Travel and Tourism

Airline announces it will pay up if passengers get infected with Covid-19 while travelling

As international travel slowly opens up in some parts of the world, struggling airlines are working to come up with innovative ways to attract the limited number of potential passengers.

Dubai-based Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul carrier, is one such example and is offering to cover a range of passenger expenses if they become infected with COVID-19 while travelling.

MEDICAL EXPENSES COVER UP TO R3 MILLION
If you’re a passenger with the airline and are diagnosed as being infected during your journey, Emirates will cover your medical expenses up to €150 000 (about R3 million).

Emirates airline

In addition, it will also pay €100 (around R1 900) per day for quarantine costs, such as a self-funded stay in a hotel room that many countries now require, for up to two weeks.

And should the worst come to the worst and you succumb to the virus, the airline says it will contribute €1,500 (about R29 000) for a passenger’s funeral costs.

BENEFITS ARE FREE TO ALL AIRLINE PASSENGERS
Unlike many travel industry special deals that are highly complicated and difficult to access in real life, Emirates says this offer is free to all of its passengers, regardless of class of travel or destination.

emirates

The benefits are also applied automatically to bookings made between now and the end of October, so there is with no need to register or contend with excessive paperwork.

Cover is valid for 31 days from the start of a passenger’s journey.

PEOPLE WANT TO TRAVEL BUT ARE WORRIED
“We know people are yearning to fly as borders around the world gradually re-open, but they are seeking flexibility and assurances should something unforeseen happen during their travel,” Emirates Group Chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said in a statement.

Recently Emirates confirmed that it would be cutting around 9 000 jobs from its workforce of 60 000 due to the pandemic’s slowdown of global travel.

southafrican.com