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Originally Posted by ghostwrita
(Post 22006899)
how can you complain about being denied a benefit that was never published in the first place?
678flyer - I've had similar experiences at JFK and BOM in the past and I have written to Skywards about it, who in turn have written back and informed me that they are investigating this and are in the process of implementing uniform criteria in their out stations. I am pretty much sure that the EK staff at JFK have realized that I 'belled' the cat and don't seem to like me much. But, I had to write coz I just couldn't digest being pushed down to the bottom of the op-up queue considering the kind of flying I put in with EK. MrT - You've been on the blacklist for so long, but I doubt you'll be able to get off it just by sitting like that. The fact that you've been flying EK for so long, and qualfieid for their top tier speaks volumes about your loyalty. I am sure there is someone at EK who will take cognizance of this and things would definitely have changed between then and now, but only if you write to them. In my case, I wasn't receiving op-ups anyway so I didn't have anything to lose - my guess is neither do you. |
Which is correct, except EK never wanted a Plat tier in the first place. Which is why differentiation is minimal (take note, to all moaning about the lack of Gold+) and why they can't bothered. Why would they be bothered? People have gone years without op-ups and still fly with them. Years. They read this thread and rub their hands with glee.
I'm not sure about "favoured". There is anecdotal evidence that in some cases Golds get the nudge ahead of Plats. That's it. You really want to hurt EK? Move. I guess for some, getting their voice heard helps ease the pain, but not sure a whole lot will change. |
Your points are well-made.
And the anecdotal evidence of Golds getting the nudge over Plats could very likely be more than purely anecdotal ; the theory being that Plats fly so much that EK feel they've already got them securely 'hooked' and therefore focus more on those (ie Gold or even below) who might be spreading their business around a little more, in a bid to win stronger loyalty from them. It's a practice that has been in place in one form or another for quite some time with a whole range of organisations. Try calling a mobile phone company's automated support centre and test out which option gets you through quickest to a human voice : the one that deals with brand new business ; or the one for existing customers ....... |
Originally Posted by jackiedada
(Post 21999783)
Are you serious. How did you confirm that they upgraded Golds before you/ Plats? If so and if I were you, I would write to skywards about it.
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Originally Posted by ghostwrita
(Post 22009137)
You really want to hurt EK? Move. I guess for some, getting their voice heard helps ease the pain, but not sure a whole lot will change.
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Originally Posted by subject2load
(Post 22009391)
Your points are well-made.
And the anecdotal evidence of Golds getting the nudge over Plats could very likely be more than purely anecdotal ; the theory being that Plats fly so much that EK feel they've already got them securely 'hooked' and therefore focus more on those (ie Gold or even below) who might be spreading their business around a little more, in a bid to win stronger loyalty from them. It's a practice that has been in place in one form or another for quite some time with a whole range of organisations. Try calling a mobile phone company's automated support centre and test out which option gets you through quickest to a human voice : the one that deals with brand new business ; or the one for existing customers ....... Bottom line is we don't know anything for a fact. Same way having an 'A' surname is a guess (I'm 'S' and still get op-ups). There is no clean formula. And I can't see any recourse to the airline. |
While writing in might make some of you feel better - sadly from my experience, you will either receive a canned response or none at all.
My advice is to try and get to know the local station manager or most senior EK staffer at the airports you fly from. The only place this strategy is very difficult is DXB (as a data point, I dont think I was ever op-upped ex DXB, but received countless op-ups ex SIN and MEL) |
Originally Posted by 678flyer
(Post 22009930)
I would love to have more choices, but the reality is that some locations like MAA just don't have them. If I was based in BOM like jackiedada, chances are I would have a diverted a significant portion of my travel to *A away from EK.
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I flew back to HKG yesterday and on both HKG-BKK & BKK-DXB I had little recognition, if none on the second leg as I was oped-up late to J (double seating effect).
On the DXB-NCE, that was a different story: Purser went to greet me after take off, her little tablet in the hand and told me I should not be in Y with all my miles (330K) and I deserved better service for a 6 hour flight. She was really disappointed that I didn't want to use 25K to move forward :) She asked me several time if I wanted something, even during the flight, and managed to bring me an expresso from J after lunch. Then the Y cabin manager came to greet me and apologize not to do it before and asked me my thoughts about the service and thanked me for my loyalty (he asked how often I'm in Y to hit Plat). |
You seem to be NCE-DXB-HKG fairly often. How many return flights would you say you do in a year, and how many miles does one get each way in Y (I am assuming Flex fares here).
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Originally Posted by JTXC
(Post 22013386)
You seem to be NCE-DXB-HKG fairly often. How many return flights would you say you do in a year, and how many miles does one get each way in Y (I am assuming Flex fares here).
I did 12 return flights this year. But sometime my destination or my return airport is not HKG but some other asian city. I also did a NCE-DXB-BKK-HKG-(stop)-BKK-SYD-DXB-NCE tour this summer... I fly FLEX easier to change & upgrade too. I did some Y SAVER/J FLEX but not much. Usually my NCE-HKG is 12,000 miles return in Y Flex. What killed my average mileage was BOM or DEL flights as they only get 3750 instead of 6000 per leg. |
Originally Posted by mrtdxb
(Post 22001400)
It would just be another item of correspondence for their overworked shredder. I had one upgrade in six years as Gold and none since I became Platinum at the start of the programme and as I have posted before I was on a flight with a colleague who is Gold and he got upgraded and I did not. The lack of transparency of EK's opup process must (in my view) be deliberate and therefore I would suggest that they would not do anything with correspondence on that subject (as they seem to do with a lot of other subjects) other than ignore it or, at the very best, send a canned response that would not answer the question in any meaningful way. I for one gave up writing to Skywards very early on as it became quickly clear to me that they only go through the motions of having a customer service back office and in fact only have a team of dedicated justifiers with extremely thick skins who are only empowered to fob people off rather than being empowered to solve problems or rectify service shortcomings. Such attitudes within organisations are more often than not from the top down and I had this confirmed (to my personal satisfaction at any rate) when I engaged in written correspondence with Maurice Flanagan (he was not a Sir at that time) where he immediately assumed an aggressively defensive posture and completely ignored the detailed points that I had made in support of my suggestions as to how they could do better by being more transparent in a particular area of their operations that had very negatively impacted on me - he actually responded by saying that I should not be making suggestions to him about customer service as he had checked me and my company out and had discovered that we had some dissatisfied clients too. No I am not kidding, he really did this himself so clearly my observation had touched a very raw nerve because he took me on personally. Some of those on this board that know me personally have suggested that this exchange of correspondence with him has had me consigned to the EK service blacklist ever since. I will probably never know.
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Originally Posted by SimpleDXB
(Post 22017454)
Pls tell me you don't still fly EK after this?
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Originally Posted by whimike
(Post 22017888)
He is based in DXB. To a degree many there are captive to EK if they don't want significant inconvenience of connections.
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Originally Posted by SimpleDXB
(Post 22017454)
Pls tell me you don't still fly EK after this?
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