Sid_au

Emirates staff at Auckland airport are shockingly rude. I will leave a detailed feedback about my check-in experience today on EK413 flying AKL-SYD. However, I wonder if this will really help airline take remedial actions to improve its image and customer satisfaction experience. My checked in baggage was only 3 kgs more than the allowed airline allowance of 30 kgs. I was subjected to more than an hour of harrasment and rude behaviour by the ground staff of airline and it's agent, even to the extent of threatening me to stop board the flight when I said that I will voice my concerns to the media about airlines such policy. All this happened inspite of the fact that my carry on baggage was way less than the allowed allowance. Ultimately I flew with the same baggage by moving 2 kgs from my checked in baggae to the hand bag. I very much wonder if it is Emirates policy to be spot on accurate with the checked-in baggae allowance without proper training /instructions to its ground staff to use their common sense and discretion in certain matters like the one in my situation today. I must say that in my over 35 years of flying experience this one was the most horrible one and that too with an airline claiming to be an aviation leader.- Very unhappy passenger at seat 60A.

alanw

It's every airlines' policy to be accurate about the weight of bags. If they let everyone drag an extra 7 pounds on board they would be overweight. Sorry you had a rough time but that's the way it works.

troyb

Yea, I don't get this. They have the policies for a reason and are entitled to enforce them.

Cholula

Moving this to the Emirates forum.

___________________

Cholula
CommunityBuzz! Co-Moderator

JGX

With respect, it sounds as though the check-in agent was being perfectly reasonable. You didn't happen to make the mistake of uttering the phrase "Do you know who I am?" did you?

kiwiandrew

Sounds as though you could have saved yourself a lot of hassle by packing correctly in the first place ... why on earth waste an hour of your life arguing when , as you have pointed out , you could easily remedy the situation . Still , I guess if you enjoy arguing , then maybe it was an hour of your life well spent .

BTW , could you be more specific about what exactly the 'harrasment' and 'rude behaviour' involved ? Was it simply pointing out that you were over your permitted limits ? If so , then it hardly qualified as either .

wolf539

Yet another example of someone registering with FT simply so they can post their "complaint" and then disappear!

If you've been flying for 35 years you should know the rules and avoid the problem by packing correctly, and within the limits allowed by the carrier.

Kiwi Flyer

I haven't had a problem with EK in AKL.

BTW check in is done by contract agents and they are just following the rules required by EK.

Lucky you weren't flying JQ (or almost every other airline) on this route. Their checked baggage allowance is lower (zero on some economy fares) and they have high excess baggage charges.

ELITEGOLDTRAVELLER

^^^

starflyer

EK ground staff in JFK recently were not allowing overweight bags on board. I agree this is a reasonable thing to do. If you can easily move items from a checked bag to a carryon to avoid being overweight, simply do so and move on. No need to create a scene that's going to delay other passengers.

Dave Noble

The Auckland staff were rude because they refused to check in bags which are beyond the weight which they are permitted to check in?

The business allowance is 30Kg and you were over the allowance
Even more importantly you were over the 32Kg limit which is an absolute max per bag regardless of which carrier you check in for in AU/NZ

Even if the 32Kg was not exceeded "discretion to allow" does NOT mean that they HAVE to allow excess baggage for free.

Why is it "common sense" to allow people to exceed the baggage limits without being charged? Common sense would seem to me to charge for it and make additional revenue

Dave

trooper

What he said..

The 32kg limit is an OH&S matter.. and as already pointed out, is an absolute.

You COULD of course have shipped the bag as CARGO which is the correct procedure for anything over 32kg..

Yes, most check in agents will let the odd kilo over slip through.. (25 kilos rather than 23 fr'instance).. THIS istuation however is entirely different..

..and your carry on was below the allowed weight... Ummmm.. SO? Just what relevance does that have to the overweight CHECKED bag? (Other than - of course - the fact that YOU could have avoided the whole probelm by balancing them out BEFORE check in)

Given the way you tell the story you'll have to excuse me for making my own mind up about just WHO was "rude and harassing"....

Who wants to schlep a bag that heavy around anyway????

missingmanager

I've only been to Auckland once (in Feb this year) and I have to say that the ground staff there were amongst the best I've met in many more than 35 years of flying. They were fun, friendly and helpful. The staff in the Emirates lounge couldn't have done more for us. They reflected the approach of almost everyone we met in a one month trip to New Zealand. I suspect that my experience is more typical of Auckland and I wonder if Sid-au approached the staff in the same way I did.

ELITEGOLDTRAVELLER

The pax was in Y and not J bcoz the EK allowance for Y is 30 Kgs now & for J is 40 Kgs & F is 50 Kgs.

Safe Flying

EGT

Dave Noble

Ya, that would explain the 60A seat number, but the key issue of 32Kg MAX per piece regardless still would exist even in 1st

I forgot the change in baggage allowances

Dave