Is Emirates too big for its boots?
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Dubai,UAE
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The article is surprising only because it is in the normally rabidly sycophantic local media.
It backs up much of the comments from the skytrax (remember all those lovely awards Ek used to receive/ buy a few years back?) website, and from what the regular passengers have been saying for a long time.
The goodwill and loyalty that has been lost over the last few years is beyond measure. The seats have continued to filled however, so the accountants feel there is no cause for concern. How long they continue to be filled will be somebody else's concern I guess.
The complaints about the decrease in service are in perfect sync with the increase in hours that employees are expected to work. The strain of the increasing number of minimal rest ULR flights, plus the added hours overall, coupled with the insane sign on times has had a direct impact on customer service. Next time you walk into a briefing room at 0200, see how many crew manage to smile, or look even remotely enthusiastic, you'll be able to count them on the fingers of one foot. In the mean time, watch the few remaining capable crew (who can think for themselves, or manage basic arithmetic) flee to other countries or jobs, leaving only the bitter, the trapped, and/or the truly clueless to be the face of the company.
It's conceivable that when the new terminal opens in DXB, it will take a lot of the pressure off, easing the congestion in the passenger areas, and ensuring an efficient baggage system. Conceivable, but not likely. More likely it will be a huge logistical clusterphuq.
How does EK deal with all this? more toys of course. Our pax have been fed up for years with those irritating cords on the passenger handsets. Our new versions all have wireless handsets in first and business. The fact they are remarkably troublesome, prone to locking up, or not being docked properly by pax is a mere trifle compared to the cries of ecstasy that come from all the other passengers upon discovering these wireless controllers... apparently.
Passengers love spending half their flight trying to get a simple movie to run, elderly pax in particular see these technological contraptions as a veritable challenge that will surely aid in fending off Alzheimers for another year or two.
If EK was even remotely interested in getting feedback from its pax or crew, one of the first things they need to be told is that "Needless gadgets of questionable reliability do not replace basic, efficient customer service."
Here endeth the rant.
It backs up much of the comments from the skytrax (remember all those lovely awards Ek used to receive/ buy a few years back?) website, and from what the regular passengers have been saying for a long time.
The goodwill and loyalty that has been lost over the last few years is beyond measure. The seats have continued to filled however, so the accountants feel there is no cause for concern. How long they continue to be filled will be somebody else's concern I guess.
The complaints about the decrease in service are in perfect sync with the increase in hours that employees are expected to work. The strain of the increasing number of minimal rest ULR flights, plus the added hours overall, coupled with the insane sign on times has had a direct impact on customer service. Next time you walk into a briefing room at 0200, see how many crew manage to smile, or look even remotely enthusiastic, you'll be able to count them on the fingers of one foot. In the mean time, watch the few remaining capable crew (who can think for themselves, or manage basic arithmetic) flee to other countries or jobs, leaving only the bitter, the trapped, and/or the truly clueless to be the face of the company.
It's conceivable that when the new terminal opens in DXB, it will take a lot of the pressure off, easing the congestion in the passenger areas, and ensuring an efficient baggage system. Conceivable, but not likely. More likely it will be a huge logistical clusterphuq.
How does EK deal with all this? more toys of course. Our pax have been fed up for years with those irritating cords on the passenger handsets. Our new versions all have wireless handsets in first and business. The fact they are remarkably troublesome, prone to locking up, or not being docked properly by pax is a mere trifle compared to the cries of ecstasy that come from all the other passengers upon discovering these wireless controllers... apparently.
Passengers love spending half their flight trying to get a simple movie to run, elderly pax in particular see these technological contraptions as a veritable challenge that will surely aid in fending off Alzheimers for another year or two.
If EK was even remotely interested in getting feedback from its pax or crew, one of the first things they need to be told is that "Needless gadgets of questionable reliability do not replace basic, efficient customer service."
Here endeth the rant.
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Quote "If EK was even remotely interested in getting feedback from its pax or crew, one of the first things they need to be told is that "Needless gadgets of questionable reliability do not replace basic, efficient customer service.""
Good post Gadgetman, and one very apt coming from a nick like yours!
Good post Gadgetman, and one very apt coming from a nick like yours!
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Hey Mallrat , you are probably right. Heard it from a Chinese Captain when I was flying in the East. Ha guess old Leung read Oscar Wilde !!!
Top of the mornin to ya
Top of the mornin to ya
Join Date: Jun 2007
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I flew with Emirates on the following flights, I was with my daughter and 2 grandchildren and everything that went wrong was the passengers fault, it was horrible.
EK863 16th May MCTDXB
EK107 17th May DXBLCA
EK108 23rd May LCADXB
EK866 24th May DXBMCT
We asked for two buggies to be tagged at check-in and were told they'd be tagged at the door of the aircraft, we thought this was a bit suspect and asked the guy who was checking us in if he was sure, he said he was . In hindsight we know realise he was just too lazy to do what he was supposed to do. When we got to the aircraft one of the female cabin crew laid into us, she just wouldn't have it that we had nothing to do with the bags not being tagged. Even when we had sat down she still came at us, I told her the name of the guy who'd checked us in and suggested she made a complaint about him. A little while later she was back for round three and had another go, all this whilst we were trying to settle two very young children. I said once more that we had asked for the bag to be tagged and anything she had to say about it shouldn't be said to us. At this point she said, "I have complained to the guy who checked you in" and when we asked what he said she wouldn't tell us. At this stage I told her very nicely to 'please go away and leave us alone. In the true fashion of the bully she was then as nice as nine-pence every time she passed us. Of course she hadn't spoken to the check in guy, she was just in the mood to be nasty and we were her targets.
