eBucks flights: Beware of the misleading terms and conditions!

<p>I booked a flight on Emirates using R16 500 worth of my hard-earned eBucks for myself and my mother to travel to Germany. As my mother is elderly, she was greatly looking forward to seeing all her family in Germany and was excited about travelling overseas one more time. Unfortunately, the experience didn't end up quite like this.</p> <p> </p> <p>Today, my mother received the bad news that she was not allowed to travel for three months as she had developed a sudden thrombosis in her leg. This meant that I had to cancel the ticket. I followed the instructions on my booking confirmation and, to my immense shock and disgust, I was notified that I would not be receiving a refund as the tickets were "non-refundable" because I had been given some "special fare". To my mind, R8 000 per ticket is not a "special fare" as they could have been booked for slightly cheaper on the Emirates website, so I don't know where that hogwash comes from. And this is despite my having a detailed report from various doctors explaining the situation.</p> <p> </p> <p>When I looked at the terms and conditions of my ticket, as printed clearly in the booking confirmation, they state the following: </p> <p>"Reservations for International flights can be cancelled up to 5 hours before the scheduled departure of the original flight" - I did this 10 days before the flight, so well within the time frame.</p> <p>"Your applicable cancellation fees as per the ticket rules will be app**** once you have cancelled your ticket" - this leads me to believe that there will be some fee payable, which I won't get back. It doesn't read as though the entire cost of the ticket will be retained as a cancellation fee.</p> <p>"Airlines reserve the right to charge any additional admin fees over and above the cancellation fee" - yes, an admin fee may be payable, but surely this doesn't mean that the whole cost of the ticket will be retained?</p> <p>"Flights cancelled or unused after departure are non refundable" - fair enough. Nothing here states or warns me that my flight is non refundable.</p> <p> </p> <p>Folks out there who wish to travel - BEWARE! If you have to cancel at short notice, you will not get a CENT back of your hard-earned money! I wish that eBucks Travel had a disclaimer or something WARNING the passengers about this appalling business practice. It's yet another example of greedy, money-grabbing corporates *****ing the cash of customers who have VALID REASONS for cancelling flights. I wish FNB would spend less of its time putting up billboards and more of its time keeping its existing customers happy, and that Emirates would do the same instead of sponsoring second-rate sports teams and attaching their names to dilapidated stadiums.</p> <p> </p> <p>I guess it's true what ABSA says: cash IS way better than points. I used to love eBucks and FNB, but this experience has opened my eyes. Emirates can't refund me because I didn't book through them; FNB can't refund me because they blame Emirates. Guess who is the loser? The customer. We live in an age where the customer is always wrong.</p>