I totally agree with you - most outstation check-in are contract staff, who put little notes on the system, but the person who has the final word is the controller, and he/she is a permanent employee who doesn't generally know the contract staff that well as the contract staff rotate every few months, where as lounge staff are actual EK staff members and they will know each other and can make those requests directly, on the phone to the controller, instead of "in the system" where check-in agents can't/won't put a little text note saying "this guy is Plat".

100% success when flight is not full in my experience. Even better is that the lounge can check/call to find a row where there is no seat next to you, after check in has closed (but you should do this around T-60 before the controller closes up the flight - DXB will start to call the station to see why the flight isn't closed "on time" and no platinum member is worth that hassle!)

Plus, you can relax/have already relaxed in an oasis of booze and food in the F lounge, so you're already in a happy place

And anyway down the grapevine, if you're an iO you're generally gonna be a nice guy (yes...male!) anyway because I have heard that the boss doesn't approve iO to people who unjustifiably complain about trivial things all the time and hassle the staff...! Of course "hassle" might have a different definition depending on whether you are a 1 million USD a year iO and a 100 million USD a year iO but in general I hear that all the iOs are pretty nice! Just those pesky Plats and Golds and QF plats and golds especially! :P

I have tried on many occasions to get a seat blocked next to me when the load has been light and every single time I have been told that it is not possible both on the phone, the check in and the lounge. Every time I have asked I have ended up getting the seat next to me spare but it never appears as blocked on EF so not sure if it is a coincidence or not!

You are right eternaltransit lounge access does take the edge of a flight ! Also on your comment re the mannerisms of the higher tier members you have a point; I did hear of one io who was removed from the programme because he was constantly moaning and was pretty rude to the staff. I really don't get that I mean Ek really bends over backwards for the io pax so I can't see how he was unhappy all the time but there you go.

As someone in the hospitality business - there are some people who actually enjoy being miserable. Well I say "enjoy", complaining validates their existence and gives them enough of an ego boost to get through the day...being content is felt to be too passive and unfamiliar, so "something must be wrong". I generalise, but that is the general thought process. A minority of customers perhaps, but some organisations I feel cater too much to them to the detriment of their other customers (and employee well-being, which even though an industry like aviation has lots of fresh meat people lining up to join, is still very important)

I think one of the actual criteria for iO is "Tim Clark thinks you are nice guy and not an a***", which is a stance I applaud. And believe me, status customers who are outrageous and are unacceptably out of order when they deal with staff, or abuse privileges/trash the place (yes, it happens...) - they do get reported internally by staff to Skywards...!

But still, there are some really nice people out there too who hold status I heard a story about a platinum pax who is CEO/GM for Middle East of a well known restaurant chain who gives out free meal vouchers to all the F crew! Apparently a really really nice guy that the crew like, apart from the vouchers! I should aim to be on those flights to score some too... If you are on FT...let's have a FT DO...at one of your outlets!

I found it amazing that they said they would block the seats near you.

I think its appalling that you expect them to move people away from you just because you asked. :roll eyes: Buy the seat or don't complain if someone else uses it. Its nice to have a spare seat next to you in Y but it is not something just because of the status you hold you should expect, and complain about when you don't get. (Making your own status rules perhaps)

If a staff member did offer to keep a seat open for you, thats nice of them, but not required. I usually ask for a seat to be empty next to me on a flight, and if it is, thats nice. If not I got what I paid for, and thats that. *rant over*

I disagree with this. If the plane is lightly loaded there is no reason why EK can't block some seats and first fill other seats, it seems like a reasonable request from a status passenger.

Of course, EK can refuse the request, but why would they when it has no detrimental affect to the airline and makes their status passengers happy? It is not as if EK is losing money from the gesture.

Once an agent affirms they are willing to block the seat they should make an effort to honor it.

I agree - it would be one thing if they have said "I'm afraid we can't block it for you" or "I will do my best and put a note but we can't guarantee it" - but another if they say "yes, I can do that for you" and then it turns out it didn't happen. For the customer's point of view, they don't care (and I don't think they should really have to care) about the internal process that resulted in being told one thing and getting another.

