Oh no, its a cake
 

A couple of friends of mine were travelling to the Maldives on EK, on their dream honeymoon. I asked if there was anything "nice" they could do to make it special for them. These were the replies I got,

"Thanks for our Skywards Gold membership and for contacting our Customer Relations team on whose behalf I reply.
I’d like to help you make your friends’ trip more special.
We can serve them with a complimentary cake onboar0d one of their flights. For us to do this, please give us both customers’ names and the husband’s date of birth or email address.
Apart from a cake, you may also purchase them a bottle of champagne for a charge of AED 200/- or its equivalent. If you’d like to book this, please contact our Reservations team for help. Their details can be found on this link.
http://bit.ly/KlMYsY
Please be reminded that the cake request and the champagne have to be added to the booking no later than 24 hours before the flight where these will be served.
Please let me know if you have other queries."

I explained that I was literally just about to board a flight to Caracas and that I hadn't got my friends date of birth to hand. EK's response ?

"Thank you for your email.

I'll be happy to assist you with the request. However, without the security check I cannot go ahead with the request, as the Emirates security policy.

Please provide me with their date of birth and I'll go ahead with your request.

Sincerely,\\2

So, why does offering up a cake, or for me to buy them a bottle of Fizz constitute a security risk ? Anyone care to comment ?

done some times (cake and champagne) and was never asked for the dob, however I've called the call center

"Thank you for your email.

Emirates has certain verification checks in place keeping in mind the best interest of the customers and their privacy.

Therefore, in order to update any request in the booking, the person requesting the service needs to clear the security check(s).

Furthermore, security checks includes more personalised details updated in the booking like the telephone number, email address, date of birth and/or the passport number. The flight details are not considered as a criteria for security checks.

I'll still be happy to book the cake for their return flight in line with the above.

Hope the above clarifies."

Is a sensible precaution by EK. Its not unknown for people to call up airlines and change pax's meals for a laugh. For instance ordering someone a vegan meal when the pax has no desire for any special meal. Although an extra cake won't hurt anyone...

Security protocols notwithstanding - cake will appear as a SPML request on MMB so if they are the type that check their bookings religiously it will not be a surprise!

Actually that may be the reason they ask for additional verifications as the agent is making a meal change which would be flagged up if there was any kind of audit.

I was thinking this through.

They are on honeymoon, what if I were a jilted former fiancée of the bride, and sent it as a little message to them, makes a bit more sense now.

However they have agreed to request a cake for their return leg from Male to DXB.