cricketdog

Rambuster - Very good point that I had not thought of. The agent in the Seychelles likely knew that Dubai was experiencing major issues that morning. Too bad he didn't say anything. I would stay in a one-star dump in the Seychelles over a five-star hotel in Dubai any day. Oh well, water under the bridge I suppose.

I did receive a response from Emirates on 3/7 after I emailed the airline with our story. Here's what it says:

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

The events that you have described are being looked into and one of our Customer Affairs Officers will write to you once our investigations are complete.

In any future correspondence with us, please quote the above reference.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write to us.

Yours sincerely,

Rowena D. Leitao
Customer Affairs
Emirates Group Headquarters

I'll post as soon as I hear back from Emirates.

HeathrowGuy

Why does poor customer service from EK surprise anyone?

EK is a textbook example of what happens to service organizations that engage in rapid expansion without pre-establishing strict quality controls and conduct standards to forestall a sh!tshow.

Sunny Day

Flew J class first time BKK-HKG tried to get a boarding pass at the transfer desk in BKK, long line up 1 person working serving a few customers who seem to have major ticketing problems. Waited for 20 mins no movement, went to Emirates lounge to get boarding pass, told me they don't have that ability to issue boarding pass so I went back to line up still the same 4 customers and no sign of movement anytime soon. The girl in front says she's been waiting for 45 mins. I went back to lounge and firmly asked the agent to get me a boarding pass. She tried the same excuse but I insisted that she get whatever help she needed to get me the boarding pass while I will go inside to take a shower. 15 mins later she knock on the my shower door and told me she wanted to see me. I said I can come out right now if she wanted me to....oh....whenever you are done sir. May be the training isn't that good for their staff, seems to lack that "can-do" attitude.

Fliar

So, how did the story end? Did she surprise you with your BP in the end or did you 'surprise' her? ;-)

Sunny Day

I wanted to "surprise" her but thought I better not since this is a buddist country. I dressed and went to the front she surprised me with a boarding pass. The food was great at the lounge, Tom Yum Kung soup with prawns, cream of brocolli soup, tons of hot food both thai and western, in fact I like the food at the lounge better than that served in flight. Very nice lounge in BKK. HKG lounge was pretty bad compared to the BKK lounge.

riced

All you can probably expect is the upgrade as stated earlier. A complete waste of time, but I won't go into our experience...

jedison

Read all the posts above. The truth hurts.

Billman27

Hey cricketdog,

I got the same response as you. I had a major complaint that they stuck next to a lady holding a toddler on her lap for the 14 hour flight up to JFK.

I am gold and expect a little bit more conscious thinking before placing me in that seat. We'll see how they reply!


Billman

AndyFlyer

Do share your experiences! I'm hoping someone from EK might be reading these issues and decide to actually do something!

2old4coach

Leaving in a few days on a RTW First with EK !!!
Yikes!!!

Fliar

Don't worry - you'll enjoy the experience. Just don't expect full SQ or CX service levels and consistency. But, hey, it's FIRST! It will be awesome ^

Swiss Tony

You are kidding, right?

The above is the risk you take when, erm, you don't hire a private jet!

What next? You'll complain next time that they sat you next to a vegatarian or a communist?

FFS!

Billman27

Haha Good One Tony,

But 14 hour flight in the middle section in a packed plane with a lady who has not a baby, but a toddler in her lap, seriously the kid must of been 4 years old on her lap is unacceptable.

I did end up sucking it up, but come on Tony, Emirates service has gone down hill a lot in the last 4 years. I always feel the attitude on the plane from the crew is that they are pissed to be there. I know their job is difficult and some of the passengers are demanding. I have a crew friend who said on some particular flights, the people always order bloody mary's and it's the hardest drink to make on the flight, but how about a smile once in a while....

Swiss Tony

This is a no-win situation for you and I fear you've wasted a stamp. What's EK going to write back???

Dear Mr Billam,

Yes, you're right, the pax seated in 20E did indeed have a 4 year-old on her knee, not only depriving us of revenue but also breaking at least half a dozen aviation laws in the process. We know this for a fact becase we asked for the child's passport when the passengers checked in, but they bunged the agent/manager/minister for aviation 100AED so we think that's OK. As an admission of our liability - sorry, by way of an apology - please accept (random gift x) and we hope we can serve you again soon.

PS please don't show this letter to the FAA or the press otherwise we'll really be in the ..... *

* excellent, I see that the FT profanity checker has been upgraded to prevent the use of s h 1 t


The child may have been 4. I saw something dubious on a flight from DXB to Birmingham last year but the cabin was less than half full so difficult to tell. Equally the child may have just been big and it was your perception that because of the confined space, it just seemed that way.

As you say - unacceptable especially if you're right re: the age (was the child talking coherently, going to the bathroom alone and drinking beer - that probably helps). We'll not go into cultural differences that might make such rule breaking easier ex DXB than NYC, but I do wonder how these people intend to get home at the end of the trip

As for the quality of EK debate, seperate issue and yes I agree they've slipped as a result of the rapid expansion. Frozen canapes - yum.... Overall however - at least ex-UK - I now think they offer a service in-line with the prices they charge. Previously they had been offering great value for money but they're scaling back the limo on cheap premium class fares, staff are getting worse/less consistent, seat is dated and the competition are catching up re: IFE. I would like to say however that I did enjoy an awful lot of the Danie die Wet unoaked chardonnay last summer which will win any airline plaudits from me

Catusa

We just flew back from the Seychelles on March 12 so I remember the check-in experience in SEZ. All flights at the airport there are handled by Air Seychelles so you were checking in with them. I think the Air Seychelles agents have limited capablities with the airlines they are handling. I found them much more limited than the agents we had checked-in with at similiar airports in MLE and MRU.