[emilyj]

I recently had the most horrific experience with Emirates, which is the THIRD consecutive bad experience I have had with them.

Despite paying an extra $1000AUD to get a 23 hour connection from Sydney to London, to ensure jetlag was minimized and I was back at work in time for a meeting, my flight was delayed and my transit ended up being 37 hours.
I could have booked in Singapore Airlines and paid significantly less and had a 27 hour transit.

In addition to the flight delay. I asked for them to ensure I had a good seat so I could atleast sleep. They consequently moved me FROM a WINDOW seat toward the front, to a MIDDLE seat at the back of a plane. Next to a baby. The worst seat on the plane.

In addition to this is man sitting next to me was smoking on board and playing with a lighter. Which obviously was hugely distressing. Little was done about this despite my complaints.

I requested a Gluten Free meal, the meal I received was not Gluten Free so I was consequently viciously ill.

To make matters worse I tried to complain at the office in Dubai, and was told to email my complaint. Which I have done 7 times now to no response and it has now been over a month.

I am a frequent flyer with Emirates and have spent many $1000’s of dollars flying Emirates over lower cost airlines, and I have had enough. They have not even bothered to acknowledge my email.

Has anyone else experienced this with Emirates, and if so do they have a better contact address to which I can write to?

[jimworcs]

Why do you persist with them? It is a mystery to me why passengers who have received such bad service, continue to use the airline. There are lots of choices...stop encouraging them by giving them your business.

[emilyj]

Because Emirates are the company my employer flies with and we are forced to fly with so I am given no choice as my employer is paying.

[jimworcs]

That perfectly illustrates the distorting effect of frequent flyer programmes. In many cases, employers are paying the bills and individuals reap the rewards of the individual frequent flyer benefits. These customers do not behave like normal customers. They continue to fly even if the price is not the lowest or if the customer service is not up to scratch. This has a highly distorting effect on the market, and changes passenger behaviour. The airlines know this... they do not have to provide good service, or even the lowest prices to attract the passenger. The passenger perceives that they are getting something for nothing by collecting miles and the bills are paid by the company. This is bad for everyone, inhibits competition and acts as a barrier to new entrants to the market. That is why the airlines have these schemes. They are nothing to do with "rewarding customer loyalty".

If only all countries were as sensible as the Norwegians, who have banned their domestic airlines from awarding frequent flyer miles for any internal flights, such is the market distorting effect of them.

[emilyj]

Ok.

I do not think there should be ANY justification for poor security, poor service and ignoring consumer health issues.

It has nothing to do with frequent flyer points.

Also, in terms of your "if only every country could be like Norway" is completely irrelevant as the flights in question are not internal, domestic flights. They are long-hail international flights.

[jimworcs]

Emily,

You appear a bit touchy.... have you been eating Gluten again?

I wasn't suggesting for a minute that there was any justification for poor security, poor customer service etc..... I was simply explaining that frequent flyer programmes distort normal consumer behaviour and this explains why airlines get away with it.

You openly admit that you select more expensive flights, at your companies expense...when you had other cheaper alternatives.

As for the Norwegian example, you repeat information I gave you... I know that this only applies to internal flights, and your flights were international... I was lamenting the fact that it doesn't apply to international flights.. that was my point.

By the way.... if you have a gluten intolerance which you know about and makes you "viciously ill".. you were ridiculously irresponsible to eat the food given to you.

[stonecold_1981]

Jim - Just want to point out that even if FF programs are banned, it still won't solve OP's problem. Large companies often make deals with airlines/rental car companies, etc. and this helps them reduce their expenses.

[jimworcs]

Not sure..she suggests that she coud have flown Singapore, a perfectly good airline, for less but chose not to. This suggests her employer is not quite so directive, but then later claimed her employer makes her fly Emirates. If that is the case, then she simply couldn't have flown Singapore afterall.

If her employer is directing her to fly Emirates, then she should complain to them.

[sandeep]

This is regarding my visit from USA to India and back.

1) When I visited India, my luggage came after 3 days.
2) When I returned to US, the experience was close to a night mare.
First the flight from India to Dubai was delayed by 2.5 hours and I missed by connection flight from Dubai to NY. They booked me into the next days flight from Dubai to NY.
3) I stayed in a hotel in Dubai, where other than free food, everything was expensive (internet, phone).
4) The people at Dubai airport are extremely unfriendly and when you talk with them, you feel like talking with mentally retarded people.
5) Reached NY after a long time and found out that my next flight to Denver had been booked (by emirates, after 1 whole day delay at Dubai) in a wrong way, resulting in further "running around" in NY airport. The local jetblue airlines ground staff have to contact emirates on an hour delay phone call to settle the issue
6) Then I arrive in Denver to find that I have not got my luggage!.

This would be the last time, I would be doing anything with this highly incompetent airlines. I urge you to use Qatar airlines.

