Coronavirus Refunds: Live Nation Revises Refund Policy; Emirates Boosts Reimbursement Capacity

The coronavirus pandemic is upsetting normal life the world over, and plenty of consumers want refunds on things they paid for but aren’t able to use. Here’s a roundup of some coronavirus-related refunds that the concert and airline industries are offering:

Concert Tickets

Live Nation Entertainment adjusted its refund rules following weeks of complaints that the firm and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, were not giving back funds that concertgoers had spent on events pushed back because of COVID-19, The New York Times reported.

Clients who have tickets to gatherings without a new date will have the ability to ask for a refund over a 30-day period that starts 60 days after the postponement is made public.

The procedure supplements policies that the company had made public already, offering people 30 days to ask for refunds for events that have been set for another time, beginning at the start of May. Automatic reimbursements will come for events that are canceled.

Michael Rapino, the chief executive of Live Nation, wrote in a tweet, “Fans, we hear you. We don’t want you to be waiting in limbo while shows are being rescheduled.”

The report also noted that some famous stars such as Bon Jovi have called off summer tours in lieu of delaying without a set time.

Airline Tickets

Emirates has bolstered its ability to process reimbursements and has taken forward-looking measures to reorganize its back-end procedures as well as “boost resourcing” to speed up refund processing, the airline said in an announcement.

Emirates Airline President Sir Tim Clark said in an announcement, “It is a difficult time for us, as it is for all airlines. We are dipping into our cash reserves by being proactive in processing refunds, but it is our duty and responsibility. We would like to assure our customers and trade partners that we will honour refunds, and that we are doing our best to speed things up.”

Emirates processed an average of 35,000 reimbursement requests in a month before the pandemic. It is now getting ready to accommodate 150,000 monthly, seeking to free up its current backlog by the beginning part of August.

University Fees

The University of Miami is facing a class-action lawsuit in which an architecture student contends that she, along with her peers, “lost the benefit of the education for which they paid” because of COVID-19, TMZ reported, citing documents it received. The student realizes the educational institution can say it didn’t have any option other than calling off in-person classes but contends that it “nevertheless has improperly retained funds for services it is not providing.”

The student claims that in-person classes have not occurred as of March 17 and contends that online learning choices provided “are subpar in practically every aspect, from the lack of facilities, materials and access to faculty.” Digital classes are particularly not useful for someone in her major as she is “unable to receive in-person feedback from instructors” and “unable to participate in model making” per the report.