WOW
That's the worst Check-in encounter I've heard of from EK ... Did you fill in a complaint letter at least on the plane?
The reason i ask is...and i dont mean to digress...but I was walked off on amidst check in at the F counter in AKL without being given any indication so there i was waiting for 10 mins wondering what was going on and if the person would return at all. I wasn't in a particularly good mood that day so mentioned the incident in my in-flight feedback letter.
The next day i received an email from EK saying that they will investigate the matter and within a couple of weeks received a formal apology letter also stating that the staff member involved had been spoken to. The check-in staff member was also a contractor not EK Staff.
As a loyal EK customer i still feel you should bring this to their notice because i'm sure Emirates would like to speak to this person and they would surely like to know if someone is giving them a bad name especially if the employee is not one of their own.
Here is the email address if you don't have it already:
[email protected]
I've observed in many instances that whenever a staff member is non EK, you start to have problems.
Personally...i commend you for not losing it. I can see it would have been very difficult for a lot of people
As for lounge invitations, SYD does give them and they are in fact printed as opposed to the normal hand written ones. You just happened to get a really really terrible person checking you in. What a shame, she gave my favourite airline a bad REP and she's not even EK!
PS: Try to fit in Milford Sound, the Fiordlands and Queenstown if you're hitting the South Island