polynet

I thought I would share my disappointing experience with a broken A380 which turned a normal flight into days of hell.

On March 20th, myself and 9 others were scheduled on EK202 (11:30PM JFK-DXB). When the previous flight landed at JFK, one of SwissPort's trucks hit the plane's rear door when going to unload supplies and damaged the seal. Instead of cancelling the flight and/or rebooking us on other airlines before the airport closed, they had us sit in at the gate until 3AM constantly telling us that the engineers are looking at the plane and are fixing the problem and it would be another 20 minutes. EK wouldn't tell us the actual problem, we found out from grounds crew members that passed by the gate.

The one thing that they were ignoring was the pressure test, for some reason EK thought that the plane could still take off and kept us hostage until they finally cancelled the flight at 3AM (rather than at 10PM when it happened). Who was the idiot who didn't think that a seal repair wouldn't require a detailed and long pressure test?

It then took them a few more hours to find hotel rooms for everyone, and they had no organization at the gate that most people didn't know what was going on. They kept running out of vouchers and when my group finally got ours, we were placed in the Melville Marriott (1 hour away).

About 5AM, While waiting for the transportation fiasco to resolve, I called the number to find out what flight I was being rebooked on... the person on the phone said it was on the 22nd (2 days late) and I would have to talk to someone at the airport in order to change anything about it (good thing EK couldn't get us a bus). We found someone to talk to, and after alot of hassle, we were able to get my group of 10 people on a flight connecting through Milan on the 21st.

By that time, they still could not get us a bus so we had to take taxi's and pay out of pocket for them ($180 each). We arrived at the hotel around 7:30am... the hotel was fine, they gave us credit for meals and provided a bus back to the airport later that day (12 hours later).

EK offered no compensation for the hell that they put us through, no credits, no miles, no upgrades... I am shocked about how this all transpired and how they get away with holding people hostage for a flight that they know can't fly. I attempted to reach them via twitter by no response besides a link to check teh status of your flight (aka Emirates.com)... It was a code-share with B6, and the B6 twitter team was atleast offering kind messages back.

Xlr

Sounds like this is the core issue: lack of transpareny/organization/communication at outstations. Just because the ground staff are contract staff, it shouldn't mean that they are incapable of handling situations like this.

They had a similar screw-up during the "superstorm" - so many flights were cancelled, and the roads and public transport in NYC were shut down, but for some reason EK thought that not cancelling would be a good idea.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if DOT rules will entitle you to compensation in your case.

Just curious - Was the crew at the airport, as well?

DYKWIA

Days of Hell??? One day if I'm not mistaken

Anyway, you should be able to get your $180 back, but other than that, I'm not sure what EK could have done. They got you a hotel for the night, and provided meals. You got to DXB a day late.

If the incident happened at 10pm, then it would have been 11pm at the earliest before the engineers could have examined and made recommendations. That would be too late to start arranging alternatives for that evening. There are few daytime transatlantic flights, so it's doubtful you could have got onto one of those (assuming you were in Y here).

polynet

Yes, there were. On the replacement flight to Dubai, we had the same crew and I talked to them. They were kept on the plane while they worked on the door and they said it was freezing. They would have been over their hours so they couldn't have flown due to their rules too.

lighthand

Actually I think waiting till 3am to announce that flight is cancelled does seem a bit long for this case. If damage was external main body, then the requirement for pressure testing is a must. This I assume will be known within an hour of engineer arrival onsite. I would think at most EK should have inform all parties by 12am.

As for the hotel, taxi and flight re-booking, I assume the flight was relatively full. It does take awhile to clear everyone, and in this sense I think EK most likely did all they could to expedite things (the stuff all want to go home as well!).

Havoc10G

Presumably it was local engineers at JFK rather than EK who did a poor job. Personally I would rather wait until 3am in the hope of flying rather than leave early if there is a chance of catching the flight. Although it seems Ek were at the mercy of what the engineering team were telling them.

Often1

DOT rules do not provide for compensation. All DOT will enforce is whatever the carrier's contract calls for. Here, it seems that the hotel and meals were paid for. I take it that if OP submits his receipts, he will be reimbrused for the taxi. Anything above that is a customer service gesture.

For what it is worth, this is where travel insurance helps. There are a good number of hotels within 5-10 minutes of JFK, all with shuttles to take you there. The second it becomes evident that the flight will cancel, you book one, head over there, deal with your rebooking once in your room. Then submit the room invoice to your insurance and you are done while everybody else is lining up.

If you were sent to a hotel so far away, the better and closer places must have filled. I am very surprised that it took an hour to get there at that time of day. Either the taxi drive was playing games or there must have been an accident. The drive should have been under 30 mins.

warakorn

You should sue maybe Swissport - there were the culprit.

Descending

In the past when crew hours has been an issue, EK has taken off from JFK and diverted to a suitable enroute airport to the maximum of that crews working hours, i.e. Kuwait, while in the meantime they would have dispatched a fresh crew from DXB in order to get back to base.

Annalisa12

It annoys me when people complain after a flight was cancelled for their own safety.

scotclif

You alive right?
You didnt suffer anything other than lost time?

Be thankful you still can be on this earth and stop moaning at something so small a trivial.

KrnGrs

I'd like to see you say that to Ms/MrScotclif after they went through such an ordeal. I think the OP has a genuine complaint and EK could throw some miles his way for the trouble.

lighthand

I don't think the OP was complaining about flight being cancelled, rather that EK did not manage the aftermath of cancellation better.

As I've posted earlier, 3hrs is too long a wait to announce flight cancellation for a external frame damage. Regarding the hotels, taxi, bus, etc. those could be handled better, but I think the number of passengers and making arrangement for everyone does take a while.

EK a380 ATL

Emirates is not the only airline to do something like this (i. e. let passengers wait 3+ hrs then tell them the flight is cancelled. It was on a Norwegian Airlines 787, OSL-MCO. The flight was scheduled to leave at 4:20pm. They began boarding at 4:50pm. We were ready to push back at 5:15pm, until there was a problem. They never told us what problem was, and it was until 6:00pm when the captain said "We are encountering technical difficulties, please wait for 10 minutes before we take off." At 6:15, they began flashing the mood lights different colors which bothered the crap out of me. At 6:30pm, the captain said "We should be able to take off at 7:00pm." No announcement until 7:30pm, the captain said " We will deplane everybody, as it is suspected to take more than an hour to fix." Everybody is waiting in the terminal. By 9:00pm, one flight attendant comes out from the jetway and quietly says that the flight is cancelled. Only like 20 people heard what she said. Eventually the next day, they rescheduled the flight to 8:00am the next day, which eventually got delayed to 4:00pm the next day, so like a 24 hr delay.
Back to my point,
This was an elapsed time of 5 hours at the hub!!

Xlr

I think the issue isn't so much the fact that they took a while to cancel the flight, but the fact that they did it in the middle of the night, resulting in inability to deliver alternative arrangements.

Obviously the incident was completely out of EK's control, and to their credit they did arrange a hotel. A bus isn't really that expensive to arrange in the scheme of things, so presumably they simply couldn't find one in the middle of the night.

The issue is inadequate planning for/during IRROPS at outstations.