[RonaHunnisett]

I'm copying my correspondence with Emirates verbatim here....I wrote to complain about a miserable experience we had with them on 4 May....and they still haven't come back to me. They claim they need 20 days to handle complaints....then they said they need 20 working days....and now they just aren't bothering. London GW to Bangkok is not a cheap flight and they treated us like sh1t the entire way there and back. The food served on the return flight actually gave me food poisoning...so that's nice. Seems that, with Emirates, money talks.


This is the email I sent when they couldn't find my original email, on 25th May.

Here you go. Following my Twitter and email conversations with you yesterday and today - I'd appreciate a) an acknowledgement and b) a response. But then you don't seem to care about people in economy class.
* Incidentally, it's worth pointing out that my doctor was unable to pinpoint the exact cause of my food poisoning, but said it was likely to be from dairy products - as I'd not eaten any dairy in my 10 days in Thailand, I think you know who's to blame, don't you?

On Thursday, 4 May 2017, 9:30, Rona wrote:



Booking ref *****: following a lengthy conversation with your Twitter team, please can you explain to me how an airline flying long haul can treat passengers like cattle? I thought you were supposed to offer excellent service...that's a fallacy. Or do you only look after your business and first class passengers? Seems that way.

Let me say at the outset that my husband has always sung your praises to the rooftops and was, until a recent change of job, a gold and then silver loyalty card member. Last year we flew with you to Bangkok and it was heavenly, even in economy – something has clearly gone badly wrong with your operation since then.

Despite there being no queues at check in on Monday morning at BKK, the lady at the counter greeted me and my husband with a scowl – after a dream holiday, I was prepared to acknowledge that we all have bad days, but she couldn't even be bothered to make eye contact, and dismissively told us to ask at Dubai for extra legroom seats (I’m 6ft 2, as is my husband). She couldn't help. So there.

The BKK-DUB leg of this flight was a joke: shabby cabin (seats in front falling apart) and appalling food - my husband requested a beer, and I asked for a tomato juice from the drinks service - they never arrived. Even worse, throughout the flight, only 1 glass of water was offered...do you have any idea how dehydrating flight is? By the time we reached DUB, my contact lenses were crispy and I had a splitting headache. But worse was still to come.

We headed through the mayhem of the airport to the Emirates desk, where an incredibly surly man told us to queue elsewhere (there was no indication where we should queue in the first place) and we were then faced with a woman who made Ryanair’s counter staff look like members of the UN. She could not have been ruder if she tried, despite our smiling at her. Apparently it was OUR fault that the desk lady in Bangkok hadn’t allocated us seats and NO, she couldn’t help us…so we were stuck with an aisle and a window seat.

Luckily when we got to the plane, we were able to persuade the man allocated the middle seat to move, so at least my husband and I were able to sit together. And that’s the best bit of the whole flight right there. Two HOURS after take off, we still had not even been offered a drink. Two HOURS. Thank heavens we had paid an extortionate amount for bottled water in the airport, or I would have dehydrated completely. The food service finally arrived and we requested a beer and a tomato juice – the tomato juice never arrived, nor did a diet Coke I requested instead. We were not offered any other drinks throughout the entire flight…none. And despite pressing the call button (since our seat neighbour was by this point asleep) no one came. For the entire flight. Shameful.

Incidentally, the food served on this flight looked like pigswill and tasted just as bad – what you were serving as “lamb” looked more like something that my cat sicks up after a furball and tasted disgusting. And did you have an overorder on green beans? Cooked green beans and potato does not make a salad, and the same beans cropped up with the lamb, still utterly inedible. And for the snack option later? A cheese finger sandwich – just cheese – and some other monstrosity (chicken and coleslaw? Hard to tell) which I think has given me food poisoning. I have given a sample to my doctor, who is analysing it as I type.

Couple this with the fact that we didn’t see any cabin staff for the final hour and a half of the flight and you can see why I am now recommending to everyone I know that they avoid Emirates like the plague.

If I had not been able to afford to buy water at the airport, we could have been in a serious health situation. And your staff should be giving the same level of service to all passengers, not just those who can afford the “gold standard” of business or first class.

If you don’t want economy class passengers, I suggest you look at your business model fast. Incidentally, on sharing this experience with friends on social media, it becomes apparent that this is not an isolated incident – so what gives?

My husband and I will be returning to Bangkok later in the year and at this point I will be recommending to him that even swimming there is a better option than flying with you. I would love to hear your side of the story, and receive some sort of assurance that, if we were to choose your airline, we would not be subjected to a similar torturous experience. As a PR director, my next call would definitely be to the national press if that were to be the case. I look forward to hearing from you by return