so Emirates just gave me the finger...

[techead]

Hi

Im posting this both out of frustration, and in hope that I someone has some brilliant idea that I havent thought of.

In summary, my SO and I flew from CPT to Kuala Lumpur with Emirates. We had a stop-over in Dubai. We had a local low-cost airline booked from KL to Phuket.

We arrived in Dubai. The board with all the flights said no problems for our next leg of the flight. We boarded, everything 100%. The plane then sat on the runway for 2 hours and 15 min because someone was sick. This is what we were told.

because of this, we missed our flight in KL to Phuket. It was a non-refundable ticket, so we lost a lot of money there. We then had to find a place to stay the night in KL, more money. We lost the accommodation that I had booked for our first night in Phuket, non-refundable... more money. All in all, it was quite a disaster for that first bit and it ended up costing me a packet

In KL we tried desperately to get someone from Emirates to help us, but we got sent from pillar to post and no one wanted to accept responsibility for anything. The airport is huge, and we walked back and forth numerous times wasting a lot of time and energy before we just conceded, with a customer affairs email address on a small piece of paper.

I emailed Emirates on 14/02, and they told me that it would take 1 month to investigate. I had to nag, nag and nag to get a reply!!! After many many emails by me, chasing their ass, they sent their final reply on 30/03.

Email below

Our Ref No: JNB/X/CK/180213/xxxxxx

30 March 2013

Mr Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx

By e-mail: xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com

Dear Mr Xxxxxxxxxx,

I write further to our acknowledgement to you dated 18 February.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you experienced due to the delay of flight EK346 from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur on 15 January. Our records show a delay of 02 hours and 14 minutes due to operational reasons.

Although every effort is made to achieve on-time departures, which is an integral part of our product, there are occasions when flights are delayed due to circumstances beyond our control.

I do agree that our passengers are inconvenienced when flights are delayed. Whilst we make every effort to transport passengers according to planned schedules, sometimes operational necessities/technical difficulties cause changes to these schedules. When this happens, we do our utmost to minimise passenger inconvenience.

We take note of your comments regarding the manner in which the delay was handled at the airport. Emirates has standard procedures in place to deal with staff performance matters of the kind you have described, and appropriate counselling/remedial action is taken internally. Although due to employment confidentiality reasons, I am unable to provide details of any internal action, I would like to assure you that your feedback was brought to the attention of our Divisional Vice President Airport Services (Dubai), and appropriate action has been taken. I am sorry that your expectations were not met in this instance.

We fully empathise with the inconvenience and discomfort you experienced on this occasion.

Regrettably, we are unable to consider a refund of your missed hotel accommodation. We, at Emirates, understand that this does not fully resolve your claim; therefore we recommend that you contact your Travel Insurers who may be able to assist you further.

Whilst we cannot change what has happened, we would welcome the opportunity to restore your faith in Emirates. As a gesture of goodwill, without prejudice or admission of liability, I will be pleased to offer you and Ms Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx 10,000 complimentary miles each, should you choose to join Skywards, our loyalty programme.

Miles can be redeemed for a range of travel and retail rewards. If you join straight away, you may also be able to claim the miles for your recent flights, if claimed within 60 days. This offer is valid for a period of 90 days from the date of this e-mail. You may enrol online at www.skywards.com. Please advise me of your membership numbers once you have enrolled.

I do hope this unfortunate incident has not marred your impression of Emirates, and that we can look forward to the pleasure of welcoming you and your husband on board our flights again.

Yours sincerely,

xxxxxxx xxxx

Im basically screwed arent I? 10,000 miles will get me 1/6th of a flight to Dubai, not to mention costs to the final destination...

I basically need to concede and kiss this whole thing goodbye, right?

 

[MongooseMan]

I'm pretty sure that's what travel insurance is for, I may be wrong though.

 

[Nerfherder]

Need to take your GF's name out of the letter

it sucks but this is one of the risks you take when you take separate airlines.

I don't think its fair though :/

 

[azbob]

You shouldn't have booked your other flight so soon to your expected arrival time in KL. Should always take these things into account. You've learnt your lesson.

 

[techead]

I'm pretty sure that's what travel insurance is for, I may be wrong though.

We had travel insurance through Discovery (paid the air tickets with my card) but apparently its only death insurance, and doesnt cover missed flights

 

[bokka1]

Just see it as an adventure and an opportunity to see KL.

I had something similar coming back from Phuket via KL on Malaysia Airlines where they amended our flight time to two hours earlier without notifying us.

I was stuck at Phuket Airport and my next flight out was at 10PM. We decided to make the best of it.

We stored our luggage at the airport and went to a nearby beach, Nai Yang, and had a wonderful day drinking beer, getting massages and having a great day which I originally planned to spend in KL.

You are not going to get joy from Emirates as they only have to compensate you if you booked the KL - Phuket flight through them.

 

[Budza]

Need to take your GF's name out of the letter

Xxxxxxx

We had travel insurance through Discovery (paid the air tickets with my card) but apparently its only death insurance, and doesnt cover missed flights

Different banks/cards have different levels/types of cover, which I never knew until I had a claim...

*** one

 

[wetkit]

Well, that is if you had travel insurance.
Perhaps if you paid via a credid card you might be lucky.

It is always problematic with connecting flights, stopovers and diffrent airlines.

 

[Rosaudio]

Yeah, unfortunately these things doo happen. That's what travel insurance is there for.

