pollycat

On a flight today in First, I experienced:

- A seat not fit for purpose. After I had boarded, had to move to let technicians replace a faulty window panel. Then the table wouldn't lock shut. Then the TV screen and ICE wouldn't work. Not sure why this seat was passed as "fit for purpose" before letting a passenger sit in it, but ...
- There were only three passengers out of 14 in First in total, so easy to get another seat after take off.
- The two other passengers promptly fell asleep.
- I wanted to eat first, then sleep. Was brought a menu, drink, canapés then ... the crew disappeared. Nobody passed by to take my food order.
- After waiting for around 40-45 mins., tried calling, no response, then I tried to find a crew member but no-one in the galley. Didn't fancy hunting them down in other cabins in my First PJs so ... returned to my seat and got it into bed mode to sleep.
- When I later woke up and saw the cabin crew again, I mentioned that I'd been hungry earlier but no-one was about to take my food order. Profuse apologies and willingness to rustle something up for me then but, as we were quite late into the flight by then and approaching my shower time and landing, I declined.

It seemed to me that service was particularly lax precisely because we were such a light load in F and maybe the crew didn't think we needed much attention, so they gave us very little. Or maybe they were pulled to do double duty elsewhere? Even the bathroom attendant was mostly absent, leading to the bathroom rarely being serviced between uses, finding an un-flushed toilet with paper and "stuff" still there from the previous person on one of my visits.

Mentioned all these things to crew and the lady in charge came to speak to me and admitted that crew can become "complacent" when the passenger load is so light.
Not looking for compensation or even expecting an apology (I know big corporations seldom feel the need to offer these and can afford to lose the odd infrequent customer without status like me), but wondered how common this is?

subject2load

Hi Pollycat - based on all you have reported here, there is no doubt that your experience was very poor with substandard service levels. This would be unsatisfactory in a business class cabin, let alone First. The reason offered by the Purser (light load = complacent crew) may have been an honest one - but it in no way amounts to proper justification for what happened during your flight.

All that said, I think you were pretty unlucky. From my own experience, across many years of using Emirates (dating back to a year or so after their launch in the mid-eighties), First class standards on EK - whether full or lightly-loaded cabins - are generally very high, and often, exceptionally so.

I have been on several EK flights in First where the loads were very light - including two flights (one, an A380 sector, the other a 777) where I was the only passenger and can say that I was ‘fawned over’ by two members of crew working in First. At no stage did they appear to move to work in other parts of the aircraft. (indeed, once the main meal service was over, much of the time was spent in galley conversation - with myself as a welcome participant !).

I think you need to decide whether you feel it appropriate / worthwhile making a formal complaint about this unfortunate episode. You were seated in the most expensive part of the aircraft and have every right to expect a true premium service, delivered by dedicated crew assigned to the First cabin. Based on the exchanges you had with the crew (in particular, the Purser), only you can know whether any further action is of merit or interest.

chelseastu

Like subject2load I have been flying frequently for many years with Emirates, albeit when price avails I occasionally use Thai. Most of the time the service is great in F but there are occassions when you can get a crew that's below par, thankfully this is very rare but I understand your frustration when this happens after all we pay top dollar. I can say that compared to flying with Thai whereby the service is very inconsistant, Emirates are generally very good. I think you just had one of those flights where everything went wrong.

If it was me, I'd make a complaint, you never know you might get something back.

pollycat

Thanks for sharing your experiences, subject2load and chelseastu, this helps me put my experience in a wider context. I’m sure what I experienced was the exception rather than the rule (Emirates is constantly highly rated for its service). But, yes, disappointing when you are the one experiencing a variety of service failures on the same flight.

The Purser said she had logged the problems but not sure if there will be any follow-up from that.
Went to the Emirates website to send them a description too on their Feedback page.

Spanish

That's just terrible. Same happened to me once on Garuda flight.

Very disappointing, as I'm not always on routes that offer First. And the times I do, First is often out of my price range. Even so, a very expensive proposition. I hope they have some investigations and trainings, I'd be really upset about this. Too much $$$ for excuses!

thijsseh

I'm not an 'arch-complainer' and certainly not a 'compensation hunter' either. But I think it would be worth complaining in this case. Some 'performance management' with the Purser / Cabin Mnager / FA's (or whatever their titles are) on that flight would appear to be in order.

miicker

I would definitely contact Emriates about you experience. Maybe they can give you your money back or something.

m3red

Crew in F are occasionally bad.

Ive just had 2 great flights on the new first to Haneda With our toddler and the crew could not have been more helpful - I must write in.

JTXC

That seems very unusual and an unfortunate mistake, since I note that normally there is always at least one crew member in the galley just in case a passenger needs something, even when the load is 1/8 (which has happened to me a few times; I have not yet ever been solo on a 380 in F).

chelseastu

It's happened to me quite a few times too, always on the Dubai to Bangkok route. On occassions when I get bussed to the aircraft it can be frustrating as the FC bus is always last to leave the gate. On the flip side, it's pretty cool having your own bus and I love the armchair seats

JTXC

I really dislike that the F bus is always very late leaving the gate, since I like having time to settle in. They seem to think F pax like getting onboard right as the door closes. On my flight to TUN last year I told the gate agent I would take the J bus. I know they want to make only one trip with the F bus, it is why they wait so long.

BadoRas

I had that bus to myself last Wednesday DXB-EBB. I knew I was the only one in F thanks to EF, and told the gate guy I was happy to travel in the J bus to save the fuel. I got a stern head shake and an admonishment, being told that "people here will not be happy". So I slunk back to my seat and waited until all had boarded the buses and I was escorted to the waiting empty F bus under the gaze of all the J passengers in their bus. I couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. But yes, the seats are great.

And my bus left first! That meant the arriving J passengers had a good laugh watching me struggle up those bloody awful stairs with all my duty free. I'm definitely getting old!

The attention and service was faultless as usual. In my experience, Emirates staff, certainly in F, are very well schooled and are the best in the business.

iFlyMoreThanYou

opposite for me today, only the Y bus was left when I showed up at T-20. Not that I was in F or J anyway