I'm sure others will get stuck in with the detail of the mileage issue and allegations of false promises etc etc. (personally, I just don't have the motivation/interest for any of that).

But I was extremely concerned by the OP being denied an amenity kit, and I'm not at all sure I myself could have survived the flight without one. Massive kudos & respect to you aceboy for pulling through ^

And on the same topic, credit is also due IMO for perhaps the best line on the EK forum this year .........

"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?"

It is surely reprehensible that such sacrifices should seemingly go unrecognised by Emirates Airline.

2 good things come from this post:

1) one less gold member to compete with
2) no more inane posts from ace boy each week following "I love Emirates", "I hate Emirates", "I love Emirates again".

Good luck!!

I can hear the champagne corks popping at EK HQ already...

Ah but the main question on everyone's mind is...

Was there hand lotion?

OP - Upgrade availability comes and goes... If you don't grab it, the risk is on you. You should've taken the full upgrade then and there. Refusing the upgrade on the basis of having to sit next to a stranger was your choice.

When I landed in DXB the Skywards agent confirmed to me that there were plenty of empty seats available in J class, so why was I denied the upgrade offer online and couldn't upgrade at the check-in counter?

This is my first post on flyertalk and I cannot believe I actually read this whole Drama. I thought it was something that I could benefit from... oh well! :confused:

Not the point. You had the opportunity to confirm the upgrade when you called the call center.

You could have changed the seats later (and while bulkheads are often blocked till day-of, not sure why row 8 was, but I doubt it was in the hands of the phone agent).

Always secure the seat.

This.

You like a drama Aceboy.

If you don't like sitting next to people perhaps consider a suite in first class?

Thank you for giving us a detailed account of your trip as promised, OP.

Serious reply:

Firstly, you should probably obscure your booking reference in your first picture as all one needs to access a booking is your surname and booking reference to have access to everything such as your address, contact details etc.

Looking through your post, I can only find one serious error by EK, which is applying a change fee to a Flex Plus ticket. I looked through the fare conditions for KWI-KUL itineraries in Flex Plus fares and the only fees they apply are for no shows (20 KWD for change, 30 KWD for cancellation). It is up to you as to whether you want to chase EK for the 10 KWD (33 USD) if they have incorrectly charged you. You would have to do that through the website and it takes around 2-4 weeks for that to be processed.

EDIT: I see you changed your mind on the change after seeing 10 KWD on the screen. However if you called in, they would not have charged you for that.

The rest of your complaint is really based on the idea you seem to have in your mind of EK promising you something, whereas actually that is not the case. For instance, where there is married segment upgrade availability, that is what they are showing you at that very moment. Incidentally, this is when you should take it because you can always refund them at the airport (except in very rare occasions - although you do seem to end up experience rare situations during your travels quite often :D).

To get this straight - you refused to upgrade when there was availability on both sectors together because you wanted rows 6 and 8. As you are a regular visitor to this forum, I think you should have known that as those are both bulkhead rows, they are only available to be assigned at check-in at the airport, not beforehand. If you weren't, we are here on the board a generally willing bunch to give advice ;)

Unfortunately, when you went to the airport, onward availability ex-DXB for upgrades (D class) had gone. This happens - perhaps someone else took the seat connecting from elsewhere. It's irrelevant what the agent told you at DXB because they have no idea why those seats were empty - perhaps they were all sold for cash and then there were lots of no-shows. Perhaps Y was overbooked and they were in the process of op-upping some pax. Who knows. All you know is that revenue managers were unwilling to open it up for D class availability.

That leaves space-available upgrades. You had a chance to buy the upgrade for 6000 miles less previously. Now it's closer to the time. They want 15k miles instead of 9k. They promised you nothing (in fact they were willing to process the thing for you, but you yourself declined). This is the essence of airline pricing: supply and demand. Now it's closer to the time, they can charge more and it's take it or leave it. After all, had you taken a 9k upgrade but someone was willing to pay 15k, you would be annoyed if EK then asked you for an additional 6k miles, right?

So really, your own expectations (e.g. feeling that EK promised you something when they actually didn't, and then compounding your own error by refusing to take an upgrade when it was available) have really conspired to anger you, rather than I think any external party...

I'm not sure if changing airlines will do much to make you feel happier because that doesn't seem to be where the problem is...

Non-serious reply:

I think previous posters have put it more eloquently than me ;) Did you check to see if lotion has returned to the J lavatories? I did spy a small tube of it on my last flight...

Wow, switch to a US carrier and get back to us on the differences! :):)

Must be tough being married to you. "Dammit honey, the bed isn't turned down properly again tonight!" :mad:

Welcome to FT - I promise you not all threads are like this :D

OP simply fails to understand that fare basis (which underlies cost for both revenue and redemption tickets) changes constantly. It is a big world and a big airline. Availability changes all the time. Second to second. By way of example, had there been one seat left on the aircraft at one point, OP could not wait an hour and complain when someone else bought the seat.

His error and it is 100% his error was in not taking the upgrade offered simply because he could not select the seats he wanted. Had he done so, he would have had the cheapo upgrade all the way through and second, as the seats he wanted were still open, he could have made the change later. Third, even if not available, if you do not want anyone next to you: 1) fly private charter; 2) fly Suites; 3) buy 2 seats.

The change fee kerfuffle is just that. Deal with it sometime after the trip is done. Getting in a fight with an agent during a connection seems way over the top. Same thing with the amenity kit. Write in a note, "I got a seat for free and it wasn't worth it."

An inordinate amount of posters here seem not to mind making fools of themselves on the internet. Stick around and check out the BA forum. :)

I will not bother writing an official complaint to Emirates. If they don't care about their I/O's and Platinum members, then I definitely wont bother wasting my energy with them. I am not convinced that the issue is from my side since I have every right to choose the seat I want, but the operator refused to do so, thus I'm switching over to another airline.

Can I do a status match with QR and become GOLD privilage member if I achieve gold with EK? I need 1 more flight with EK to become gold so I don't mind taking an extra flight with EK if that will turn me into a gold Privilage club member :)