edy4eva

Just came back from a weekend in Auckland (SYD-AKL-SYD). Flew EK in F, 77L (E6-EWC) on Friday, and back on the A380 (A6-EDA) tonight.

Some observations from the flights:
- The suites on the 77L are good, if you're traveling alone. You can't hold a proper conversation with your companion if seated in the middle seats. That's how far apart they are.
- The 77L rolled, and climbed much faster than the A380; quite impressive actually.
- The crew on the outbound was much more attentive (even with full house) than the crew on the way back, which seemed to be more interested in chatting up a couple senior passengers (wow'ing) the suites on the A380 and ignoring my request for a cup of tea (then being apologized while we're in descent).
- The food ex-AKL was superb. I enjoyed every bit of it. Skychefs are quite good I must say.
- AKL lounge was disappointing in terms of layout, and location. No windows whatsoever. About 15 minute walk from gate 16. And food offering was limited, yet tasted good. Toilettes/showers, too few for the premium load of 3 flights.
- Crew in F on the return flight was substandard. I understand someone might have a bad day, but not a whole bunch for no reason. No personal greeting, no welcome back. Just 'Welcome to the suites on the A380, would you like a demonstration?' I wasn't sure why they emphasized on this. I mean I'm here to be flown, not shown how the seat reclined. I thanked the attendant and told him, we've been on the suites numerous times so we're fine.
- Another attendant spent ages with the couples (who were sitting the middle by the way, we couldn't get the seats there for some reason so my wife had to sit behind my suite. Quite annoying, but again, it would have been hard to hold a conversation over the wall in the middle, so we used the phone a lot). The couples took their time deciding on what to drink, what to read, and what to do about their mini chambers. I felt annoyed how the attendant spent so much time with them, and when it came to my wife and myself, she'd become impatient and 'unchatty'. I can't describe how awkward it felt, insisting that I did not order a special meal (seafood) with her saying she can't promise me the prawns. She later said they had plenty of prawns.
She also forgot about completing the service with my wife in the end (no tea or chocolates). No idea what kept her busy.

- Shower on the A380: hell yeah. This should have been done a long time ago. It was great. I showered (first to use the shower after leveling off), shaved, dried my hair. It was great in every way(except for when we hit turbulence over the Tasman and I was shaving and started getting scary thoughts of slicing through my chin after each bump). The water supply was good (I would turn off the flow when putting soap on etc). Pressure was OK. The size of the shower room is decent, though it might annoy someone over 6 feet). The toiletteries were complete: a loofah, shower gel, shampoo, face scrub (skin peel), and conditioner. They also had q-tips and cottons. In short, I loved every bit of it.

- The recommended hotel by Emirates for Sydney, is the Four Seasons

- The suites experience further affirms my position that the Skycruiser seats are much better for 2 people traveling together. Though the shower experience and the privacy of the suites on the A380 make up for it when traveling alone.

tom139

Thank you for the report - very interesting indeed. I recently returned from a trip to DXB both ways in First on the A380. I certainly agree with many of your points. I found it quite easy to have a regular conversation in the middle seats though?

Regards,

tom139

EK_Flyer

Hmm not a good show at all on EK's part , Never encountered such poor service on any of my F legs actually come to think of it never even in J !

You were on A6-EDA so I gather it didnt have the auto window shades ? The Inaugural was on the newer A6-EDD which did.

Haha , Glad to hear you enjoyed getting naked and wet at 40,000 feet

I know I initially posted it was a gimmicky thing but have grown to like the idea esp. since if the load is light you can have more than one

Lastly, how did you enjoy our slice of paradise ?

edy4eva

Well, NZ is an amazing place. We're going back later on, but this time CHC.

I forgot to mention about the start of our trip (well after being dropped off by the chauffeur at SYD). We arrived there 4:45AM.
The check in staff were still tiding up the place, but we went ahead to the F counter, to be greeted by a b!@tch. Sadly this is the only word I could describe her with.

