Yesterday, I took a flight from Dubai to Malta, in business class. (The routing was DXB-MLA-TIP.)

My bag (along with those of some others) missed the aircraft, fair enough, it happens sometimes.

However, despite a 6 hour flight, I was blissfully ignorant of the situation when arriving at the carousel at Malta.

Half an hour later, the penny dropped that no more bags were coming off the aircraft. It took a while to realise this, as there were still quite a few others waiting (in the same boat and a relatively high % of those who got off at this intermediate stop) and my assumption was that the baggage handlers were making a second trip.

Turns out that the baggage handling agent had a list of people whose bags were still in DXB, but didn't bother to make any PAs or put up a sign to explain some bags were not going to arrive.

Apart from wasting 45 minutes needlessly, I was also unable to make a conference call with a client and had to reschedule to Monday, thus inconveniencing them.

I find that EK's customer service has slipped dramatically over the last 5 years, it's seriously on a par with the low cost airlines these days.

Normally, I use EY to/from the Gulf and yesterday was an exception - the whole experience made me realise just how superior EY is to EK and I'll be avoiding EK in the future, wherever possible.

Considering how many bags they process I'm pretty impressed with ek's handling. They haven't lost a bag yet despite a lot of flights and some with tight connections unlike ba who've lost my bags on numerous occasions

My only gripe is oversized baggage. My ski bag takes at least an hour every time I fly with it what's the point in priority tags...well we all know they are useless.

This is pretty much what BA do (maybe others).

On a flight from XXX-LHR-MAN, I waited and waited, but my bag didn't appear. After 30 minutes or so, I went to the baggage desk and asked. They looked on a sheet, and told me my bag didn't make the connection

I always now go straight to the bag desk at MAN and ask. Save me hanging around for a bag that will never appear.

Agree about BA, they left me standing for 40 minutes at Riyadh under similar circumstances.

But compare yesterday to EY; when my bag missed the plane, I was met at the gate, asked to sign a form to allow the bag to pass through customs, informed when it would arrive (in 24 hours, which it did) and then went straight on my way.

By the way, my flight yesterday was not a connection, it was point to point, so the bag didn't miss a connection, but simply was not loaded.

DXB was chaos yesterday, my flight was 30 minutes late pushing due to pax stuck in security - but I checked in at -90.

It happens and that's not my beef - they had 6 hours in which to let me know, but left me standing around at the carousel - poor service.

If mine had been the only one, I would have realised quickly, but there were 15-20 others waiting, too and I estimate only about 80 had got off at MLA, so it looked as if there were more bags to come (priority delivery at MLA is always hot and miss.)

Sorry to hear about your missing bag OP.

Agree with you that in their staff could have done better by noticing that there were people standing by a carousel and gone over to inquire whether you were ok/waiting especially knowing there were some bags not delivered. There was however baggage chaos 2 days ago in DXB with their computer falling over, so perhaps it is a rare occurrence for station staff (were they EK or a local handler?) to have to deal with!

Perhaps the expectation that great proactive customer service can be had from outstation baggage staff is a little unrealistic though (people who are proactive in terms of hospitality and have the energy to deal with novel situations like this are generally not found working baggage handling in airports, in my experience) and the waiting 45 minutes until you realised you should go to the baggage desk and no one was going to come and talk to you (as what happened with EY) compounded your irritation by having wasted time doing nothing.

Although I think the EK experience you had here is the norm with many other carriers (e.g. BA), as you mentioned with EY, problems like this can be an opportunity to create a positive impression which ironically can be better than when everything goes smoothly. That said, I'd rather have a situation where bags arrive and everything goes as I've paid for, and in many sectors with checked luggage with EK there hasn't been a problem. Even the priority tags work

Nearly 24 hours on, no bag, no messages about when I can expect it and the handling agent at MLA are diverting to voicemail.

Impressed - not.

It may be an outstation, but it reflects on EK.

Having managed to contact the agent this morning and receiving a 'we send it to you when we get it, but have no idea when it will come, response', I researched and called the EK sales office in Malta and found a very helpful lady (who I won't name here) who took ownership of the problem, contacted DXB, confirmed my bag was enroute and says she will personally check that it arrives and coordinate the delivery to my home.

First class service and much appreciated. ^

Edited to add that she was as good as her word and called to confirm the bag had arrived and has cleared customs.

Despite the firm promise, the suitcase didn't arrive yesterday afternoon.

Back to Etihad for me, if this is the best EK can manage.

I have to say the many times it has happened to me, AF has been quite good about announcing my name over the PA :-)

Catusa

The AF approach is what I would have expected (although 'many times' sounds a not grim.)

The final insult is that the handling agent could not find my house and so I am now going to have to drive to the airport and collect the bag.

The World's Best Airline? Not in this instance.

What if they use the same handling agents?

OP, funny you should say about low-cost airline customer service, as it seems at MLA there are only two ground handling companies, Air Malta and Ground Globe Malta. GGM is used by EK, along with...Easyjet, Ryanair and Wizz!

It seems EK's own staff have been very helpful, but their contracted agents not so much in this case.

which they probably would...

Wrong.

Air Malta handle Etihad.

And they know where my house is.

Yes, EK's lady was helpful and pleasant, but it was still a fail and thus a fail for EK.

EK's contractor's performance is their problem to manage, not mine.