Sayın Emirates

(Konuk yazar Tony)

To Those Concerned at Emirates:

As a family of people working and living in the business world, we appreciate how in the rush of a day someone might be drawn to the idea of providing feedback to those who may need it most, and then not be able to find the time to do so. However, the extremely radical depth of our disappointment in Emirates has moved us to make the time to write this letter of complaint today.

Please find attached our travel details for your reference.

On the first evening of our travel, we were delayed ten minutes by the snow on a flight from Izmir. As we were actually on time for our first Emirates flight, you will see that we were consequently checked in and off the first flight two times. Please do consult your own check-in records. Upon our arrival to the check-in desk, we were greeting by the long disgruntled faces of your workers who greeted us with "Oufff, bu Danza-lar." Since all of the members of our family are bi-lingual, especially the TWO CHILDREN who witnessed this VERY inappropriate greeting, we all started the trip feeling extremely UNWELCOMED. Why "Oufff, bu Danza-lar." We had called in advance to check on the status of the flight: on-time, delayed, etc. Your check-in staff knew that we were coming. It was a horrid welcome, to say the very least. Then we were duly informed that the plane was leaving and would not wait for us, even though we still had twenty minutes to make it through passport control and security.

That we were known prior to our arrival at the check-in desk in Istanbul was a mere fluke. Let me explain. While waiting in the airport in Izmir, we did some research for contact numbers on the internet, and came up with 9 telephone numbers for Emirates. Seven were numbers here in Turkey and two were numbers in Dubai. We called the Istanbul numbers several times and finally we called Dubai, where after a mine-field of several answering machines, we were finally connected with a live representative. The kind, though un-aware, gentleman in Dubai provided us with several additional numbers for Istanbul; one of which was a baggage transfer depot. The baggage transfer depot was the only live individual line we were able to connect with in this country. As we rang him three times in complete desperation, he was then kind enough to take our number and have a different fellow return our call from an un-identifiable line. The person called from the hidden number and we were never able to reach them again. We can describe the helpfulness of your phone lines in a word - useless.

THEN, when we finally did travel two evenings later (for proper connecting flights through to Seychelles rather than spending a night in Dubai) the same flight saw us sitting in the plane for three hours before we took off. Emirates could not wait for passengers who were ON TIME but you could sit us in the plane for three hours with no explanation? No drinks, snacks, or meals were offered during the long wait for the flight to being. The plane was VERY over heated and several elderly passengers started having anxiety attacks of claustrophobia, which in turned disrupted the rest of the more youthful travelers. We had to ask several times for entertainment packages for the children, who by the end of the three hours were no longer interested in going on holiday. Your staff members seemed more like disgruntled workers on strike as their every interaction with passengers, who are incidentally also customers, were bothersome inconveniences.

Our flight was late landing in Dubai. We were rushed through to our next flight where both passport controls were completely omitted and security checks scarcely completed. Exhausted passengers, from the 7 hours, were yelled at and herded along like cows. A highly unpleasant experience. You could not pay me to endure such discomfort and chaos!!!!! But somehow we have mistakenly PAID YOU!!!!... a mistake we will not soon make again!

At this point, we should have simply continued our travel with another carrier, but no.... we had to return home.

Upon embarking the flight to return home, one of the children noticed that his television was not working. We were informed that the system often does not work in its completeness until the electrical system is re-set prior to take off. While these fanciful lies abated us for about a half an hour, upon our second inquiry we were informed that "computers are sometimes difficult,... you know." Upon our third inquiry and the discovery that a second of our four entertainment centers was non-functioning, the unhappy employee of your company YELLED at us and commanded that we "JUST BE PATIENT." After a juice and a pack of terrible crackers, no entertainment packages for the children "because there are none left on this plane" we were still staring at the heads of the passengers in front of us. We informed the violent host, yes it was a man, that we would be lodging a formal complaint both about the non-functioning technology and his poor attitude, his reply was "Well, I'LL BRING YOU THE COMPLAINT FORM!" Again the man yelled, drawing the attention of nearby passengers who were obviously too intimidated by his violence to ask for support with another non-functioning units.

By this point in our journey, we were all seriously questioning how we could have ever chosen Emirates in the first place. Then we thought back to your ingenious advertising schemes..... which always shows lovely warm and welcoming hostesses in the round red hats, engaged in some act of service or connecting with passengers in some meaningful way to make their journey a pleasant experience. We only saw the hats.... and the hats only stayed on for about three minutes into the flight. Otherwise, none of your promises were fulfilled.

Let's move on then, to food on the final flight. Menus were handed out and then a child meal presented to our youngest son. If you have a child meal, then do not also present the menu. We asked to replace the child meal with a regular menu, as we had all read the menu. When we presented our request, it was a clear and direct "THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! THE MENUS WERE COUNTED AND WE DON'T HAVE ANY EXTRA." You may count your meals, but since people are given a choice, then there must be some flexibility, no? We ended up solving our own food problems, but it was obvious that we had been blackballed by your staff for not peacefully submitting to the tortured of your poorly behaved hosts and hostesses, and a four hour flight with no food or technology for entertainment. Your in cabin luggage allowance is reduced and that prevents people who are travelling with children from being the necessary books, toys, and electronics necessary for occupying then for 10 hour trips. When your promises of entertainment bags/packages, movies and t.v. fall through, the result is a very high level of inconvenience and discomfort for both the children and adults involved. We could easily buy two tickets and travel as adults. Trusting that you will support families with children sees us purchase four tickets instead of two. And congratulations, you have VERY successfully brought an entire family to the point where we certainly wish that we had purchased NONE AT ALL!

We would highly recommend that you revisit your requirements and standards for hiring staff members. We would also recommend that you make sure that you can keep your promises regarding all basic flight services before you make hundreds and hundreds of passengers tolerate those indignant and sarcastic staff members you currently do have in your employ. If indeed you are interested in growing your business in the fields of customer relations or satisfaction, we have several other recommendations and would be willing to offer trainings to your staff members regarding such topics and high priority issues.

Tony Danza and Family