Firemansam

Hahahahahahahaha............Hahahahahahahahaha.
If you throw a tanty every time something small goes wrong aceboy you will live a very unhappy life.
But to each their own.
I'm sure there are a myriad of airline's out there that will give you perfect exclusive service every single time you fly them

eternaltransit

Would you be referring to this airline?

http://www.avbuyer.com/aircraft/jets

Firemansam

Yes that's one! But they have a downside, no chance of an upgrade, so maybe that won't do either.

HelloKittysMum

8k is a long way away (more than 10%)

eternaltransit

I'm curious though - when you say refused to honour an upgrade, does that mean they took the miles off you, gave you a J boarding pass and then at the gate cancelled and refunded the miles to you and made you sit back in Y?

Or did you simply buy a Y flex plus ticket, asked to upgrade, but was told it was not possible, both at the airport and on board? The upgrades are space-available, so if there was no space in J to upgrade to then how would they have processed your upgrade...? Flex plus doesn't entitle you to an upgrade, it just means you earn more skywards miles and have no change and refund fees...I should know, I have to buy them quite often

lighthand

At the price point offered by EK, I have no problem at all with their products (ICE being the best IFE I've ever seen).

If you are asking if it's absolute WOW! Honest answer is "No". There's lots of J & F products that are better, but I believe EK is not competing on purely "best in class" basis. In terms of balancing cost and comfort, EK has done a pretty good job.

Below is a simple breakdown (my own opinion):
1. Seats in J - Good, but should improve to 2-2-2 on their 777s
2. Food in J - Nothing to shout about other then the..... (I think I'll keep this for myself, it's hard enough to get it as it is now)
3. Service in J - Based on my experience 70% positive, 20% meh and 10% downright bad
4. IFE - I-C-E 'nuff said

I'll skip the part that you could get a shorter flight, as I believe you already know that.

ioto1902

+1

aceboy44 , can you please elaborate a little bit ? You are scaring us all.

subject2load

I wouldn't be at all scared if I were you ioto.

I'm certainly not the first to notice that many of aceboy's 'issues' in the wonderful world of travel (aircraft, airport lounges, hotels ....) appear to have little in common with experiences recounted on the forum by other FT members.

Meanwhile it will indeed be interesting to hear some specifics on this latest cause of disenchantment with EK ; not least because it follows hard on the heels of the almost undiluted praise that was heaped upon them by aceboy only a short time ago .......

m3red

Buying a y flex plus does not entitle you to a j upgrade using points. If you want to fly j buy j or buy flex plus knowing d class seats are available so you can upgrade to j.

Would you care to explain your experience please?

aceboy44

I'm currently at the A lounge in DXB and Skywards did not resolve my issues. I have a long story to pot here when I get back home.... including being charged CHANGE FEES on a Flex+ ticket

I have no issues exposing Emirates dirty practices online (with evidence).....

Ok time to switch to Qatar maybe?

eternaltransit

QR is, by all reports, similarly inflexible when it comes to customer service.

Re: your change fees, are you certain they were actual change fees, or were they instead an additional fare difference to pay? There are three classes of Flex Plus fare, R,E,Y - although I appreciate that customers shouldn't have to know the intricacies of airline pricing, they are always transparent about the fact if you change a ticket you might have to pay a fare difference, on top of any change fees if applicable.

If you try and upgrade with cash online though it still automatically adds the fee even though it's not applicable - that's when it should be done over the phone or in person. I sense this is not really the case with your situation though...?

subject2load

Yep, maybe time for you to switch (again!). Although there is of course a strong possibility that before too long you will run out of alternative options .........

That said, we can at least forward to some interesting tales during your process of searching for the 100% perfect airline

DYKWIA

I'm all excited

I can't wait to hear the full story!

aceboy44

Hello everyone

As promised I’m going to post my last experience here with EK flight which made me dump them for good. I originally booked a Flex ticket for my outbound flight but for my inbound I had booked the Flex Plus ticket. Everything was cool and I was able to upgrade my inbound flight online (but was waiting for my miles to be credited on my outbound flight.)

