Reader's issue raised: Travel travails

I am a frequent flyer with Emirates airlines and have had a series of bad experiences to the extent that I plan to explore flying with other carriers. Despite lodging complaints with Emirates, I have not received any satisfactory response from them on any of my bad experiences. I have been told that action is being taken but no compensation for my inconveniences has been offered.

Experience 1

On a flight from Dubai to Karachi, while travelling with my seven-month-old baby, we were made to wait in the check-in line for 45 minutes as only one counter was operational. There was no Emirates staff member to even approach or discuss this issue with and the only staff member at the one counter that was open was unable to do much.

When we finally got hold of a supervisor she promised to compensate our wait by looking for an upgrade. When we reached the gate we discovered that only my husband had been upgraded and I had been left to sit with my infant in economy.

My husband offered me his upgrade, as anyone who has travelled with an infant will know how hard it is. As I took his seat and I start buckling the seat belt of my child, the purser of the flight arrived and started screaming at me to leave as babies are not allowed in business class.

I asked him why he was screaming at me and he insisted he wasn’t. At this stage the entire business class cabin was staring at us making it awkward and unpleasant.

How can a purser of the flight treat anyone like this? Babies are allowed in business class as I bought a seat for my baby and flew with him to Italy a few weeks before that.

However “mothers with infants” are not eligible for an upgrade? What kind of discriminatory policy is that? I was subsequently approached by the cabin crew, apologising and offering me chocolates and telling me “not all the crew were like the purser”. [Are these] the values and customer service that Emirates stands for?

Despite my letters to them reporting this issue I had only heard back from them once saying this case was being investigated. No follow up or compensation has been offered to me for this disgraceful behaviour.

Experience 2

On a recent flight from Dubai to JFK, I arrived at JFK to discover Emirates [had] broken my stroller in the cargo hold and my suitcase was missing. No one was willing to help me lodge a complaint or help find my bag. There wasn’t a single Emirates staff member at the baggage area.

Eventually, an hour late, I had made a complaint and was given a customer service number to call. I flew to Miami and for the next four days spent all my time [and money] calling Emirates in New York and no one would respond to my calls. I was not informed of the compensation policy, etc.

I was in Miami for a conference and ended up buying clothes. I also had to spend money on a stroller. Emirates should be paying me for what I had to spend (clothes/calls/stroller). I have again complained and was told that they are reviewing my case. Since I have not heard back on my first issue, I am not too hopeful of hearing back on this issue either.

Experience 3

I arrived at the Emirates counter to drop off my mother-in-law who was flying from Dubai to Karachi. She was a senior passenger and at the counter we were told that since her bags were 31kgs, we could not check in. The allowed weight was 30kgs. We requested them to allow the one additional kilogram as they had done so many times in the past.

The agent refused. We asked to speak to a supervisor. The agent called the supervisor who was sitting six counters away doing nothing. However, he refused to come to us and demanded we go to him.

When my husband asked to know his name, he refused to give it to us. What kind of service and behaviour is this? I had my 65-year-old mother-in-law with me and he expected us to go to him!

After much debate I removed the extra kilogram only to be told 15 minutes later to put it back! Can Emirates not make up their minds here? By this stage my mother-in-law [was] in tears and [had] panicked, being a senior passenger who is tense about flying in the first place.

Experience 4

On [a flight to] JFK my husband made calls to Emirates every day trying to upgrade his seat to business class via redemption only to be told that [the] business class was full with no [available] seats.

Twenty four hours before the flight he was finally able to upgrade as “magically” one seat turned up. When we actually boarded the flight we discovered that there were 11 seats available in business class. Why put my husband through lies and stories? If you don’t wish to allow customers to use points, please get rid of your Skywards policy to begin with.

Emails have been sent to customer affairs at Emirates for all the issues above and they all remain under investigation on their end.

From Ms Beverley D’Cruz
Dubai

Editor’s note: The complaint was forwarded to Emirates airlines for comments. However, despite repeated reminders, its management failed to respond.