Emirates Airlines (Comments about Emirates Airlines)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vahid Shahidi <vshahidi@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 28, 2006 6:40 AM
Subject: Please Post this on your website
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu

Dear Jawad,
This is a letter which I wrote to Emirate soffice in Sydney but they
Have not responded at all an whenever I call them they say that she is
out of the office.
I am a musician and I was about to have a concert in Bern during my
stay in Switzerland. Therefore I was carrying an instrument called
Setar which is a traditional Persian instrument. Setar is one of the
smallest and most sensitive musical instruments. Upon my previous
experiences with Emirates and also other airlines such as Malaysia
airline and also after reading the FAQ part of the Emirates official
website about the allowance of carrying musical instruments into the
cabin I was willing to carry the Setar with myself into the cabin.
Surprisingly, this time an Indian lady sitting behind one of Emirates
counters said that you can not take the instrument in the cabin and
you must check it in. I explained to her several times that this
instrument is so sensitive and if I check it in it will certainly
break. She insisted on this fact that it is the law and you can not
take it in the cabin. I said that I am always taking my instrument
even larger than this to the cabin with different airlines and if I
knew that you would not allow me to take it in I would have never
taken my instrument to the trip as it is so sensitive and also an
expensive one. I begged her to let me take it in as this Setar had a
lot of spiritual values aside of its financial value for me. She said
it is no problem if you check it in and if we put fragile stickers on
it, it will not get damaged. I said that even with fragile stickers it
will get damaged as the instrument is so sensitive and I knew that the
workers are not caring people at all, and Emirates' reputation means
nothing to them, they are just simple workers and they work for money.
She said no, there would be no problem and you will receive it fine.
Then I asked her to give me at least some protective case to cover it
or tell me where I can get it but again she said there is no need and
when they see that it is an instrument it would be better. I was
finally persuaded by her incorrect words and checked it in. They took
my Setar on a special carrying trolley and asked me to sign something.
I was so angry and stressful and I just signed it quickly. I thought
that it is a kind of signature which they will give my Setar at the
destination upon it. At Zurich airport I found out that the signature
meant that Emirates was not liable at all for the fragile item. I
think this is the most insulting way of behavior to a person, to force
him to do something and then to get a signature that you were happy to
be forced. At Zurich airport I found my instrument broken. It was
totally damaged from one side which made it useless. The covering case
was also damaged. I was really upset and angry as I knew it will break
but your staff deceived me with her countless promises. With a lot of
stress and persecution I made the responsible agent in Zurich to write
a report for my case. It is really a shame that to get your rights in
this world has to be this torturous and unpleasant in all cases, even
with huge companies with billions of dollars of capital like Emirates.
I liked Emirates for its convenience as I bought my ticket online with
no problem and a good price and I was praising it and willing to buy
all my tickets with Emirates but now the story has changed. I have no
trust in Emirates anymore and I will certainly advertise negatively
wherever I can unless Emirates does something worthy in order to
compensate at least in material terms which they can never compensate
for my emotional injuries. My concert in Bern was cancelled because of
this and I asked the authority to fax you an original statement
accordingly.

# posted by Jawad @ 10:57 PM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jayaraman Hariharan <hjandjc@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 7, 2006 3:10 AM
Subject: Travel woes
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu

My son booked his electronic ticket through Emirates website for
travel Newyork-Dubai-Chennai-Dubai-Newyork against booking reference
BHQGXF.

In Chennai he was told by the Emirates office that reconfirmation of
booking was not necessary. This was also confirmed through their
website.

However, while checking in for his return flight from Chennai, the
Emirates staff informed him that they are unable to retrieve his
reservation as it has been deleted from their system.

Upon showing them the copy of the e-ticket receipt / itinerary they
managed to find him a seat only for the Chennai-Dubai flight but not
beyond Dubai.

As they were not able to get him a seat in the connecting
Dubai-Newyork flight as per his original reservation he could be
accommodated only on the following day's flight through no fault of
his own. He was not given accommodation in Dubai and he had to stay
about 17 hours in the airport.

Because of the glitch in the Emirates computer system and the
uncooperative attitude of their staff in Chennai as well as in Dubai,
my son was forced not only to spend 17 hours in Dubai airport but also
miss a day's work.

Although Emirates in-flight service is excellent nothing complimentary
can be said about their customer service. They do not even have a link
or an email address at their website to post customers' grievance.

H.Jayaraman

# posted by Jawad @ 9:26 PM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: art <artward@dsl.pipex.com>
Date: Mar 5, 2006 3:33 PM
Subject: bad experience continues
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu

I left an email here on January 7th 2006,regarding lost baggage,
inccurred cost and the blatant lying to me of emirates staff in Dubai
and one of their pursers.

I wrote a letter to Emirates shortly afterwards whose returned a reply
saying it would be investigated and that they would be in touch as
they take these matters seriously.

Well folks, that was in early January, two months later and not a word
from them. But I am not suprised by this based on their customer
relations record. If you dont push them they'll not bother, I met
another guy on the same flight whose luggage was also lost, he was
still fighting for compensation for a previous loss of diving
equipment, three month prior.

The most appalling customers service disaster of an airline I have
ever come across.

Unfortunately I have 70,000 air miles accumulated with them but I will
never, ever, fly them again, I'd rather go by cargo ship, at least I
could hold onto my luggage.

Thank goodness for sites like this were are complaints are at least
aired, as a warning and support for others

Art Ward

# posted by Jawad @ 8:23 PM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sarah Lister <slister68@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mar 5, 2006 7:32 AM
Subject: another sad Emirates lost luggage tale...
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu

Emirates airline lost my suitcase on 4 Feb on a flight between London
Gatwick and Dubai. Unfortunately it was not any old suitcase, but
contained all my wedding photos, wedding cards, jewellery I wore at my
wedding, a number of wedding presents and souvenirs from honeymoon.
The contents is obviously irreplaceable. I was returning to
Afghanistan where I work, after my wedding and honeymoon in UK.

The level of service in attempting to track this suitcase has been
absolutely appalling and beyond belief. Friends in UK and Dubai (the
latter works for another airline based in Dubai) contact Emirates
customer services in both countries almost every day. When they
eventually get past an answerphone, they consistently get the same
story, that the file has been closed because the other suitcase which
it was with was recovered after a week. Emirates promise to re-open
the file, but when my friends phone up again, it's the same story.
They never get to speak to the same person twice. Emirates don't seem
able to cope with the fact that there were TWO suitcases and only ONE
has been found. Is that so difficult? After a month, I am no further
forward.

The proper paper work has all been submitted, but I can't even get
information about compensation …the person is out of the
office/ill/blah blah blah.

Any hints about how to get through their appalling customer 'service'
to somebody who will take my problem seriously will be gratefully
received.

# posted by Jawad @ 10:05 AM