Emirates Holidays denies knowingly undercutting independent agents

Several agents raised concerns on the Travel Gossip Facebook page this week after reportedly receiving calls from the operator asking them to match direct pricing or risk losing a booking.

Emirates Holidays though, said the calls were an effort to do best by independents when a client comes to the operator directly having already sourced a quote from the trade, unbeknown to it.

The operator said it had carried out a “thorough investigation” after being alerted to the grievances. “Our trade partners are extremely important to us and we value our open and honest relationship with them,” said a spokesperson.

“We would never actively discount our direct pricing to undercut agents, so we were very disappointed to hear there were grievances around this and have carried out a thorough investigation.”

Emirates said it would never discount its prices in the knowledge a customer had already received a quote from an agent partner.

However, the operator said if it subsequently came to light a customer had sourced a quote from a trade partner but not raised it when liaising with Emirates Holidays directly, it would strive to resolve the situation with the trade’s best interests in mind.

“If the customer has not yet booked, we will offer to discount the trade quote sufficiently so that the customer books with the agent,” the spokesperson said. “If the customer has already booked the direct quote, we offer to pay the agent a referral commission to offset their potential margin on the booking.

“We encourage our trade partners to contact us immediately should they encounter any issues around pricing so we can prioritise reaching an agreeable resolution.”