Robertfrance

I used Emirates for my last flight and I'm totally disappointed regarding organization and catering in general.

I have bought E.8000,00 for tickets in "business class" and the result is long wait at check-in (25 minutes cause a technical problem), once we are on board all they give you is some champagne and some nuts...

Not to mention what will happen if you have a food allergy , they do not even know what is the "gluten"

In addition to the rudeness of the staff and their lack of preparation for personal diet.

I was for the all duration of the flight (Rome - dubai) totally fasting because their gluten-free meal was just a little portion of rice (in Business class!) I dare not imagine what I would have if I had been served in economy..

So was the last time I used Emirates for my flights!
Not recommended at all!

Emirates? All show no substance!

m3red

Hello

Check in sounds like an unfortunate start - was this is dubai or in Rome? These things do happen from time to time.

As for on take off I'm not sure what you expected? You get a pre departure drink and some nuts if you so wish after take off.

As for the rude staff do you have any more specific examples?

I've never ordered a special meal but do not think the food on Emirates in all classes is their strong point. I'll let others comment on gluten free meals as I've not had one.

Robertfrance

I have obviously advice in advance Emirates regarding my "gluten" allergy, also on the reservation form but it doesn't count for anything!

I was totally fasting for all the duration of the flight and I was arrived at destination in a very poor condition, but Emirates don't take care at all about that!

I have also wrote asking for a gesture of understanding (a goodwill would have been appreciate) but they told me they wouldn't have done anything!

In short, a bad company with very bad and unable staff.

I repeat: absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND EMIRATES and personally I will never use this company for my future flights.

DYKWIA

Did you actually request a glutton free meal on the Manage Booking part of the website?

Or did you request it once on the plane?

eternaltransit

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience OP.

With regards to the check-in and pre-departure stuff, delays at check-in are unfortunate but sometimes unavoidable, no matter your class of service - I think that is just bad luck, and nothing really to get stressed about as you still made the flight, even though 15-20 minutes is valuable lounge time! As regards to champagne and nuts for pre-departure, I am unaware of any airline that offers more than that for J class travel...there should have been a hot towel though!

However, I would be more concerned with the substance of your complaint, which is the special meal request. Assuming you requested a special meal specifically over the phone or via Manage My Booking (there will be note on the manifest saying GFML) - then you will have received, before main meal service, a separate meal with a big sticker saying "Gluten-Free meal". In economy, they are quite substantial (well, at least for Y food on airlines) - the portions provided are similar to the portions for normal meals. In J it is the same thing.

If you had requested this and they confirmed they had it in the booking and not loaded it on board, I would follow up with Emirates via the usual complaint channels because that is not acceptable.

However, if you had just mentioned your gluten allergy in passing or in a generic email to them without them confirming that they had booked a special meal for you (as opposed to them saying, special meals were available) - I appreciate there may have been a miscommunication with EK staff on the phone - then unfortunately there would be nothing available for you on the plane. You can't mention it at check-in either, as it usually takes 24-48 hours to process such things depending on station.

DYKWIA: judging by some of the trip reports and posts about EK F&B, ground and air, is there such a thing as glutton free meals on board?

irishguy28

Definitely sounds like there was no gluttony on that flight!

But yeah...I wonder if a special meal was ordered correctly. The way the OP describes it, it is unclear whether this was the case.

Robertfrance

Obviously I request it on the manage booking part of the Emirates website one week in advance!

In addition I repeat the bad behaviour of all the Staff and the total inability of the cabin crew.

And as if that were not enough at the airport when I asked them about my food they didn't do anything to solve the problem.

Regarding the check-in it would be faster in the economy class...

PS.: some champagne and some nuts is not for the pre-departure but is what they offered during the flight!

I repeat: Emirates is NOT RECOMMENDED at all!

Guy's Emirates is all show and no biz!

P.s: Regarding some champagne and some nuts is not what they have offered for the pre-departure BUT is what they have offered for all the duration of the flight! Nothing else..!

eternaltransit

In that case, not loading a reserved special meal is a serious oversight and I think you would have a good case for some sort of compensatory gesture from EK - or that they only loaded one part of the meal/crew lost it!

In the interests of science and flyertalk, I have a J long haul sector coming up quite soon - I may order the Gluten-free meal to see what all the fuss is about!

However, I find it quite difficult to believe that they offered absolutely nothing to you during the whole flight - at the very least fruit is available as well as snacks (although sometimes the snacks are wheat based so that wouldn't work here), or, in the case that the crew realised that your special meal was not loaded, could find you something to eat from the F, J or Y meals on board - not everything on board contains gluten, for instance parts of the cheese board, and, looking at the menus on the 3 FCO flights, all of them have various fish and meat/rice options as well as the fruit plate.

If the crew were unable to find you anything at all to eat then I would certainly include that in your feedback to EK.

Robertfrance

I repeat: They offered me only some nuts, and a ridiculous portion of rice, they couldn't give me other meals because of the contamination (gluten-free meals have to be prepared separately!).

And at the end they didn't propose me any sort of compensation, in add to the very bad preparation and bad behaviour of the Staff.

EMIRATES IS A FRAUD! All show and no biz!

eternaltransit

That is bad form then - I would write back to EK and escalate your complaint and tell them to state in writing, that they received your Gluten-free meal request in your booking and then failed to deliver, if not for you, but for future travellers who may find themselves in a similar position in the future.

For instance, I know a few coeliac disease sufferers, and, although they usually prepare/bring some of their own food just in case, you would expect that an airline offering a premium service would provide the services as advertised. Those that I do know, when travelling on an unfamiliar airline, usually tend to try a few quick Google searches to see what kind of traveller feedback there is, and for Emirates J it seems to be quite positive, for instance:

http://traveltheworldglutenfree.com/...ying-emirates/ - multi course Gluten Free meal in J
http://www.chompchomp.com.au/2013/08...-to-barcelona/ Y Gluten-free meal on long-haul service.

As noted in those trip reports, fruit and cheese were available on request, even though the Gluten-free meal was requested.

If you do continue to take this up with the airline, do let us know what their response is.

Robertfrance

I have written many emails of protest regarding my very bad experience with Emirates but they did absolutely nothing to apologize for that.

This is enough for me to judge this bad behaviour of the Company and after this experience I will never flying again with Emirates.

What I can suggest is to avoid this Company at all!

DYKWIA

Could you take a breath, and post exactly what happened, without emoticons or capitals?

Was the rice dish the gluten free meal that you ordered? If so, did you just consider it too small a portion?

Or

Did they not have the gluten free meal that you ordered, and offered the rice dish as an alternative?

You say that you were only offered champagne. Surely you had the option of soft drinks or wine?

You said the staff were rude, but nothing else. What exactly happened?

Mwenenzi

And we all know passengers are never rude or demanding.

DYKWIA

Dave Noble

If the airline is not apologising, perhaps the airline did nothing wrong.

Rather than just ranting about how bad the airline is and throwing teddy everywhere, a clear conscise details of what happened would help

What I read is that there was a delay checking in due to a system issue - that would seem to be outside of the airlline staff's control and just an unfortunate event; I also expect that this impacted 1st and economy class passengers


On boarding, you were offered champange and nuts - being offered a drink on boarding is normal and there are soft drinks available too

Did you explicitly order a gluten free meal from the airline using its special meal requests ?

If not, then a lack of options is your own fault
If yes, are you saying that the entire gluten free meal offered was simply plain rice? I find this rather hard to believe