Has anyone had any experience of being bumped off an EK flight because of an oversold situation?

Have a couple of flights this month booked and they're showing all 0's on ITN.net.

Do they tend to re-route via another carrier, or ask you to wait a day etc etc.

Thanks

EK usually upgrades or reroutes you via another of their european destinations. I had a chat with a lady in MUC ATO and she said they always take care of their addtl pax via FRA. She also confirmed that in the EU you get compensation for denied boarding as per EU regulation (300-600 EUR in vouchers). I specifically checked.

In Jan I experienced a novel way how EK takes care of overbooked Y. The F cabin was declared to be C, and the C cabin became available for Y pax. Service and tray were C, but the food on the C porcelain was the Y food. Winelist was C!

If you see 0 in all classes, try and talk your way into an upgrade at checkin. Get you skwards number registered. Even blue pax get opups as there are very few skywards members in Europe.

At DXB, approach the gate and ask if you can get an op-up. They even upgrade for aprox 350AED (aprox 100 EUR) if the flight is full.

Regards Oliver

Any tips on the best seats in C on EX 777 ? What are food and amenities like ? Do they really deserve what seems to be their numerous awards ?
Thanks.

Oliver,

Thanks for the tips - the issue is on the DXB-BKK flights (both directions), and we're already in C. There's no F Class on that route - so op-ups are out - and we have a connection at both ends. I was thinking that on the way back, they might switch UK pax onto a non-stop flight for London with BA.

toutoute,

I think EK offer great value for money in C (haven't used them in Y for 10yrs). Some people complain that the seats are too small and the A330's can be a squash (but they are taking some seats out). The limo service is a great added extra, IMO the food is of a consistently high quality, the lounge at DXB is the best I've ever used. Service can be a bit haphazard - never unfriendly, but just not consistent. Had one flight where we were addressed by name throughout - nice touch.

First of all I doubt if they will bump any C-pax on a 2-class flight. Your fare and the connecting flight argument will guarantee you a seat on the flight you booked.

In feb my girlfriend was travelling EK in Y: CCU-BOM-DXB-MUC-ARN in one go. In BOM, the 777 had a technical and they had to sit in the aircraft for 5 hours. Thus she missed her connection in DXB and MUC. The situation was critical as her MUC-ARN segment was with LH on a separate ticket booked in dirt cheap W class.

EK rebooked her onto the second EK flight to MUC that day and offered her the alternative of going by the EK flight the next day (incl Hotel).

EK rebooked her LH ticket at their cost into full fare Y and got the ticket endorsed /reissued.

In my personal experience EK is very professional if you ask nicely. I have witnessed ugly discussions of the same EK gate agents with people who demanded things rudely.

Regards Oliver

Excellent. I think the interesting bit is the fact that C appears oversold (not just 0'd) on one leg and we're now having problems with our seat assignment.

Oh well, will be interesting to see what comes of it all.

Best,

Tony

Flown only F with EK, and IMHO no they are nothing like as good as their numerous awards suggest. Did have a good look at Y and C though. Both looked cramped and old fashioned (with C being totally unacceptable on the 330 in my opinion), food in F was ok-ish but nothing special, the food in C seemed not that different but probably cheaper. C Winelist par for the course I guess. Some of the promised amenities like the limo service and day rooms in the lounge also fell short of what might be expected, with long waits for the limo service and zero availability of the dayrooms. Poor inflight amenity kit too (not available at all on daytme flights).

The worst thing about EK was the quality of service, which in relatively empty F cabins fell way short of acceptable, apart from one sector from 4.

I really wanted to like EK, but ultimately was very very disappointed in comparison to BA my regular airline. Funnily enough everyone I ever speak to who has flown them in J or F tends to say similar things. Perhaps the new seats will make a difference, but service needs attention all round too.

But bear in mind VALUE FOR MONEY. If going beyond DXB, you can get EK C class for about the same as BA WT+, with far better service and seats.

The amenity kits in C are exceptional if you compare them to what you get in UA for example, and the only time I had to wait for a limo was in DXB when we hadn't booked one. On all other occasions the driver has been on time or maybe 5 mins late because of traffic.

But if people want to rubbish them because the seats aren't flat beds, or aren't the widest in the sky, please feel free to do so. With any luck it'll keep the fares lower for those of us who think it's a very good value for money product

The weird thing is the J kits seemed to be so much better than the F ones, I would agree with you there.

I am not rubbishing EK because of their lack of flat seats, I often fly AY out to Asia, for similar VFM reasons. The lack of flat bed isn't the problem for me., the issue is that I feel the J seat on EK is just not as comfy as a WT+ seat on BA let alone the old J (cradle) seat. It is the most uncomfortable J seat I have ever encountered, and I know many disappointed EK travellers saying exactly the same thing.

This might be (just about) acceptable, if the quality of onboard service was better, but in my experience it has been dire. There are other choices for LH flights which come in at a similar price point, but which provide much more satisfactory service.

If it were a straight BA/EK choice then for VFM reasons EK would probably win out, but I would take AY/LH/OS/LX (all probably cheaper options too) on any route I fly where EK is a viable alternative. EK is convenient if you need a stopover in the middle east. Also on the routes where they fly F they are probably worth considering. But on the J only routes, I would always choose another carrier in preference until they sort out their seat and service.

Had a few hiccups recently, with delayed flights out of Karachi and Mumbai cutting connecting times very fine. Carrying only hand luggage, I could have made the onward flights. However, my seat had been given away, and I was put on the next flight.
No particular apologies, and very poor announcemnts on the first leg as to what was happening.
My overall sense, having flown with EK right from their beginnings in the early 90's, is that their phenomenal growth is putting the organisation under pressure, and standards are slipping.

chippy Just out of interest, how long was your wait for the next flight? I don't know the EK timetable, but I thought most of their flights were 2 or 3 times a day...

I think I have the fallback plan all worked out if needs be, but we'll just see what happens!

Swiss

The monetary compensation will not be as generous as mentioned above if you do get bumped because your itinerary does not involve travelling to and from Europe.

Itineraries which travel from, to or through the EU, are covered by a very complicated but generous compensation package that basically forces the airline to route you to your destination at the quickest possible way, should you be bumped off or the flight is cancelled.

Tony,
Right, they put me on the next flight, so the delay was minimised.
You are generally OK if you're London-bound, given the number of flights, but most European destinations have only a single flight a day, so I guess EK would have to do a bit of juggling to sort those pax out; an earlier post from Oliver indicates that they are willing to do this.
My gripe is that they gave my seat away when they must have known that the incoming flight would land with enough time to make the connection.
cheers, chippy

It could be interesting - they have 2 flights ex BKK for DXB - 1am & 3am. Both are oversold, but they could switch me to a non-stop flight for Europe also about 1am & then get me home from there.

I'm slightly concerned because although seats were assigned when I booked a couple of months back, on this one leg the assignment has vanished. I spoke with my T/A who took it up with EK. They claimed an a/c change (??) and had shifted us from the side to the middle. T/A objected and EK apparently assigned us 2 at the side but one row further back. However this still isn't showing on the CRS...

Not exactly something worth worrying over, but just interested to try and figure out ... they're playing at. I'll have a word with them on the way out to Asia in the EK lounge. See what's going on....

Watch this space!

Well, good luck!