone any refund. Unfortunately booked directly online so can't use my travel agent. Any suggestions?

I presume EK would receive thousands of emails a day, call the airline and speak with a customer service representative. 

Henry, you don't say where this occurred - if in Europe you are entitled to additional compensation I believe.

EK will probably get around to your refund, but they are notoriously slow.  Email them now so you have it writing that you have contacted them.  If nothing in 2 weeks, call them. If nothing in 4-6 weeks consider VCAT, QCAT etc - not sure where you live.  

Alternatively, contact your Visa provider and dispute the original charge on the grounds you didn't get what you paid for.

EK has one of the worse customer services departments in the industry, if I were you I would already start disputing with your credit card company.

Did you get something on paper saying that you were on the cancelled flight and were downgraded and thus eliible for refund (and I woudl say compensation)? It is one thing that ground staff say it will all be good, but when push comes to shove it is always better to have an official statement. Also, did EK offer you to take the same flight the next day (and pay for hotel accommodation) and did you opt to be on an earlier QF service or were you never given the option?

Good luck, there is really no easy way to speed up things as far as I know, have heard from numerous people their frustration with getting things done with EK, sorry to not be able to give more positive news.

Out of curiosity, were you flying from DXB-MEL on the 4th of April?

Out of curiosity were you flying MEL - AKL/AKL - MEL or MEL - DXB on 7th April? 

EK has very poor customer service especially with regards to service failures and cancellations. If all else fails, try heading to a local Emirates office and speak to the supervisor. They should be able to do something about it.

Thanks for the feedback guys/gals. The general tone of the feedback does not sound promising. It was AKL-MEL on 7 April. Not offered next day on EK, just QF economy take it or leave it. As KG stated, I was reasssured by ground staff that there would be no problem and refund back to original Visa would be routine. I did follow up on qfflyer's advice and call them. I eventually was told I had to fill out a form (which they of course Emirates ground staff never told me about). So will see if that helps. All in all, it looks like I am in for a protracted battle. I will keep you posted with breaking developments!

Good luck, very interested to know how things will pan out. I am sure in the end you will get refunded, it will most probably just take a bit longer than usual. It is annoying you have not even received an acknowledgement of receipt of your mail.

The plane had issues with the flightmanagement computer in DXB. I had a friend on the DXB-MEL flight (she is actually an FA in business) and I specifically asked her what happened to the passengers in DXb (as she got taken off the flight after being on the ground for 5 hours).

If you've got status with Qantas then I'd recommend giving them a call if Emirates continued to be unresponsive. Even if your booking had nothing to do with them, they're more likely to pay attention to you kicking up a fuss and should be easily able to flag your issue with their Emirates counterparts and push for it to get sorted.

Its really a shame when this sort of stuff happens. Personally, I think they should be refunding your fare in full when it's their fault that they can't provide the service you paid for.

I am QF platinum plus so will give it a go if don't hear back expeditiously. I agree that the refund should be automatic rather than the passenger having to chase up.

That's actually disheartening to read that you are a QF platinum plus and they treat you that way, what hope for mere silver members?  I'd be chasing it vigorously.

From my experience, Emirates has one of the best customer service departments out there. Call them up and send them feedback. Im sure that they will work something out for you.