[rgpnz]

Originally Posted by sandeep

This is regarding my visit from USA to India and back.

1) When I visited India, my luggage came after 3 days.
2) When I returned to US, the experience was close to a night mare.
First the flight from India to Dubai was delayed by 2.5 hours and I missed by connection flight from Dubai to NY. They booked me into the next days flight from Dubai to NY.
3) I stayed in a hotel in Dubai, where other than free food, everything was expensive (internet, phone).
4) The people at Dubai airport are extremely unfriendly and when you talk with them, you feel like talking with mentally retarded people.
5) Reached NY after a long time and found out that my next flight to Denver had been booked (by emirates, after 1 whole day delay at Dubai) in a wrong way, resulting in further "running around" in NY airport. The local jetblue airlines ground staff have to contact emirates on an hour delay phone call to settle the issue
6) Then I arrive in Denver to find that I have not got my luggage!.

This would be the last time, I would be doing anything with this highly incompetent airlines. I urge you to use Qatar airlines.

In regards to your post,

1. As I am sure you are aware, the art of moving many thousands of passengers along with their luggage between countries is a difficult one and the logistics involved are massive, so please consider the fact that yes even though a mistake was made, your luggage was found by Emirates and returned to you with nothing being lost and in a timely manner.

2. Flight delays do occur and it is part and parcel of air travel, this fact has to be accepted and understood by all passengers and especially so if the delay occurs due to a weather delay as the safety of pax is always the number one priority for all airlines.

3. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have sufficient funds during your travel and it is in the right currency. The most common currency being USD ($). The fact that you have raised this issue is moot and inconsequential to your argument.

4. I am based in Dubai and travel regularly through all three terminals and have found staff nothing if not helpful and especially so in the Emirates Terminal 3.

5. Emirates has done its part and has rebooked you without any charge, you should be grateful to receive this as most US carriers and some other international carriers will not even do this. That you are not happy with the arrangement it has made is stupid considering that you have reached New York safely (albeit "after a long time"). I strongly urge you to stop watching Star Trek and other sci-fi related programming and return to reality as your "long time" is the exact amount of time it takes for that flight or any other flight to fly direct from Dubai (14 hours, 20 minutes).

6. Please refer to the first part point 1 and also it is your responsibility to follow up with the airline and try to help them by providing them information so they can locate your baggage. I am sure that they will be happy to help you. As you have not provided any up to date information regarding this, I am unable to comment further.


I hope you have found my reply sarcastic, vociferous, insightful and helpful in make you understand that airlines consist of human beings who like you are fallible and are able to make mistakes.


"And as always, have a nice day" - FPSRussia (http://www.youtube.com/user/fpsrussia)



rgpnz.

[Dissatisfied Emirates]

this is the address to complain to for emirates: [email protected]

please spread the e-mail around to others who need it, i think emirates' service in general is not commensurate with its reputation, considering that it has obtained awards like "airline of the year"...

they charged me for excess by counting the weight of my laptop bag, even though this is not common practice amongst airlines of their stature, and even though it is not written anywhere, on their site or on the tickets, that laptop bags are counted in the weight limit. then i complained and they basically gave some lousy excuse without addressing the heart of the issue: laptop bags are very simply not counted for excess baggage! so i replied and they basically ignored my appeals.

so please spread this e-mail address around. i have an extremely poor impression of emirates now since it has such incoherent policies and lousy customer service.

[jimworcs]

If you flew economy, it is spelled out very cleary in their Baggage Allowances that you are only entitled to 1 piece of hand luggage in total. The allowance is higher if you flew Business or First Class.

It really is very clear and unambiguous in their english terms and conditions. They even have a helpful FAQ's giving details and examples. I think you are on shaky ground with this complaint.

Your argument, if it is based on the premise that other airlines do it, therefore I must assume Emirates do it too is thin to say the least.

[Dissatisfied Emirates]

Well, then explain to me these 2 things:

1) I checked the day after I landed with the local emirates office about this regulation regarding laptop bags--the staff there confirmed with me that there is no such regulation on charging excess baggage payment for laptop bags.

2) I referred to common practice because that is what their customer service staff used as a reason as to why I was charged. ergo, i refer to experiences of previous airlines of similar standing, and the common practice is that laptop bags are not included in the count. besides, i have taken emirates previously and they have never counted my laptop bag in the count--how am i supposed to predict their whimsicalities and inconsistent policy as a client?

3) on top of that the emirates staff referred to some vague uniform practices in the industry as agreed upon amongst them. yet, in fact, after surfing online, i found that emirates is a member of the international air transport association, and according to what is written on another airline's website explicitly (and mind you this airline's reputation, although not infallible, is significantly better than emirates'), members to this group have agreed not to include laptop bags in the baggage count.

oh, and regarding your FAQ point, i did search on their website thoroughly and the only point of yours i can concede is that they mention 1 piece. however, as i have said, this still doesn't cohere with all the other representations that they have made: from their own staff, their own allegations as to some internationally agreed upon standard practice (which actually goes directly against what they did), as well as previous experience flying with them. the FAQ says nothing about laptop bags explicitly.

tell me, going by a reasonable person's standards, what would one make of this inconsistency in internal standards and policies, and beyond that, COMPLETE FABRICATION OF LIES on the part of emirates' staff?

