A MAN from Blackburn says he is outraged by Emirates Airline’s failure to refund a payment of more than £1,000 due a flight cancellation.

Annas Mulla, of Audley Range, booked a trip in February for him and his family to fly from Manchester Airport to Dubai and then from Dubai onto Mumbai, India in December.

Needing to change his booking, he was required to pay a fee of £1,006. But he was shocked when the new flight was cancelled and the additional fee was not returned to him by Netflights ­— a company owned by Emirates Airline specialising in flight deals.

Mr Mulla said: “I paid them over £1,000 flight change fee to change my flight.

“However, that flight is now not taking place and that means I should get a refund for the flight change fee because I paid to change it to that particular flight.

“The company is refusing to give me the refund as they say it’s a flight change fee but why should I pay a flight change fee when there isn’t that flight anymore?”

Mr Mulla’s flight originally cost £2,227 with the additional £1,006 coming because of his change.

Explaining how the situation had arisen Mr Mulla said: “A day after I booked with them, I requested a change and it cost me £1,006. That change then didn’t take place after all, because that flight was cancelled.”

He and his family were offered a later flight but decided to cancel the booking as the alternative plan would have involved sacrificing too much holiday time.

Mr Mulla said: “It was originally due to depart on December 24 at 7.10pm and land in Dubai at 8.55pm.

“They changed that to December 25 at 4.15am, departing to Mumbai and was supposed to land on December 25 at 6.05am, that’s nine hours of holiday chopped off!"

He added: “Then again, the flight back to Manchester was due to take off at 2.40am on December 28 and was supposed to land at 6.45am in Manchester and that has been cancelled too. They changed that to leaving Dubai at 7.10am and landing at 11.15am instead, four and a half hours later than my request.”

Mr Mulla decided to cancel the trip all together and has received his original payment back but was dismayed not to have yet received the additional £1,006.

Emirates Airlines, meanwhile, originally told Mr Mulla that he should seek a refund through his travel agents only for him to then be told by the agents to seek his refund from the airline.

However Netflights have now pledged to return the money.

A Netflights spokesperson said: “Mr Mulla will be refunded the full amount for which he is claiming within the next few days.

"The delays he has experienced are due to the exceptionally high volume of refunds and amendments that our team has had to process as a result of the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted thousands of Netflights customers.

"We are grateful for the patience the majority have shown as we have worked to assist them during this unprecedented period.”