Sidoarjo November 10th, 2010


The Managers of Emirates Airline,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates


Dear Sirs/Madams,


I am Bagus Sulistyo herewith willing to make complaint due to my flight back to Indonesia on November 8th, 2010

I flew back to Jakarta by EK 356 with the seat number 23 J. It was the first time for me to fly with the best airline in the United Arab Emirates. Seemed it was a dream came true but the thing was, everything ruined by the disappointments.

First it was started on the gate before boarding. The staff announced by the zone for the passenger to do boarding, but it didn’t work. So many passengers were trying to be as soon as possible boarding and the staffs were not able to stop it. Mine was zone F, but I was going at last till no more passengers left.

Secondly, another bad thing was, the cabin crew named Im from Korean was shouting to one of the passenger. I didn’t know what the trigger was. She was shouting ONE MINUTE!!!WAIT!!!OK!!! out loudly. Then I realized, the passenger didn’t understand English. She was only a maid who maybe just knows Arabic. But why the staff didn’t use any gesture how to say wait by using Arabic body language. At least the maid would understand. It is international flight and everybody has the same treatment because they pay for this service. Not a Shout they get. It was so embarrassing that the good name of Emirates ruined by the arrogant cabin crew.

Thirdly, there was a couple seemed that they were Lebanese. They were sitting on 24 A and 24 B and next to them was a maid again on 24C. Arrogantly, the couple asked her not to sit next to them. Arrogantly they threw her blanket and pillow on her face when she already sat on 25D. The cabin crew knew it but they were pretending didn’t notice it. No apology no clarification. What is the difference between maid an master???..It was just a matter of luck. Everybody is equal!!!

Forthly, again Im, the Korean was shouting…SIT DOWN!!!SIT!!! no word PLEASE to soften her command. It was because, just a couple of seconds before the plane totally taxiing, the passengers behind me already stood up. WOW!!, this was how the cabin crew was working to serve the passengers???

Before leaving the plane I asked her how long she has been working with the Emirates, and she said just a year and it was the third time for her to fly to Jakarta with the most common passengers were maids and she was failed to apply the high standard of customer service of Emirates Airline I think So so so sad. Very sad.

Fifthly, it was a funny, my baggage was left in Dubai and that baggage was full of presents from my friend to his relatives and also my daily clothes. They waited for me and the parcel but the thing was, I didn’t get that baggage and they went home with the empty hands. It was quick response from the emirates, on the next day I got it back in my hometown, Surabaya but in the other hand I had to spend some money to send the gift back to Jakarta.

Well, anyway It happened and really gave me bad experience flying the Emirates.

Thank you for reading my complaints and I am looking forward to hearing your feedback soon.


Warmest regards,


Bagus Sulistyo

I write to report a truly awful experience of flying Emirates while attempting to begin the return leg of my journey at Delhi. I was due to travel with my wife and 6 month old infant on Emirates flight EK517 (DEL – DXB) at 16:15 hrs on Jul 10 and had an onward connection from Dubai to US.
My tickets had been booked on a popular travel reservations website (“makemytrip.com”). Unfortunately in this day and age of e-tickets, the travel website issued a paper ticket for my infant, who was billed on my wife’s ticket as ‘infant in arms’. My wife and I were issued e-tickets.
It should come as no surprise that travelling with an infant can sometimes be stressful, and as a consequence we unfortunately left our infant’s paper ticket in Kanpur (a town 400 km away from Delhi which was our final destination during this trip). Nevertheless our infant’s name was listed clearly on my wife’s e-ticket and so one would imagine that there should not be any issue. However this was not the case.
At the Delhi airport we arrived well in time to check ourselves in, and while attempting to do so we were asked to produce our infant’s paper ticket by the two persons behind the counter . We explained the situation to them and to our surprise (and unlike all other international carriers we have flown in the past) their attitude was incredibly uncooperative. They stated that they could neither re-issue the paper ticket for my infant nor could they issue a fresh ticket. Note that this was for an infant in arms who was not even in need of a seat and was not traveling on a full ticket. Both my wife and myself had our e-tickets and had presented them at check-in. Despite the parents’ tickets being available we were denied a new paper or e-ticket for our infant and were asked to call Delta (the primary issuer of the tickets). On contacting Delta customer care we were told (within a few minutes) that they would be happy to issue us a paper ticket for the DXB - ATL sector however they would not be able to do so for the DEL – DXB sector operated by Emirates. This does seem reasonable as Emirates and Delta are different airlines.
After speaking with Delta, we proceeded to call an Emirates call center to see what could be done. The agent dealing with our call told us that she could not re-issue a new ticket (paper, electronic or any other) for our infant with no explanation as to why this might be the case. In order to board the flight, we decided to purchase a new ticket for our infant this is where things began to get much worse. It took the agent over forty minutes to issue us a ‘blank PNR’ (JGH2WF). The call was made from a pay phone from Delhi airport and I still possess the receipt showing how long the futile call lasted. The agent was unable to process the transaction and convert the PNR into a ticket, again without any explanation. During this trying and difficult time your ground staff were still un-cooperative and refused any sort of assistance whatsoever. Instead they “you should give up and leave as it’s pointless”. Seems like they knew that Emirates’ call centers and agents weren’t actually capable of issuing a new ticket. Another forty minutes later they closed their counters and left.
We were left stranded at the airport as we could not exit. The only person from Emirates that was at all helpful was a baggage attendant and I would like to sincerely thank him for his help and empathy. After two hours when our car arrived at the airport the Emirates ground staff were paged to escort us out - it took them 45 minutes to arrive. Absolutely and complete antipathy to the situation – knowing fully well that we had been at the airport for over four hours, not able to travel as planned and with an infant.
The end result was that we lost the money we had paid for the return leg of our journey and had to spend an additional $2500 to buy a new one-way ticket on British Airways flight to Atlanta. On a side-note, our ground and in-flight experience on British Airways was first rate.
Our experience with Emirates on the other hand was stressful and unacceptable to a paying customer, for the following reasons:
• Which international airline with any sort of repute whatsoever has the kind of ground staff and customer service agents who cannot re-issue a ticket for an infant (who is not even on a full ticket and when the parents who are the primary have their tickets intact).
• Which international airline has ground staff who are discourteous and bordering on rude and offensive to passengers (specially those travelling with infants)? Emirates ground staff were unprofessional and had the audacity to make uncalled for remarks when we were doing our best to resolve the problem on our own without any support from them.
• Having travelled extensively on domestic and international sectors, I know it takes all of five minutes on any airline or travel website to book a ticket. Why did it take Emirates call centre staff over forty minutes to tell me they were not being able to book a new ticket which I was even willing to pay for?
• Ground staff taking 45 minutes to arrive and escort us out of Delhi airport.
• Refusal by ground staff to stamp our ticket as good for refund as this was not a case of “No-Show”

