Nightmare Flying with Emirates....:-(
 

Iam silver memeber with Emirates. Flew with emirates in LHR-DXB-HYD sector.Made pre selection of seats but without my knowledge my seat was changed with no option left on board. Had a miserable experience sittling in middle seat between 3. Iam 6'2'' tall.

Food prefernce was advised well in advance overphone and emirates site. But cabin crew have no knowledge about it.

In dubai was off loaded from aircraft 15minutes prior to boarding at gate. Reason i was not willing to accept another change in my seat without my knowledgee. Duty manager at dubai airport was very rude,un polite and de plane me as i ask for reasons...

Ground duty staff was almost in a verge to manhandle me. Was left on my fate and had no option rather to pay 432 dihrams to validate my sector and get the next emirates depature at 3.15am to HYD.

I was handed complain form and least none were bothered about my complain or me.

Will never fly emirates nor recommend anyone......!!!

:td:Booking Ref:B5NYQN.7th June 2010

I assume you were in J class. It's hardly the end of the world being in a middle seat.

You offloaded yourself at DXB, and then you complain that you had to pay to get on another flight? :confused:

No doubt this would have caused the flight to be delayed, disrupting all the other passengers.

Fair enough, you have a valid complaint that your original seat was changed, but other than that it sounds like acted very badly.

Cheers,
Rick

I would be more sympathetic to OP. I think he was in Y, and thats why he is complaining. You cannot imagine how hard it is if your meal preference is screwed up, especially in 6+ hour sectors. It is very hard on vegetarians, especially for some Hindus and Jains who abhor meat for religious reasons. Vegans from elsewhere could throw tuna or turkey slice away from the sandwich and still be fine with it. Not so for others. This is bit of a cultural issue, and regretebly not understood in its seriousness by people from other cultures.

If a confirmed seat allocation is changed by the airline for any operational reasons (like equipment changes), the passenger must be informed at the gate (not that there is a rule, but rather as a courtesy). I don't want to end up in a middle seat if I have selected an aisle. It may be okay if you are with your family or friends.

Offlate EK has been bit inconsistent. I had exactly the same experience as OP had. My seat allocation was screwed up. I had selected one of those two-somes at the back of a 777. It was the connection flight from DXB which I took after riding 4+ hours at godforsaken hours. While everything was right at the port of boarding, I found that I was on a different seat when my BP was scanned at the agate. I ended up riding 7+ hour sector in the middle row.

Imagine if this happens to you twice in a row like OP experienced. I don't find it strange at all that OP made this an issue at the gate.

EK can be very different (sometimes) if you are from sub-continent. Some swallow it down (like me). Others embrace martyrdom fighting (like OP). To each its own.

My sympathies.

EK staff specifically look for passengers with India/Pak/SL/Bang connections when making seat changes as they know their complaints are rarely taken seriously by the management. I've lost track of the number of times I've had my seat changed because some Caucasian family "wanted to sit together".

They won't mess with a Skywards Silver/Gold passenger however - I haven't had a single seat change (other than op-ups) since I've been elite while it was virtually every second flight before that.

Well said.

Annoying to have a seat change, but when refusing to board, it is nothing more than a voluntary change and not surprising that the passenger had to pay fees to rebook. Given he chose not to board then there is no help that would be expected ( ratther than being left to ones fate )

I wonder if the OP had a bulk head pre-assigned... If so and it was in a Basinet row a pop up window will come up an dsay you may be moved as you are in a Basnet row or along those lines.

Yeah, for some reason I assumed he was in the middle seats of J class. I forgot there were middle seats of 3 in Y on the 777.!

Anyway, I doubt we'll ever hear from the OP again. That's usually the case with these sorts of posts.

Cheers,
Rick

Of course it's annoying to have your pre-selected seat changed, but Emirates' Conditions of Carriage clearly state (so so it is with most - if not all - airlines):

5.4 Seating
We will try to meet advance seating requests, but we cannot guarantee that you will be able to sit in any particular seat. We can change your seat for a similar seat at any time, even after you have boarded the aircraft.

I bet the OP won't post on FT again as well - add this thread to the list of "one post wonders". Seen quite a few of "personal grievance issue" posts and most if not all contain the language "I'll never fly xxx again" "I won't recommend xxx to anyone".

Someone should compile the list and let's see which airline gets the most "I'll never fly again"...

I won't judge either Emirates or the OP with regards to the situation - simply because i don't know any of the details.... but, fact remains that due to episodes like this - the boarding procedure and process for India based flights out of Dubai are all very zooish ..... and really lacks professionalism. It is slow boarding process, multiple queues, irate ground staff etc etc., not fun......

The OP has also posted this complaint on Skytrax as well, obviously pretty cheesed off about it...

wow, i had no idea they did this. are they also allowed to change your seat when you've paid for "premium" exit row for example? never gave a second thought to CoC aside from baggage....

EK don't have a feature which allows you to pay a premium for exit row seating. Or anything in between. They should, but they don't.

EK "elites" (ie Silver and Golds) can't select exit rows online at the time of booking as they are always zeroed out. This has to be done at the airport. And the airport simply allocates them on a first come/first served basis without any regard for status.

If there is well known, institutionalized discrimination against passengers from Indian subcontinent on EK, why do such passengers fly on this airline?