We're self-sufficient, independent travellers who very rarely, if ever, need anything by way of service from cabin crew, and it's just as well we don't because absolutely none would have been forthcoming. Yes, the crew are immaculate and are expert in the use of half a dozen phrases that are designed to give the impression they are there to help, but it's all a facade. Perhaps we were just unlucky with the crew we had on our journey but underneath the grooming there was nothing, it was just a veneer.
Much is made of on-board safety and the need for passengers to recognise they mustn't block the aisles with hand-baggage etc, but what if the biggest threat to safety is a male crew member who's done so much body building that he has to walk down the aisle side-ways. The only thing blocking the aisle in an emergency during flight no EK108 would have been him. It seems like a very strange way to get your own back on passengers that have pissed you off. But given Emirates love of the latest in technology maybe he was a walking, talking, battering ram designed for use on stubborn doors during an emergency.
Zones - would the guys at the departure gate in Dubai please accept that no matter how loud you shout for passengers in zone a, b, c, etc to board the aircraft, they won't be able to if they don't have a zone printed on their boarding pass. It's not their fault the computers in Muscat can't handle that amount of technology, though it may suit you to believe it is.
When 5 passengers in two rows didn't receive a meal it wasn't their fault either, take it from me, there wasn't enough room for them all to be hiding under their seats. They weren't given meals because the crew members serving them went to get something and never came back. And were the hungry passengers really being un-reasonable for feeling a tad miffed about it?
I think that's what bugged me the most, that nothing was ever the fault of any Emirates staff member, it was always the passengers fault, it was apparent time and time again that Emirates staff could do no wrong.
And to the cabin crew member on flight EK86, the one with a Far Eastern background and an Australian accent, you really do need to re-think your chosen profession, trust me, no amount of lipstick is going to make you anything less than downright mean and nasty. Shame on you!
EK863 16th May MCTDXB
EK107 17th May DXBLCA
EK108 23rd May LCADXB
EK866 24th May DXBMCT
We asked for two buggies to be tagged at check-in and were told they'd be tagged at the door of the aircraft, we thought this was a bit suspect and asked the guy who was checking us in if he was sure, he said he was . In hindsight we know realise he was just too lazy to do what he was supposed to do. When we got to the aircraft one of the female cabin crew laid into us, she just wouldn't have it that we had nothing to do with the bags not being tagged. Even when we had sat down she still came at us, I told her the name of the guy who'd checked us in and suggested she made a complaint about him. A little while later she was back for round three and had another go, all this whilst we were trying to settle two very young children. I said once more that we had asked for the bag to be tagged and anything she had to say about it shouldn't be said to us. At this point she said, "I have complained to the guy who checked you in" and when we asked what he said she wouldn't tell us. At this stage I told her very nicely to 'please go away and leave us alone. In the true fashion of the bully she was then as nice as nine-pence every time she passed us. Of course she hadn't spoken to the check in guy, she was just in the mood to be nasty and we were her targets.
We're self-sufficient, independent travellers who very rarely, if ever, need anything by way of service from cabin crew, and it's just as well we don't because absolutely none would have been forthcoming. Yes, the crew are immaculate and are expert in the use of half a dozen phrases that are designed to give the impression they are there to help, but it's all a facade. Perhaps we were just unlucky with the crew we had on our journey but underneath the grooming there was nothing, it was just a veneer.
Much is made of on-board safety and the need for passengers to recognise they mustn't block the aisles with hand-baggage etc, but what if the biggest threat to safety is a male crew member who's done so much body building that he has to walk down the aisle side-ways. The only thing blocking the aisle in an emergency during flight no EK108 would have been him. It seems like a very strange way to get your own back on passengers that have pissed you off. But given Emirates love of the latest in technology maybe he was a walking, talking, battering ram designed for use on stubborn doors during an emergency.
Zones - would the guys at the departure gate in Dubai please accept that no matter how loud you shout for passengers in zone a, b, c, etc to board the aircraft, they won't be able to if they don't have a zone printed on their boarding pass. It's not their fault the computers in Muscat can't handle that amount of technology, though it may suit you to believe it is.
When 5 passengers in two rows didn't receive a meal it wasn't their fault either, take it from me, there wasn't enough room for them all to be hiding under their seats. They weren't given meals because the crew members serving them went to get something and never came back. And were the hungry passengers really being un-reasonable for feeling a tad miffed about it?
I think that's what bugged me the most, that nothing was ever the fault of any Emirates staff member, it was always the passengers fault, it was apparent time and time again that Emirates staff could do no wrong.
And to the cabin crew member on flight EK86, the one with a Far Eastern background and an Australian accent, you really do need to re-think your chosen profession, trust me, no amount of lipstick is going to make you anything less than downright mean and nasty. Shame on you!
