Saturday, July 21, 2007

 

COMPLAINT ON YOUR STAFF AND SERVICE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rashid Mohamed <r.mohamed@macmillanaidan.com>
Date: Jul 20, 2007 3:18 PM
Subject: COMPLAINT ON YOUR STAFF AND SERVICE
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu

RE: - COMPLAINT ON YOUR STAFF AND SERVICE

My name is Rashid Francis Mohamed, of P.O.Box 34146, Dar es Salaam –
TANZANIA. I a holder of Skyward (BLUE) membership card No. EK 135 032
743. I am a frequent traveler of your airline and have been so happy
using Emirates traveling around the world until the 8th July 2007
traveling from Dubai to Dar es Salaam on Flight No. EK 725. Big
disappointments were as explained below:

DUBAI AIRPORT –

Reporting time was 08:00am but I arrived at the airport at 06:00am and
unfortunately I was told the flight is over booked despite having an
OK on my ticket. I was then told to wait until 0920am when I will be
notified if I have got a seat or not. I really made a lot of
complaints about the situation and there are two ladies from Kenya
whom I met at the check-in desk Bahati and Gloria, they really
understood my problem and the importance of me leaving on that flight.
With their efforts I made it to the plane.

IN THE PLANE –

I got in the plane and my seat No. J18 was allocated to another
passenger who also had the same boarding pass seat number. I was then
put on a staff seat temporarily waiting for the crews to sort out the
issue. The fellow who was also allocated the same seat number was a
white male from Australia. After a long wait I was then told to take
my seat as the other person was upgraded to business class. Not
understanding what criteria were used to put the gentleman in business
class and being exhausted from early wake up and long wait I took the
seat and completely fell asleep.

I woke up hours later and the duty free lady was on the other alley, I
really needed to spend my coupon (Dirham 100/-) which I was given at
the check-in desk as a compensation for disturbance as well as the UAE
currency that I had not spent at the airport duty free shops as planed
due to late check-in. I followed all the procedure and filled in my
requirement in the duty free magazine coupon and handed it over to one
of the crew to submit it to the lady in charge of the duty free.

Unfortunately there was turbulence and the pilot had called everybody
to take seat and fasten seat belts. Before we land the lady on Duty
Free shop resumed her service by distributing different orders to
passengers and when I asked her about my order she told me she will be
with me in a minute which did not happen as I didn't see her until we
landed. After landing in Dar es Salaam I went up to her and asked
about my requirement but she told me that she had already closed the
service. After I insisted that I need to spend my money she asked a
male steward (With his body language and attitude) I think he was a
flight bursar. With an arrogant language he told me I cannot be served
and I should just keep my coupon and spend my money somewhere else.

Honestly the coupon and the money was not an issue to me, what really
upset me was the way I was treated from the check-in point to the crew
attitude and arrogant language. I asked myself a lot of questions and
I still don't have an answer as to why I was treated this way. May be
to them loosing one customer like me is not an issue but if this is
the way your airline will keep treating passengers, you might end up
upsetting a lot of people. I feel I deserve a better treatment as a
person chosen to fly Emirates for a number of years and to different
destinations. I also felt my Skyward card did not help anything as the
passenger upgraded (I doubt) was a frequent flier with Emirates.


Thursday, July 12, 2007

 

Inept Emirates ground staff - reduced my African partner to tears



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Cranny <Michael.Cranny@blacktown.nsw.gov.au >
Date: Jul 12, 2007 7:47 AM
Subject: Inept Emirates ground staff - reduced my African partner to tears
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu

My African partner is a Ghanaian citizen with an Australian multiple entry residency visa in his passport.
 
On travelling with Emirates to Sydney in September 2006, via a transit stop in Dubai he was confronted with humiliating remarks about his private life from Emirates Transit Counter staff regarding his interdependence visa with me. Jokes about a jiggy-jiggy visa - you get the idea.
 
An interdependency visa is issued by the Australian immigration department to same gender couples in a long term exclusive supporting (gay) relationship.
 
My partner showed Emirates staff his visa approval letter and was eventually issued a boarding pass. Flight service was excellent. We thought the 'incident' at Dubai, may have been an isolated incident  - an Emirates staff member with poor customer relationship skills. How wrong we were!
 
In June 2007 my partner returned via Emirates to Ghana to see his parents and friends. No problems on the first leg of the journey. His boarding pass from Dubai to Accra was issued by Emirates staff in Sydney due to the short time between connecting flights.
 
On the return trip to Sydney from Accra through Dubai the Emirates transit counter staff person at Dubai, after examining his multiple entry visa under a magnifying glass, then asked him about his knowledge of Australia, and finally examined his Australian medi-care green card, his Australian bank card and company work ID. All the information he provided supported the compelling evidence that he was a genuine visa holder.
 
What happened next was a disgrace. The male Emirates staff member just kept him waiting. He did not issue him a boarding pass to Sydney with his electronic ticket, while all other passengers had boarded the plane and the flight was due for take off.
 
His anxiety at being left in Dubai broke him into tears. Emirates staff and passengers for other flights just looked on at his ordeal.
 
Finally, a boarding pass was issued and he was rushed to the plane, causing a delay to the scheduled take off of the filght to Sydney.
 
I would expect that an Airline with any integrity would take decisive measures to ensure that Emirates ground staff always treat passengers with respect and training on how to conduct validation checks of visas quickly and accurately. My partner intends seeking an apology and compensation from Emirates. I will advise you of the outcome. I know it is difficult to change entrenched adverse cultural attitudes in an airline - but not impossible.
 
If Emirates realises that customer complaints can help them to improve their systemic customer relations problems at the home base, Dubai, then they have the opportunity of becoming a great world airline.
 
If they do not rise to the challenge, then word of mouth will condemn it in the court of public opinion.
 
I appreciate your blogspot for passengers to share their experiences.
Warm regards
Michael Cranny.
 
 

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?