Just venting from a recent flight
 

A recent DXB-LGW flight was an absolute passenger free-for all.
Someone was in my assigned economy seat. They were in the middle row of 4 and a family travelling together apparently (all adults). They had decided on boarding they wanted to sit together so one of the men in the party just took my aisle seat (the only aisle seat available when I did my seating online). The stewardess (what are they supposed to be called these days? They all correct you no matter what term one uses) said "just go and sit in his seat" I asked where it was. She couldn't be bothered. She then crossed out my seat no. on my boarding card and hand wrote in the man's seat no. She waved me into a completely different row to the one she had written on my card. So I went to the seat no. she wrote to discover another man in that seat who had randomly decided to sit where he wanted. I called the unhelpful stewardess back and she moved him over one (He fell asleep all over my seat during flight) with an empty seat the other side of him.

Across the aisle from me were an elderly couple with an empty seat between them!

I opened the overhead bin to have this chap's duty free bottles come raining down onto my head because he had crammed the usual 22 kilos+ of hand luggage seemingly permitted on these routes, in the overhead locker. He stuffed it all back in again and he tried to close it, it all flew out again hitting me again on the head. I went to the loo to calm down and willed some of his duty free to have broken. I came out to find my cabin bag had been stowed somewhere.

Then I got harassed with every meal service because whomever had taken my seat had ordered a special meal. I told them to confer with the unhelpful trolly dolly to find the passenger. They made an announcement because they couldn't find passengers with special meals assigned to their original seats. That's how much of a do whatever you want flight it was.

I went to the loo mid flight and had someone banging (literally banging) on the door and pushing the door handle lever. When I opened the door a cabin crew member was outside allowing this idiot woman to carry on. I told her and the crew member if I could have patience to wait for people so should others. I wasn't even in there very long! I went back to my seat and that's when the senior purser must have realized I was EK gold and came with an offer to move me to first class. With less than 3 hours remaining inflight, I told him they should have thought of that at Dubai when I got the run around with my seating and to leave me alone. At that point I wanted the flight over.

When we landed I asked another female cabin crew member where was my carry on case. She shrugged her shoulders. I walked up to the exit door and asked someone else and had to wait while they found it.

What is the point of airline loyalty - someone please tell me. I have been top tier in BA and SingAir and moved to Emirates at the urging of a relative who also travels long haul a lot and raves about Emirates (seriously their marketing people should pay her). I travel long haul frequently (not paid for by a company but paid for by me) but mostly in economy class. Unless you are travelling in business or first there seems to not be any difference in service to me.

So much for being EK gold!

sorry to hear for the misfortune
that plane sounds like a zoo

This seems to be the default response whenever there is a seat duplication. I find that my exit row seat is "stolen" at least half the time and the crew can rarely be bothered to sort it out unless I threaten to escalate the matter.

My first response to this is "perhaps they can go sit in their own seat instead". This usually gets a grumbling response. If that doesn't work, then I ask them to call the captain and advise him to start the process to offload my bags as I won't be traveling today. That has never failed to scare them into action.

Your legit rants are being overshadowed by your DYKWIA Gold statements.

I mean seriously who wants to sit another 3 hours with that nice man sleeping on you instead of being moved to First Class?

"What can I say. I was upset and probably concussed from the duty free clunks on the head."

+1
Don't understand that one.

"Que? It's a fact. Shouldn't a FF top tier passenger expect customer service?

You should have expected and received good customer service just for buying a ticket. They failed you. All that is legit and you should be upset. But you also made your own bed and...sat upright with limited recline and a stranger sleeping on you. You let your anger deprive you of being moved out of the situation and into comfort where you probably would have drank your sorrows away.

Quite right. But it emphasises how disenchanted I was with that cabin crew to have become so upset.

It is a poor experience, but in no way typical of Emirates. I have never had such an experience, or such uninterested crew. I have had seat poachers occupy my exit row seat, and politely asked them to f* off. I also usually make sure I have the seat beside me blocked at check in or in the lounge, and this in a previous life as a Silver. Unfortunately, you had a bad day, but I suppose you should have refused to change seats in the first place.

Agree that the OP should not have surrendered his seat in the first place.

Disagree that this is in no way typical of EK. I have had this "can't you just take that person's seat" look before from EK FAs. Mostly it turns out it would have been a middle seat instead of my coveted aisle seat. I always politely decline.

wow, scary story, I was told the other day that EK are better then SingAir and that I should fly it at least once. Makes me wonder :confused:

Just venting from a recent flight
 

I say hats off to you for sticking to your principles and not accepting the *bribe* in lieu of poor service. The view seemed to be dangle the carrot and he will shut up.

We had a similar experience flying from HAM to DXB but it was an EK Gold that was occupying one of our 3 seats and refusing to move as he was in the right row and we must be mistaken and wouldnt hear a word of it. A quiet whisper in his ear as to what would hapen to him if he didnt move and he quickly moved but his behaviour the rest of the flight was terrible, the FA's gave him fantastic service yet he treated them terribly, and the poor lady sistting next to him he wouldnt even let out to go to the toilet. A typical DYKWIA person

Me like.