[jimworcs]

You will get no argument from me that airline staff are often misleading and capricious in the way that they apply rules and regulations and often use the "rules" as a means of "punishing" passengers they have taken a dislike to or as a way of venting their fury.

Neither will you get an argument from me that virtually every airline on the planet applies their rules inconsistently. However, when you travel with an airline, you agree on purchase, to the often highly one sided and unfair Terms and Conditions of Carriage. My point was simply that they are totally explicit and clear in these on the piece count and have illustrations. They also say what the exceptions are to this (for example, you may have some duty free bags on top). No where does it say that a laptop is an exception.

You will get no where if the airline is within it's rights was my point.

[Dissatisfied Emirates]

Well, to be honest I wasn't anticipating any argument from you, so you don't have to be so smug about anything. Smugness just puts people off.

But my point was that, if you take the point of view of the reasonable person, then how I was treated was unreasonable. For your information, I was charged excess baggage for other things as well, and frankly, for those charges, I don't mind so much. Would I rather not have been charged for those few kgs? Yes. But at the end of the day, I can't say anything because yes, it was indicated on their website that 7kg is the hand-carry limit. I could go on about how it was also inconsistent that they indicated the check-in limits much more clearly on ALL their tickets and boarding passes, whereas they didn't do the same thing for their check-in. But at the end of the day, yes, I recognise that the hand-carry limit was indicated clearly and unambiguously, as you put it, even if with not as great a demonstration as for their check-in. And, by the way, I did check my weight limit for my check-in before going to the airport which is why it was 2kg under the limit.

However, with regards to the laptop bag, you just can't say that it's the same, not just for the degree of demonstration, but simply that it really isn't as clear and unambiguous. You might say that it's not logical to refer to common practice, but being illogical is very different from being reasonable. It's like putting fine print (and then again there wasn't even fine print for the alleged laptop regulation to start with) and then expecting your customer to go read up on every single detail, even if you produce a fat book of 1000 pages for the customer to refer to. That's just being unreasonable, and that is my point here.

Throughout the whole affair, I have acted in a reasonable way, and in complete good faith. My point is that Emirates didn't.

And, on top of that, just since we're at it, when I was asking them about the excess baggage charges at the airport, they simply ignored my questions, which were very valid since I was being charged. You might say, oh but it's all on-line, but service staff are there for a reason. It's completely reasonable to expect them to answer your queries, even if your queries are all on the FAQ list on-line, assuming your queries are reasonable. And my queries were reasonable.

You can't use the excuse that "well it's all on-line, you should have read all the FAQs" to shrug off unreasonable behaviour, that's my reply to you in short. I reckon that you yourself don't read all the FAQ lists of all the shops you enter and every time you buy a product. Which is why it boils down to reasonableness, which is something that Emirates lacked throughout the entire proceeding.

[jimworcs]

I am struggling to disagree with a word of your response. My point is exactly the one you make. The airline Terms & Conditions are often unreasonable, applied capriciously and lack cohesion. This often means employees apply them unfairly (or often don't even understand the rules themselves). But they are written in such a way that the airline can, and will, apply them to their advantage and point to the T&C's when you complain. In this case, I am arguing that there is little room for manoeuvre, as their T&C's are pretty clear.

The king of this tactic is Ryanair, who's T&C's are designed to trap the unwary, inexperienced or infrequent traveller.... But frankly they are all at it now. One Way or another.

[Dissatisfied Emirates]

Well, so it seems like we are not in such a disagreement as we might have appeared to be. I guess it's thanks to lousy businesses like Emirates that we have to put in place regulations that favour weaker parties, or resort to things like class actions (to gather power in numbers).

However, a small quibble nonetheless. I think there's a difference between Ryanair and Emirates because ppl can't expect excellent service for something that they pay so little for in the former case. It's known as a budget airline for a reason. I have taken Ryanair before so I know. However, what infuriates me about Emirates is the discrepancy between their perceived standing and the service that one pays for. (I think I mentioned this right from the start.) Awards like "airlines of the year" given to such a **** airline like Emirates is really misleading.

At the rate they're going, I see only three eventual outcomes:

1) They change their attitude, behaviour, and policies.

2) Their prices go down as fewer people buy into their sham services and demand accordingly drops--workings of a free market.

3) They go bust.

This might sound slightly vengeful, but I'm rooting for option 3.

PS But i still don't think the laptop bag requirement is as clear as you make it sound...