To Complain or not to Complain
 

Hi Mates,

First of all before I get started on the rant part let me create a brief picture so that you may understand the situation well and be able to advise me correctly.

I travel quiet a lot and EK gets around 30 - 35% of my business for long haul and medium haul. All travel on EK is always on paid F only. I have been Gold with EK regularly for the last 3 years. I have clocked more than 400,000 in Tier miles including 110,000 this year.

Now the rant part begins.

I flew DEL - DXB - SYD - DXB - DEL in paid F and was issued STPC voucher in DEL by EK for the SYD - DXB - DEL leg as the flight land at 05:45 in DXB and the connecting flight in F to DEL was at 15:40. The voucher was handed in person to me by the EK ground staff in DEL airport during check in.

Everything went smoothly like always until I landed in DXB from SYD. I went to the EK counter near immigration to have the voucher stamped by them inorder to get the sticker that I needed to give to the immigration officer along with the voucher. This is the standard procedure.

The EK staff check's my PNR and says sorry sir but we can not honour this voucher because the booking under this PNR was not visible in the system.

I said that incase there is no booking then why don't you make a new one instead as its clearly visible in the PNR that I am good for STPC and moreover its mot my fault as the voucher was issued by EK and so its EK mistake in DEL to not to make the booking in the system although they had issued the voucher. She agreed and decided to make a new booking.

After around 5 minutes she say's to me that it will not work out as they can only give me 2 hotels that is the LE MERIDIEN or worst case MILLINIEUM HOTEL but there are no rooms avialable. I asked what should I do in that case. She says that I can go and kill my time in the F lounge. I get to hear this after flying for more than 14 hours non-stop.

I did talk to the senior supervisior but they said that there is nothing that they could do as the booking was not made by EK office in DEL. I was told to either go to the lounge or to spend money from my pocket and buy a room at the airport hotel or outside.

I was too tired as I had already wasted 1 hr banging my head with these people so I went to the airport hotel and since problem never comes alone so was forced to buy a suite for AED 885 instead of the regular room as there were none avialable.

All this experience has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I am wondering what can I do about this matter. Just let it go or complain to EK???

Waiting for your comments and suggestions.

Thanks

EGT

What a palaver, I would complain very succintly clearly stating what was booked/told and then what the response was in DXB hope you have names to quote. Totally not acceptable. Henry

I would complain too. Write a letter to EK along with the voucher that was given to you in Delhi by the EK staff.

It sounds like faulty paperwork on their part that led to all the problems.

Yet - I find it strange that they weren't able to sort it out in Dubai.

Agree. I think everyone is going to tell you the same thing. Write to EK and complain. I had a few run-ins with EK and didn't get very far when complaining. The best way to really judge an airline is how it handles a problem. EK has always failed for me in this department...

So, bottom line, complain but don't expect to get anywhere.

If it really bothers you, vote with your feet and fly someone else. That's what I did after my last run-in. I would still fly EK if I had to (e.g. last year I needed to go to Dubai and Athens.... not much choice - EK or nothing). But they are certainly down the bottom of the pecking order for me.

Me too, I changed allegiance from EK gold to anyone else, after they let me down a couple of times. When it goes well, it;s good, very good, but once you're on the ground and there is a hitch............. it all goes horribly wrong.

I complained about how EK was handling a 26 hour delay out of HAM.

I got a Nice letter from EK Germany offering me a complimentary return upgrade on the entire EK network for my next paid flight.

Final Decision
 

Hi Mates,

Many thanks for your comments/sugeestions.

First of all I travel with EK because its one of the best options along with SQ for me for the sectors that I do around the year. So my long haul & medium haul business goes to EK and SQ majorly. So can not dump EK no matter how hard I try.

I have indeed decided to lodge a complaint but ofcourse am not expecting much out of it.

I will highlight in the complaint that the sole purpose of lodging this complaint is to bring to EK's notice a major malfuction in their titanic organisation for being unable to provide a due service to a very regular customer. I will also mention that I only wish to get an apology & not miles or upgrades etc.

So lets see if a UAE based airline will like to offer an apology in written to an INDIAN national. This would be really interesting.

Shall post the result as soon as it comes or if it comes at all!!!

Cheers

Safe & Happy Travels

P.S: Irony is that I have to do another EK flight on Tuesday DEL - DXB - GRU