[KorSa]

My wife was due to fly on the 27th of December 2022 with Emirates from JHB South Africa to Incheon Korea via Dubai.

She was 35weeks pregnant. We had called Emirates beforehand to check their policy regarding pregnant passengers and had a doctors note declaring that since it was an uncomplicated, single pregnancy with no contraindications wife was fit to fly.

Upon arrival at checkin Emirates staff looked at the letter, and supplied medical history and said that since she was over 32weeks she needed an MEDIF form from an Emirates doctor okaying her to fly.

Wife was removed from her scheduled flight, ,and as a result her husband and son had to miss their local flights and forfeit monies paid for accommodation in SA(they were scheduled to fly back to Korea the following week).

After submitting an MEDIF, multiple Emirates staff in Dubai, Manchester and Mumbai(connected through their call center) all said desk staff at JHB were wrong wife didn’t need the MEDIF and shouldn’t have been removed from flight. Emirates eventually rebooked wife to fly out the following day at roughly $380 for the rebooking fee.

We were told to file a complaint via their website. But despite doing that in January on the 16th and multiple calls since there has been nothing.

Call center staff feign ignorance about the issue and keep saying wait 48hours to get feedback(which never comes).

The total loss for us is only a few thousand dollars but for a young family it is a lot.

What options are available?
Wife is a Korean national and myself hold South African citizenship.