Not much you can do.

 

[Nerfherder]

Think of it this way... you helped other people by warning them.


I'm not sure if it was possible but it would have been nice if you could have re-scheduled the flight while you were waiting... or even canceled your booking. Perhaps saving you a bit.

 

[bokka1]

Think of it this way... you helped other people by warning them.


I'm not sure if it was possible but it would have been nice if you could have re-scheduled the flight while you were waiting... or even canceled your booking. Perhaps saving you a bit.

His missed flight was with a budget airline, most probably Air Asia, and they usually have very strict rules regarding amendments if you take the cheapest flights.

 

[Pynet]

Not much you can do with Emirates. I am sure they recieve many similar complaints and you can imagine if they have to pay out on all of these?

I would suggest accept there offer, but not before trying your luck with a bit of negotiation. Send them a mail saying the flights cost A amount, 10k miles equals B amount, I will be happy if you offer me C miles. ......................... worth a try.

 

[Ou grote]

Hi

Im posting this both out of frustration, and in hope that I someone has some brilliant idea that I havent thought of.

In summary, my SO and I flew from CPT to Kuala Lumpur with Emirates. We had a stop-over in Dubai. We had a local low-cost airline booked from KL to Phuket.

We arrived in Dubai. The board with all the flights said no problems for our next leg of the flight. We boarded, everything 100%. The plane then sat on the runway for 2 hours and 15 min because someone was sick. This is what we were told.

because of this, we missed our flight in KL to Phuket. It was a non-refundable ticket, so we lost a lot of money there. We then had to find a place to stay the night in KL, more money. We lost the accommodation that I had booked for our first night in Phuket, non-refundable... more money. All in all, it was quite a disaster for that first bit and it ended up costing me a packet

In KL we tried desperately to get someone from Emirates to help us, but we got sent from pillar to post and no one wanted to accept responsibility for anything. The airport is huge, and we walked back and forth numerous times wasting a lot of time and energy before we just conceded, with a customer affairs email address on a small piece of paper.

I emailed Emirates on 14/02, and they told me that it would take 1 month to investigate. I had to nag, nag and nag to get a reply!!! After many many emails by me, chasing their ass, they sent their final reply on 30/03.

Email below







Im basically screwed arent I? 10,000 miles will get me 1/6th of a flight to Dubai, not to mention costs to the final destination...

I basically need to concede and kiss this whole thing goodbye, right?

That's an excellent shafting letter they gave you.

Guess you're joining skywards.

 

[azbob]

They should have at least given you a voucher instead of worthless miles.

KLM gave me a 50 Euro voucher off my next flight because my screen was faulty.

 

[techead]

 

[techead]

I emailed Emirates back anyway...

Hi Xxxxxxx

Thank you for getting back to me. I have read your email, and would like to respond accordingly.

My original email, dated 14 February 2013, has taken Emirates 1 month and 19 days to supply clarity on. Almost 3 weeks longer than I was originally told it would take.

I must say, putting the excessive delays in email correspondence aside, I am utterly dissatisfied with the resolution Emirates have offered me. Being someone who has only traveled internationally once (for our honeymoon) I am in no position to make use of Skyward miles offered by Emirates, and neither is my wife. It would have been a different story if Emirates offered enough Skyward miles to cover an entire flight for my wife and myself, but giving us each 10,000 miles places us in no better position than when I sent the original email though.

The bottom line here, is that I am not financially in a position to take advantage of Skywards miles. Only frequent fliers benefit from these kinds of programs. From what I can see on the Emirates website, I would need no less than 47,500 for a single flight to Dubai, not including flights to a final destination...

So again I ask, how does 10,000 Skywards miles place my wife and I in any better position than when this whole issue was brought to your attention?

Fact remains that I am still hundreds of US Dollars out of pocket due to a delayed flight where we were stuck in an Emirates plane on the runway, and I could not make any alternative arrangements.

Your thoughts please.

Regards,

Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx

Will take them a week to respond, but its worth a try...

 

[ISP cash cow]

Yep normally credit card insurance only usually covers for medical cover and not for cancellation or curtailment of flights/hotels etc. That's why you should take out travel insurance. Busy planning a trip to Thailand in June for the family and so have gone through Chartis insurance to cover for any other things besides medical that may happen (knowing insurance though I would probably still get screwed over if I need to claim )

I do find it a bit strange that just because you were delayed by a day that the hotel cancelled your whole accommodation. Did you not phone them and let them know that you were delayed by a day but you would still be using the accommodation for the rest of the period?

 

[techead]

Yep normally credit card insurance only usually covers for medical cover and not for cancellation or curtailment of flights/hotels etc. That's why you should take out travel insurance. Busy planning a trip to Thailand in June for the family and so have gone through Chartis insurance to cover for any other things besides medical that may happen (knowing insurance though I would probably still get screwed over if I need to claim )

I do find it a bit strange that just because you were delayed by a day that the hotel cancelled your whole accommodation. Did you not phone them and let them know that you were delayed by a day but you would still be using the accommodation for the rest of the period?

the place that we had booked was only for 2 days. so we lost the 1 night (coz I paid up front) but we still stayed the next night

 

[bokka1]

Totally off topic: Why did you fly via KL and not Bangkok?

 

[azbob]

Totally off topic: Why did you fly via KL and not Bangkok?

Probably cheaper.