No, the Emirates hosties are generally poorly trained scaredy cats from all over the place, who wouldn't say boo to a goose.

Singapore hosties on the other hand are all from basically the same place, with a similar culture and schooled in the Singapore way of doing things. That's the difference.

Isn't this a gross over generalisation - you're telling me that the 10,000+ EK cabin staff are all like this? On every flight? I would politely disagree in the strongest terms...

The point is EK staff is not to blame it is the aspect of human nature that is to blame. It is the lack of social responsibility. Humans are remarkably incapable or unwilling to attend to, be concerned about and take action on urgent social problems. On Airlines we are rapidly heading into an era of very serious problems, unfortunately some airline owners do not seem to be anywhere near appropriately concerned or wiling to face up to the required action.

If you have ever worked in the hotel industry you know there is a similar situation that the customer is always right even though some conditions produce very selfish, aggressive and nasty individuals, and some produce very cooperative, altruistic and peaceful individuals. We all know the difference between wrong or right, but the hotel owners for some unknown reason always ignore that rule by taking the easy way out.

It is also sad that this very behaviour can be seen on this site when some gold holders look down on us Silver holders like we are something off the bottom of their shoe. It feels like that the odd gold holders prospects for comfort, status and security do not depend on how sensibly we get together to help each other and to cooperate in producing what we all need, but on how fiercely we strive as individuals to beat everyone else to the scarce positions of elitism and goods.

Goodness me. I don't even know how to respond to this post. I certainly can't comment intelligently on the first 2 paragraphs.

But let me try and tackle the 3rd paragraph. I'd like to know some specific examples where, on the EK forum, you have seen the behaviour outlined above?

I know many of our forum regulars personally. They know me. I'd like to think we have a solid little community, one which fosters friendship and certainly gives people the benefit of the doubt.

Today for example, we have the Dubai Do. Around 40 of us are gathering here again for the second year. Many of us have become good friends. We're certainly not worried about where you work, live, or what colour card you carry with EK. Does that mean we don't have a sense of humour and wind the regulars up? Not at all. This is after all, a frequent flyer community.

In my 3-years of participation on FT, I've seen remarkable acts of generosity, kindness and family spirit. It's why I hang around.

I feel sorry for you, if that's your outlook of the world. It's certainly not a view I share of what happens here on FT.

My mum had a similar experience where she went to sit down to find a man sitting in her seat as he wanted to sit beside his wife who had a middle seat. My mum got a steward and reminded her that she had booked this particular seat 6 months ahead. The steward suggetested he 'just take his seat' when she said she rather wouldnt the steward asked the man to leave and returned to my mum to say 'that he refused to move'.

I was raging when I heard the story. I love the 'contact the captain and ask him to offload by bags as I wont be flying today' is a great response and one I will remember if my seat ever gets taken.

A stupid situation nobody should ever be in. Emirates have to sort it out.

I've had some amazingly proactive crew on my flights. In general, it's something I think EK do really well. For example, I couldn't secure an upgrade for tonight's flight to Dubai, and had to change flights. The SIN office were great and arranged for the chauffeur drive 16 hours before my flight, even though the deadline is 24hrs or something.

Oh, ok, good to know :)

Buttercup 38
 

If the seat allocation issue happens again, ask for the Purser straight away.
This could even open a narrow upgrade window if available.
Regarding the indifferent cabin crew. They should have known the issue with special meal requests. However the brand new grade 2's who work in Y, may not know of the consequences. Once again, ask for the Senior Flight Steward/Stewardess or the Purser.
With the duty free falling from above...help yourself! Keep it for later.
The offer to upgrade may have been a case of "too little too late", but an acceptance would have helped.

Speak up! Or, remain p!ssed off and type your grievances on here.

Brucey

Just venting from a recent flight
 

I would agree with both the recent posts by the moderator. I have only been o this site a short while and I find it to be generous and friendly with some wit as well, frankly we all need a bit of humour after a long flight !

As for the staff on emirates most of the time they try their best in my experience. I am sure also that emirates would quickly remove any under performers. If anyone knows any air hostesses or potential air hostesses then you will know how many people queue up at the recruitment days for these jobs. Whilst I completely sympathise with the person who started this thread and his poor experience. I can also say I have witnessed some pretty abusive behaviour towards emirates staff and they usually handle it well.

Out of curiosity, why would asking to be offloaded be an incentive for the crew to give you what you want? Is it because of the delay involved in off-loading your luggage, or are there some other implications?

It isn't a case of "giving you what you want". Its a case of following the procedures that they should have in the first place. They know that if you actually did offload, the incident would escalate to various superiors who would then question why they didn't enforce the correct seating protocol to begin with.

Wow, Simply Brilliant! I'm usually one of the last few to board (I try to avoid the cattle march that usually happens at BOM at the time of boarding) and in so many instances have found people sitting in my seat AND either refusing to budge or pretending to be asleep and not waking up. Gonna try this next time...