We weren't pushy or anything; this is how it went:
Me: Good morning, are we too early to check in?
Her: (pausing for a while before she answers) well yeah we haven't opened yet.
Me: Ok, when should we try again?
Her: (pausing again) it will be a while...
Me: Well it's 4:45, should we return at 5?
Her: I don't know, it'll be a while....
Me and my wife look at each other in surprise (thinking check in should open 3 hours prior to departure- thats 4:50, why is this lady telling us a 'while').
Before I get to say anything, the b!@tch says: Are you economy...... ( a long pause)...or business?
Me: we're first.
Her: ....(realising how awkward this was, pauses again before she says), well come back in a while...

We walked back to the seats which weren't too far from the check in area. We remained under the lady's eyesight through out..and waited for 15 minutes...
She didn't signal to us or anything at that point, so I decided to walk back and try and check in again.
We walked towards the counter and noticed she was opening the luggage mini gate; with an honest smile I ask: are we good to check in now?

Her: we're open, aren't we?!?!?!?! (not even a smile, just a cold face).
I hand over the passports (now remember this is the F class counter, we were the only passengers on the whole side of EK premium counters).
She asked us if we were checking in any luggage; I replied no. She then asked (for the first time in 7 years, flying with EK) to weigh in our hand luggage.
This was ridiculous, given that in the suites the luggage stays on the floor; and given we had virtually empty bags. But anyhow, I place one of the bags on the balance, reads 9KG. She didn't even look, just pointed to remove it.

While she was doing the paperwork, I grab the immigration departure cards and ask:
'Could I borrow your pen please..'
With a cold look, she slams the pen on the counter.
I start filling out the cards quickly, not wanting to spendg another minute with this monster. She looks at me, and the pen, nervously, several times. I have no idea why she did that, but it was like:' COME ON DAMN IT GIVE ME THE PEN ALREADY!'

Cards filled out, I hand over the pen; she passes the passports, and the expressway departure cards (thinking the boarding passes were in between). I turn to my wife and were about to bust a move when the b!@atch goes again:
Her: 'Don't you want your boarding passes?'
Me: ' Oh, I thought you gave them to us..well sure'
Her: 'No, I was waiting for you to finish from using my pen! I needed it to circle the gate and boarding time on the boarding passes'
My jaw dropped:
1- There was another staff next to her, doing nothing (remember empty premium counters); why couldn't she ask her for a pen? Actually I started blaming myself for forgetting my trusty spacepen at home.
2- Did she think I was that stupid?

After getting these passes from her (no lounge invitations by the way), we headed to immigration only to find a closed gate. Apparently, Australia's busiest international airport' departure immigration counters don't open until 5:30AM.

The experience with that check in staff (who wasn't EK staff, just a contractor, had TOLL tags on her wrinkled jacket) was disappointing and rather unexpected.

I honestly don't have the time to complain, because I don't think my complain will matter, others might say its nitpicking, and mostly because I felt sorry for this woman being placed on F counter (with such high expectations from the passengers) that someone else might complain and get her kicked out of customer service altogether.

By contrast the staff on the other side (Y) seemed more than helpful when I approached them asking what time immigration would open. I was greeted with a smile and a good morning and how can we help, even before I opened my mouth.

Has anyone experienced a bitter story with check in staff at F/J counters at SYD?
And when did EK stop handing out lounge invitations at SYD? Cos on our way back, in AKL, we were given the invitations like normal.

EK_Flyer

WOW That's the worst Check-in encounter I've heard of from EK ... Did you fill in a complaint letter at least on the plane?

The reason i ask is...and i dont mean to digress...but I was walked off on amidst check in at the F counter in AKL without being given any indication so there i was waiting for 10 mins wondering what was going on and if the person would return at all. I wasn't in a particularly good mood that day so mentioned the incident in my in-flight feedback letter.

