sydprop

Recently missed a connection at Dubai that seemed like opportunistic behaviour by Emirates - we got to the gate 45 minutes before departure and they had already printed our vouchers and new boarding passes (for the 777 flight via BKK in the morning ). I suppose the positive is that someone got off the wait list for the flight.

Original:
EK 748 - Arriving DXB 2355
QF 8414 - Departing DXB 0150
Connection time: 115 minutes

Actual:
EK 748 - Actual arrive (weather delay) DXB 0045
QF 8414 - Departing DXB 0150
Actual Connection time: 65 minutes

Every flight "seemed" to be full - with waitlist they told me. Unreasonable or borderline?

number_6

Completely unreasonable but one of the risks with codeshares -- the operating airline often does this to the codeshare partner. QF gets billed for the rerouting cost, pays EK for handling, and EK gets to sell an extra seat. You should present QF with the facts, emphasizing the EK actual arrival time was over 1 hour for the connection. I'm guessing that EK is swamped with baggage handling at the DXB terminal until the new airport opens and while you made the connection your baggage would not have (and EK as the operating arline of the first sector is responsible to pay delayed baggage compensation -- which they avoided by rerouting you). There is no legal recourse under UAE law (the joys of the airline being owned by the Emir's family) so I think you are out of luck for any compensation. I try to avoid routing via DXB for this reason.

edy4eva

A totally irrelevant statement to this topic, not to mention how inaccurate it is. Like you're not even close.

EK is a subsidiary of the Emirates Group which in turn is owned by the investment corporation of Dubai which is government owned.

edy4eva

This is how airlines operate. There's nothing to see here.
The decision to offload passengers for a connection usually takes place as soon as the incoming flight is delayed past a certain point.

EK414 is one of the most time critical flights on the EK network because any delay puts it in the cancellation zone as it would push its landing past the curfew in Sydney, not to mention that having the aircraft in Sydney that day is critical for the operation of EK415. So instead of inconveniencing a whole lot passengers, crews, and ground crews at both airports EK routinely puts delayed passengers onto later flights.

m0hamed

+1. You misconnected. It happens. Live with it.

You sound like those pax who say 'They said I missed my flight but I could still see it.'

dddc

Isn't the MCT at Dubai 75mins? Each time I flew in was around that time and both pilots said that it was a very busy time for the airport. You might have made your next flight, but your bags are likely not to of.

aster

Just curious and purely hypothetical question here, but is there anything to stop them from doing this on purpose if the flight was... *ahem*... overbooked?

sydprop

Had that discussion but they had already denied boarding.

sydprop

Of course. Would you think it unreasonable to be on the flight (without bags) with a 65 minute connection time?

justin_krusty

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11D167 Safari/9537.53)

Sounds like it was pretty well handled to be honest. Other airlines and ports this would have been messy.

seat_4D

If I got to my gate prior to my flights boarding commencing and I was holding a boarding pass to get on that flight, as could have been the case here, and was told that I was not getting on that flight and to come back tomorrow I would probably be a little upset.

I would also have thought that given they can get bags to the carousel inside 25 minutes they could probably get bags clearly identified as "tranship" to the correct flight inside of a 60 minute window.

If I was travelling with carryon only I would be fuming.

I see what you are saying that the decision to offload occurs at a certain point, but that certain point surely belongs more than 5 minutes beyond the MCT.

lokijuh

If you landed 65 mins before departure, and reached the gate 45 mins before departure with a boarding pass in hand, at the busy hubs of many carriers, such as HKG(CX), SIN (SQ), KUL (MH) and even BKK (TG), I'd guess you would be on your flight, no problems, unless the flight was oversold.

SQ would probably even have someone waiting at the arrival gate with a sign directing you to your new gate, but then again if it was still 65 mins before the flight, they probably wouldn't.

edy4eva

EK does the exact same, all the time. This thread needs to be moved to EK forum where more eyes/experience will shed light on the matter.

It seems that the EK414 dispatcher, the only authority who can offload transit pax, decided to offload the OP while their flight was still in the air as it was coming in late. Now that does not negate the possibility that some wait listed pax were at check in. Still once it hits T-60 mark the EK flight becomes closed for check in. This means for those waitlisted pax to make it they would have had their boarding passes printed BEFORE that cutoff time.

The dispatcher might have erred on the side of getting the time critical flight departed on time. ANY other airline would have done the same, irrespective of the hub.

number_6

Actually very few airlines operate this way and almost any other airline/airport would have resulted in making the connection instead of being IDB and invol reroute. In the EU there would be legal protection, but that does not apply to DXB, for example. My own experience has seen me make dozens of connections within 10 min of departure time, and personally I have never been bumped with >60 min between flights or being at the gate 45 min before. I don't fly EK much prefering CX or even BA but I'll certainly keep this in mind. They certainly know how to make EK more profitable, at the expense of pax.

As for ownership, here is what the Emirates Group itself has to say about it: "Sheikh Ahmed embarked on his career in the aviation industry in 1985 when he was appointed President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) – the governing body that oversaw the activities of Dubai International and Dubai Duty Free, among others. In the same year Emirates Airline – Dubai’s international carrier was launched with Sheikh Ahmed as its Chairman. He is now the Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, which includes dnata – the region’s leading travel services and ground handling company, and other aviation related entities." So the minister for aviation becomes the chairman of the airport, duty free shop, airline, ground handling and everything else aviation related. A bit different than the chairman of any other airline in the world outside of the middle east.

edy4eva

EU is the exception to the norm around the globe, not the other away around. Also this was not an invol reroute, the passenger was put on the next direct flight to SYD which in their case was EK418 that goes via BKK. Rerouting means being sent to a different airport where they'll need to catch a different flight altogether and might or might not end up in close to their final destination.

EK414 is perhaps the only flight in EK vast network with that much criticality attached to it. I flew it once having connected from BEY. At the arriving gate we had EK agents calling out passengers on 414 to run to the departure gate. We still managed to change concourses and grab a drink at the lounge by the time the flight got called for boarding.

Flying whatever airline you prefer is your choice, no one is coercing you into choosing EK.

As for the other reference about EK ownership. You seem to be confusing the line of management with actual government ownership.

Please keep the allegations, subdued racism, and unfounded rumours at bay.