My friend and I have suffered a lot when traveling by Emirates Airlines.

My friend and I were planning to fly to Khartoum by Emirates Airline. On Mar. 23, we went to Shanghai Pudong Airport, got our boarding cards and then got on plane EK305. After we arrived at Dubai International Airport, we went to Gate 13 to get on the plane EK733. At that time, the staff of Emirates Dubai told us that we did not have a valid visa. We were totally confused, because we were holding a residence issued by Sudan Government which is valid until March 28, 2008. The staff of Emirates Dubai told us that this residence was not equal to a visa, so we had to go back to China and get a new visa. He explained very clearly and we finally understand everything. Question is, if we were not able to enter Sudan by this residence, why Emirates Shanghai allowed us to get on the plane?

We bought the two-way tickets from Dubai to Shanghai at once and waited for more than 12 hours to get on EK302. On Mar. 24, we arrived at Shanghai Pudong Airport.

We paid 2470 US dollars to buy the two-way tickets from Dubai to shanghai for my friend and I. We flew for such a long time, and spent more than 12 hours in Dubai. And because the tickets from Shanghai to Khartoum allows 40 kg baggage, the tickets from Dubai to Shanghai only allows 20 kg, we had to ask your staff in Dubai to make two special boarding cards for us, which allowed us to transfer our baggage back to EK302 without paying any money. Thank God, their staff at Dubai Airport is really kind and patient!

All of these problems are caused by the “small” mistake that Emirates Shanghai has made. They should not let us get on the plane if we did not hold a valid visa! We were not supposed to be stopped at Dubai if we were able to leave Shanghai!

Can you imagine our feelings when we were told that we cannot get on the plane to Khartoum and we have to return to China? If Emirates Shanghai stopped us in Shanghai Pudong Airport, what we should do is only to postpone our tickets and get a new visa. We will not spend so much money and time! It is really tiring to fly back to China after such a long journey to Dubai! And our baggage was almost collapsed because of too much transferring!

We wrote both e-mail and air mail to custom affairs department of Emirates Airlines. They replied to us that they had already sent a person to look into this problem. Then I also wrote to Emirates Shanghai and called them several times. After several calls, they only agreed to let us deliver 40 KG luggage(they should allow us to deliver 40 KG if our destination is Khartoum). I accepted that, and didn't complain more.

But things will never go as you wish. When we flew again after we got the new visa, we were told that our luggage were overweight and we should pay 46 US Dollars per KG. I explained to them that because of last time's mistake, our luggage was almost collapsed. So we bought four new bags, and these new and heavy bags made our luggage overweight. We begged them for more than 20 minutes, but they refused to reduce even one KG. We paid 776 US Dollars for the extra luggage! If we put more things in the bags, we would say nothing, because it's our fault. But this time, it is because of too much transportation that our bags got collapsed and we bought new one for the new flight. They even refused to reduce one KG. And their attitude was so rude and terrible. They just stared at us without a smile.

I wrote to Emirates Airlines again and they said they would give us a reply soon. Now it has been more than one month since I wrote to them last time. I don't think they will give us any rely.

I really hate Emirates Airlines now. And I swear I will never fly with Emirates Airlines any more.