I think the cardinal rule of a hospitality business (which I think full service airlines try to market their products as) is to own a mistake and if you make a commitment in error, try and honour it and if that's impossible, try to make an alternative arrangement. The worst thing you can do is to set an expectation and let a customer down. I mean - how would you feel if you got an op-up at the check-in desk, then later on it turns out the controller made a mistake and you get put in your original class. Sure, "technically" you have no case, but it's not the best impression you can give your customers. They might be okay with it, but some will be unhappy. There is no third option where there are some customers who will be happy they got upgraded then downgraded!

Well-made points by both whimike and eternaltransit ^

I actually was once upgraded at check-in to F by Gulf Air only to then be knocked back to J at the gate. It happened many years ago, and I was travelling on a heavily rebated ticket, issued because I had B2B dealings with GF at the time. As per eternal's comments, it was the sort of episode that on the one hand can in no way warrant a complaint, but which nevertheless created a less than favourable impression.

I gave the example of the upgrade-downgrade situation because it just happened recently with a couple ex-BKK who got upgraded at gate (no Skywards membership), then downgraded at the gate because the controller made an error. Could have been an easy customer service win to honor it / future free upgrade to get future loyalty, but instead I suspect that couple will go away with a difficult to remedy negative impression of the airline...

My own experience was an isolated occasion, and I was the beneficiary of countless other upgrades from GF which were fully honoured, so no complaints from me.

But the case of that couple at BKK is quite different, and it's a near certainty that they would (understandably) not only have felt rather miffed at the time, but would also have subsequently related the incident many times to friends and relatives ; and word of mouth can of course have just as much negative impact as positive.......

I am sorry, but expecting 3 seats to be blocked is just a little bit entitled, if you are a Plat. You paid for econ, you might get one seat blocked but I don't see what would entitle you to get an entire row. What if everyone would ask to have all seats blocked? What if another flight was delayed/canceled and they needed to rebook those on your flight?
If anything, the gate agent should have just denied your outrageous request.

I think that's a slightly different situation to the one the OP has posted. There are two issues here:

1 - a frequent flier, that EK professes in communications to him/her that they value that business, asks for a reasonable request, that is, on a light load flight, that they put a note in the system/block (which is possible, but is also possible to be overridden), 3 seats in a row.

2 - OP is promised something (and in the hospitality business if someone says they will do something for you, a customer treats that as a promise) and then finds out that the promise is broken: and another person from the company in a position to do something about it refuses to do something to remedy that.

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About the very idea of a seat block: I think it is a nice gesture, and understand that operational concerns, would trump that of a nice gesture, and set my expectations accordingly. It would be nice, but if someone sat there, then, sure, I still have a seat next to me, and if the flight load is low enough I guess I can find somewhere else if I really care that much about the 4 row. I don't think it's too outrageous a request, but it's one that is easily denied and that's no big deal - any entitlement issue on the OPs part would be the expectation that having rows blocked as standard and that it isn't a favor being done to him/her. As said above, on a light load flight, it costs nothing and can build free goodwill. Why wouldn't you try and fulfil that request if you are the service minded organisation you profess to be. But if you agree to do it the mess up, it costs goodwill...

However, in this case, the OP has been told that it can be done - but then in the end that gets yanked away. That's a service failure, even if the initial agent was in the wrong for agreeing. In a customer-oriented department, the job is to satisfy and exceed customer expectations: they accidentally set the bar too high and then, when they had a solution (purser can move people), they didn't do it. Internally, the purser and the check-in agent are different people, but these technicalities don't matter to customers - they are both "Emirates", and nor should they. If a hotel hires bad contractors for things like tours or the spa, it still reflects badly on the hotel. Same here, IMHO.

I agree it's nice to have and appreciate when it has been done for me.

However, if it's reversed for whatever reason, I'm not going to throw my toys out of the pram, call whoever made the mistake stupid and move to another airline.