This trip was the first time I flew Emirates and my wife and I were both looking forward to. However, we lost $2500 loss, had to pay for travel and accommodation in Delhi for an extra day, had a very stressful experience, were inconvenienced for no good reason and arrived a day late to our destination. As expected, this left us with a very ‘bitter taste in the mouth’. So I wrote to customer affairs at Emirates describing what had happened and after a couple of e-mail exchanges over more than 3 months, they came back saying that they had investigated the matter at their end and that Emirates was not responsible for our predicament and refused to compensate us.
Now this must be the new low for customer service for an airline.
I am fed-up of the injustice these big corporate think they can inflict on the common man and get away with. I am hoping that other flier can learn from my experience and can make better informed decisions about their travel needs.

I purchased ticket from Maharaja Travel Inc. at 36-09 Main st. suite C1, flushing, NY 11354 to travel to India and back. I paid a check to their Bank of America Account (483027354136) at NY. On July 7th. As per my travel agents direction I printed my e-Ticket Receipt & Itineary(1762134705653) from Emirates website. On July 8th. Emirates check in counter clerk at SFO airport viewed my e-Ticket Receipt & Itineary and issued me two boarding passes, from SFO To DXB, ETKT 1762134705653-1 and on 10 Jul from DXB To CCU, ETKT 1762134705653-2. Going and coming back are confirmed by the Emirates check in clerk at SFO. Booking reference D6Y7XJ.
On 10 Aug, at CCU an Emirates employee told me 30 minutes before the departure time (though I checked in 2 hrs. early) that my e-Ticket is not valid anymore and there is problem with credit card payment by the travel agent and I have to pay full price again to board the flight and return to SFO. I argued with the Emirates agent at CCU that my e-ticket was valid on 8 July and Emirates issued me boarding passes to leave the counry and confirmed my return flight. Why Emirates didn't stop me at SFO on 8 July? I could contact Maharaja Travel Inc. then and resolve the dispute. I have only 30 minutes left to catch the EK 571 flight, and you are telling me just before the departure time, I can't contact Maharaja Travels now from the airport (it's 10:00 PM at New York). I was completely helpless at the airport, can't miss the flight. I am already in India, if there is a payment dispute from Maharaja Travels, I am willing to pay CCU to SFO one way fair now and after arriving USA, will settle the issue. But the Emirates lady agent didn't help me and insisted to pay the full price to board the flight. I used my credit card and paid $2131.32 to Emirates Airlines to get my boarding passes. At Dubai, I contacted the authority and asked them if e-ticket was not valid then why Emirates Airlines let me leave the SFO and issued me boarding passes? I never got a reasonable answer from them. I cant pay twice for the same trip. I want my monet back from Emirates Airlines, because that let me leave SFO after checking the e-Ticket which I printed from their website.

Debasis Malakar
[email protected]

I have travelled from Saopaulo to India Via Dubai, My flight has got delayed reaching in Dubai, so my trip was rescheduled to some other connecting flight to Mumbai. Also, it has been told by the Emirites guys my baggage will come directly to Bangalore, which is my final destination. When, i rechecked with the Emirates persons at Mumbai airport for my baggage, it was really surprising that i have not received my baggage in the same flight i came to Mumbai.

It was told to me the baggage has been misplaced and i will get that on 24 Hrs. And some complaint has been registered. So, after coming to Bangalore, i personally went to Emirates office to understant what has happened to Bag.

Another, suprise was they donot know when the Bag will come and very rough treatment from the emirates personnel. Still, i or emirites person does not know when my baggage comes, after several times calling to her.

Also, they will not pay any compensation for me, since my final destination is India and Im Indian national.

If I had some constructive criticism about any service or service staff that I pay for normally I would not hesitate to go directly to the manager/company and provide that feedback in the hope that they would listen to any comments/criticism and act on them. Alas with Emirates Airlines there is no point as they will not listen or appear to be interested to those of us who travel in the back of the airplane.

In this last period I have flown to Brazil and back and Egypt and back and both times the service from entering terminal 3 economy class - through to the cabin staff has been appalling.. I am due to fly to Langkawi next weekend and the leg to KL is with Emirates and already I am dreading the experience.

An airline that has no checks and balances, whose staff fill up the business and first class seats and who I believe have lost reality with what actually goes on down at the not so wealthy part of the business ~ does any of this really matter ~ to us down at the back it does, but to the management and staff of Emirates ~ I doubt it... with dread I look towards the weekends flight as I do to South Africa flight later in the month...

Well change airlines I hear you all say … when you live here your choices are limited!! and at the cost that Emirates charge the common man … well I guess they have to augment the 10% first and business class seats for their staff…