So i faced a couple of situations, 13 years apart exactly (January 2007 and again yesterday) : ) on the same route -DAC-DXB, and i am somewhat puzzled as to what it all was about, and whether it was the EK station at Dhaka playing BS or it was my fault ....
First situation - January 2007
I am flying on EK 583 with STA of 1130 am from Dhaka, the inbound leaves from DXB around 4am DXB time. It was foggy in both Dhaka and Dubai, and i was following the flight status, and the inbound flight took off 4 hours late, which means there was no way my flight could take off before 3pm .
So i waltzed into the airport at Noon, only to find the check in counters closed. the agent i meet started scolding me in a not-so-aggressive style by saying i was late. i told him i came late as i followed the flight status and there was no way the flight would take off before 3pm. He said u
nless EK actually informs me there is a delay, i am supposed to follow the original plan, which was to check in at 9am, then wait 6 hours in Dhaka airport (and looks like 99% passengers did the same thing) . He checked me in though but i learnt my lesson
(Note: EK checkin staff at DAC are actual Emirates outstation employees, and not contracted Dhaka airport staff)
Second situation - January 2020
Fast forward 13 years and I am flying EK 587 which has been taking off at 7pm-ish since the last few years.
There are huge delays at DXB because of rain, and while i am following my delayed inbound flight, i am trying to ensure i dont make the mistake i did back in 2007 and go to the airport as planned unless i get a message from EK.
Sure enough at 4pm i get a sms and an email from EK saying my flight will now depart at 1am, i.e. 6 full hours late.
Since i got an official notification, i leave home at 9pm (still early as a huge Islamic convention had just ended, and roads in Dhaka were even more packed than usual which is saying something)
I reach airport at 11pm with the family, and when i am about to ask an EK ground agent about the chances of a paid upgrade, she panics and asks me how on earth i am so late when my flight was supposed to be at 7pm (!!)
I took my phone, showed her the sms Emirates sent, but she is unmoved , and says that 300+ passengers had checked in by 5pm and they were waiting in the boarding are for the last few hours (!).
What she implied was that the sms was supposed to be a notification for me when i am already checked in that my flight was delayed 6 hours, it was not meant for me to come 3 hours before the ETA of 1am
She checks me in though (after some walkie talkie calls to baggage staff etc)
When i am leaving the check in area, i see a staff shouting for any remaining passengers in my flight to move to the front of the check-in queue (Fun fact - there were passengers from EK 585 with an original time of 1am checking in along with me and they actually took off
8 hours late at 9am!). Looks like i was the last one as no one else responded out of 150+ people, who were all about to wait for 8 hours in the airport, poor them
When i reach my boarding area, i see disgruntled and angry passengers moaning about having to wait for 5 hours in a cramped area. I cant help but feel grateful , as we were with our 5 year old girl, that we did not have to endure the same.
So what confused me -
Now i have flown the DXB-DAC-DXB sector 10-15 times, and only twice i faced delays, and my flights to other sectors have never had weather-caused delays, so is this something that is common in other cities with Emirates, when there are few hour delays for flights returning to DXB ?
Are passengers expected to check in based on their original time, and suffer in the airport as opposed to following a flight delay officially communicated via EK?
I am inclined to think the ground staff were just BS'ing, and what i did was perfectly acceptable, as evidenced by them promptly checking me in (and not having to ask a supervisor for permission and so on)
(Another puzzling fact - once we were in the boarding area, there were further delays and at 1:30 am we got a dozen passengers entering, all of whom probably followed the sms EK sent, but it did not make sense why they would come even later than the time EK announced
EK also had crew issues as a spillover of the Dubai rains, half the J cabin had deadheading EK crew (which is why i could not get even a paid upgrade)
)