The next day i received an email from EK saying that they will investigate the matter and within a couple of weeks received a formal apology letter also stating that the staff member involved had been spoken to. The check-in staff member was also a contractor not EK Staff.

As a loyal EK customer i still feel you should bring this to their notice because i'm sure Emirates would like to speak to this person and they would surely like to know if someone is giving them a bad name especially if the employee is not one of their own.

Here is the email address if you don't have it already:
[email protected]

I've observed in many instances that whenever a staff member is non EK, you start to have problems.

Personally...i commend you for not losing it. I can see it would have been very difficult for a lot of people

As for lounge invitations, SYD does give them and they are in fact printed as opposed to the normal hand written ones. You just happened to get a really really terrible person checking you in. What a shame, she gave my favourite airline a bad REP and she's not even EK!

PS: Try to fit in Milford Sound, the Fiordlands and Queenstown if you're hitting the South Island

edy4eva

Well, I sent an email explaining the matter to EK.
It got read within 24 hours (via auto message display). I got a reply this evening (less than 48 hours after sending it) that the matter will be looked into.

Will see how it goes. This has been the fastest turn around of complaint/compliments.
Things seem to be improving with Emirates.

EK_Flyer

Hi mate

Any progress on this complaint ?

edy4eva

Just the standard reply: relating the complaint to the service managers, thanking me for the time to write, and appreciating the effort made as it would help them improve their service, and finally looking forward welcoming me on board soon.

EK_Flyer

Wow that's quite shocking really to get the standard response in your case ...

I'm surprised that they didnt even compensate you for having to endure such appalling service.

Rebound

Menzies run the check-ins at AKL for emirates, my last trip they were really rude so i complained when i got to the lounge and the lady there followed it up.

Down_the_back

I had quite to opposite experience with the Menzies Check in staff at SYD on a SYD-CHC in Business Class. Here is the link to the trip report and I have copied what I wrote previsoulsy! They really were "amazing" in my experience!

http://ww.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/947603-dxb-bah-bkk-hkg-mel-syd-chc-back-gf-cx-qf-ek.html


We waited in line behind 4 other people, all we noticed were given Green Boarding passes, we did not see any Skywards Member Tags on their bags, and did not notice them in the Lounge later. When we arrived at the Business Desk, the 2 girls checking in, gasped and apologized to us, then pointed out, that the economy check in was around the corner and it is very difficult to “go back”. We then had the attention of both of the girls, who will be remembered as quite possibly the best check in agents I have ever come across. They added humor, paid a genuine interest in our trip and what we did for a living (I have a very well traveled passport, and I guess it is not every day you see 4 passports, all in date, stapled together by the British Embassy. We were handed Priority Immigration vouchers, Lounge Invitations and of course our boarding passes. We both hold Gold Tier Skywards memberships, and were told by our new friends that the flight was not full enough to upgrade us, but they would have loved to, and if for any reason they would jump at the chance to do so.

jclover213

Regardless of how much you paid for your ticket, I think asking someone for the pen they're using while they're doing paperwork is pretty rude.

tom139

Really? Was it really necessary to drag up this thread again to voice an opinion on something so small?

edy4eva

That is your opinion and I do not share your view. You're making it sound like I asked to use her terminal, or she was in the middle of her thesis writing with the only pen left in the whole world.

For starters she was not using a pen when I asked her for one; besides the only bit of writing she was ever going to do is circle the gate numbers and time which was unnecessary to say the least.
Secondly the immigration cards are always available at F/J Emirates check-ins; so there's a fair expectation that the not-so-rushed passenger could fill out one.
Thirdly only if you saw how she was looking at us from the moment we approached the check in desks. This is why I posted this incident in the first place, the emphasis was never the pen.

In my 10 years of flying I can not recall a single check-in agent that was anywhere near the rudeness of this lady (including an incident with QF check-in at MEL in 2006 where they accidentally pushed the luggage onto my foot after they refused to check me in because they read the wrong information).