One of my staff was booked on a J class ticket from NBO-DXB-MEL return. On the DXB-MEL leg, the flight was routed via SIN. When she checked in at NBO, they issued her with two "blue" boarding cards for NBO-DXB and DXB-MEL. She noticed in the J lounge in DXB that she had been given an economy seat for DXB-MEL. When she asked the lounge attendants, they said that J was full and she had been downgraded.

Only after she asked on the aircraft, and the gorund crew in SIN, she was given a J seat from SIN-MEL.

There are 2 sneaky things EK did.

1. They did not inform her on check in at NBO that she had been downgraded and instead issued a Blue Boarding Card and snuck it into the transfer wallet.

2. When they did give her a J seat 1/2 way through the journey, they took the old boarding card showing the economy seat and issued a hand written boarding card in J class for the full journey DXB-MEL.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

The sneaky thing is that the EK counter agent didn't go through the boarding details with her but if I was your co-worker, before leaving the line I would've checked my boarding pass and stuff so that this wouldn't happen when I was sitting in their lounge.

Number 2 happened once for me on a CX flight. It was painful to go through the process of getting the mileage accounted for since that "wasn't their policy [to handwrite seating assignments on the boarding pass]."

That is terrible. She should get in touch with customer relations and try and get them to sort something out.

roadwarriorafrica - I seem to recall that you had a similar problem? Didn't they compensate you by giving you a free business class return trip? Hopefully your colleague will get something similar.

I'll keep an eye on my boarding passes in future.

Cheers,
Rick

That is sneaky! FWIW I have never experienced anything similar - even in Karachi. When downgraded I am given a green BP with an economy seat.

I would definately contact customer relations and EK ground staff in NBO (do EK have their own ground staff there?)

Hi DYKWIA

We did get two F class round trips NBO-DXB-NBO

We have contacted our travel agent who is sorting it out with EK. Will keep you posted.

^^^Hooray ^^^

We got a letter from Emirates Sydney (don't know why they got involved, but am not complaining). They have offered a free upgrade (Economy to Business, or Business to First) for the next return trip taken as a token of their appology. It has taken 8 months, but it is great news.