I landed safely in KUL and when I checked online the system allowed me to upgrade online, but the miles have not been credited into my account. On my departure day, I logged online and the system said the upgrade was available throughout the entire journey for 40,500 miles so I tried I upgrade online but the system wouldn’t let me. Kindly look at the picture below:



Since I wanted the upgrade so bad and the system wouldn’t let me upgrade online I thought of changing my departure city to Singapore on my Flex+ ticket and guarantee the upgrade, only to be surprised to be charged 10 KD as change fees (I thought the purpose of a Flex+ ticket was to get complimentary changing tickets?) Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself:





Fair enough, EK office was 5 minutes away from me but since it was Saturday the office was closed, so I decided to give EK a call. I called EK and they confirmed the upgrade was available, however, they refused to give me the seats I was looking for despite having availability in it (row 6 and row 8.) They told me I can only sit in the last row which was unacceptable for me since people will sit close to me (but with row 6 and 8 I can have an empty seat next to me.) I told the person over EK call center “No thank you I will do the upgrade upon check-in since you refuse to give me the seats I wanted” and then I hung up.



When I arrived at the airport, I was shocked that the check-in agent was unable to process my upgrade for the entire journey, and could only upgrade my flight from KUL – DXB. I told him that was unacceptable since it would cost me more miles to upgrade on the two different sector upgrades so he called EK and they told him that the entire journey upgrade was unavailable (I have to get my upgrade from DXB for 9,000 miles instead of 1,500 miles.) I took the upgrade and the agent told me to negotiate with Skywards office upon landing for 1,500 miles as opposed to 9,000 miles. At least the check-in agent gave me a seat in a row entirely for myself and another passenger (as opposed to sitting in the last row with a group of strangers.)



Upon boarding the evening flight I was shocked to know that no amenity kits were given on this flight. Let me get this straight, I have sacrificed the daylight flight (sacrificed the beautiful scenery outside the window) in exchange for the amenity kit and now you are telling me that amenity kits are unavailable on this flight? Seriously Emirates?

Fine, I accepted the bitter taste but I didn’t like the service. On my outbound flight I was fed twice (dinner and breakfast) and back then I was in Y class. On this flight, I was in J class and fed only once. Not only was I only fed once but the service was extremely slow and I was disappointed with the service on that flight.

Upon landing I went to the Skywards office in Lounge A and they seemed uninterested in helping me out. I explained to the agent that originally the upgrade cost would have been 1,500 miles if it wasn’t for the system error which I experienced online but the agent made a lame excuse. She said “Sometimes there are upgrade options for cash only and not miles” when I responded “how come cash only upgrades when the system itself tells me that the mileage upgrade is available?” She looked into the flight and agreed that J class was indeed empty and the mileage upgrade was available, but she insisted on charging me 9,000 miles as opposed to the 1,500 miles to get the upgrade. I refused and told her my other concern “how can you charge me change fees when I have a Flex+ ticket?” She was surprised when I showed her the evidence and insisted that the change fees were on outbound flight only, but the evidence clearly shows the inbound flight to Kuwait with change fees. She didn’t know how to respond and I gave up on that upgrade offer.

To conclude, I was promised (on the system) an upgrade availability all the way to Kuwait for 40,500 miles but the system could not upgrade me online. I went to the airport check-in desk but was unable to upgrade the entire journey. Skywards office didn’t care about my issues and insisted on charging me 9,000 miles to get the upgrade to Kuwait as opposed to 1,500 miles. The bottom line is I will toss away my Skywards status and switch over to other airlines such as QR or WY. Why did Emirates promise to deliver something if they couldn’t fulfill their promise which was waiving the change fees in addition to upgrading my journey for 40,500 miles?

I’m officially done with Skywards program. If I must fly with Emirates in the future, then it will be with the cheapest fares only. They lost me as a Gold member (I’m 8k short on achieving gold status.)

aceboy44

There were change fees as I posted in my thread here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...romise-me.html

The fare difference was 0 so why charge me change fees on a flex+ ticket? Tax fees I can understand but change fees on a Flex+ ticket?