Do Emirates care about passenger feedback?
 

My opinion is one word – no.

I wrote a letter to Emirates sent both by snail-mail and by e-mail regarding a number of issues. I started by complimenting their service and stating that the correspondence was constructive criticism and educated enquires from someone in the travel industry. After nine months I had still not received a reply.

On one flight in April I mentioned my concern to the senior purser. He very kindly took on my mission. He has repeatedly passed on my letter to various departments. He has just received replies to say that his internal e-mail has merely been handed over to another department. Neither of us have received any feedback or even notification that the issues are being addressed. He has very politely now given up:

My issues were not earth shattering. In a nut shell -

1. Why is one financially penalized for a stopover in DXB?
2. Why is it so difficult to utilise air miles?
3. Why does their internet booking system fail so often?
4. Why have they stopped the chauffeur service in Athens?

I am a Skywards Silver member who regularly flies first class ATH-JNB-DXB also an ex-airline pilot and aviation consultant. What chance does ‘Joe Blogs’ stand?

You seem like one annoying S.O.B.... Good job EK :D

I had to laugh.

Exascot, you are dealing with a cultural mentality perfectly illustrated by the poster who replied to your first entry. Both in name and manner, this champ exemplifies the head-bobbling fools who comprise the majority of both EK's staff and passengers. The entire modus operandi is to avoid responsibility and of course, any sort of effort whatsoever. To that end most of the staff at Emirates' Group Headquarters spend most of their day emailing and endlessly cc'ing each other back and forth, desperately trying to avoid actually DOING anything. If it makes you feel any better, at least you don't actually work for the company and have to deal with the asinine on a daily basis.

So no, you will never get a response to your inquiries, as it's easier for EK just to take the fare from the endless teeming masses.

They don't care because they don't have to. Good on the purser for actually trying to resolve something, he must be new enough to still think he can actually achieve something.

Eh nolimit, don't want to embarrass you but the idiot VijayMallya doesn't represent anyone in EK cause he doesn't work for EK. Think before you type!

I know and I know. One reason I didn't apply for a job with EK is because I would not be able to work with said mind set. However for the routes we fly they still provide the best value for money. And, the service we receive, once at the airport, is excellent. It is just a pity that their administration is absolutely pathetic. As you imply, nolimit, they just don't need to bother.

A certain amount of sympathy too for EK who have to deal with the likes of no limit on a daily basis. Exascot as someone in the business don't you think you are just a little naive to believe the company will do more than they have done already. You should know that it takes a trend of complaints before anything is taken seriously. The gripes of a few simply don't count. Its called business!

vfenext I quote:

It was not a letter of complaint. It was a way forward for improvement of service.

I gave bullet points but, to expand on one for example, certain national airlines encourage you to stay in their hub for a few days i.e. Singapore Airlines. This promotes their country and boosts their economy. If you try to do this in Dubai with EK you are financially penalised. In our case it was over €1,000 more for the flight involving a 36 hr layover. It ceases to be treated as a straight return flight. There could be hotel promotions for this or at least a better selection of hotac to utilise air miles (skyward). But are they interested? - no.

Why? Their administrators have a job to do, supposedly. They should at least have the courtesy of acknowledging correspondence. Perhaps I should have written it in Arabic but English is the international language.

Our company policy is to reply to correspondence within 2 working days if only with a holding letter/e-mail. Any other company which deserves respect should have a similar practice.

Amongst our esteemed readers there must be someone from EK management. I challenge you to PM me with the name and e-mail address of someone who will consider my opinions and answer my e-mail.

You made two basic mistakes here. (bullet points to follow)
1. Thinking EK really care
2. Thinking I really care.
Move on and use another carrier.

Thank you vfenext. I am coming to that conclusion. It is a real shame that such professionally crews, who seem to give their absolute best, are not emulated by their administrative counterparts.

Perhaps EK administrators are concentrating on more important goals than answering correspondence from fare paying passengers.

They must have employed the same workforce that inhabited 'Ascot Ops' in the 80s/90s.............

A FF on Emirates
 

Exascot:

I have started flying Emirates a lot recently purely because of the connivence, destinations and prices. Some of your queries below are answered with an opinion of mine

Strange cause out of certain countries they encourage it with a discounted hotel etc. Last month I flew Del-DXB-AMS-DEL. I took a stop over at DXB outbound and the ticket cost me $200 more than if I had done DEL-DXB-DEL. Was $350 cheaper than KLM. I also have gotten complimentary stops in the past flying Business class. Must be a route specific or type of ticket related issue.

Again no trouble at all except peak season and very popular routes. I find it more painful on Star, KLM and the likes.

3. Why does their internet booking system fail so often?

No Comment as I do not use their net system and use my TA still. Tend to get better rates and more flexibility.

4. Why have they stopped the chauffeur service in Athens?
Must be a city cost thing. They are sending Chauffeured Benzs in Delhi and have seen in NYC also.

My Gripe with them is as follows

1) They have an extra row of seats giving a config of 343 on flights which is a squeeze.

2) I hate the seats on the 330, gives one a back ache

3) Knee room sucks

Off course I am talking Y class.

They still are much cheaper than all flying out of where I do and have the best connections and timings and DXB airport not too bad a place to hang out. Aircraft are decent with good IFE.

Most other airlines offer much less in terms of product and service. So I am willing to overlook issues on a person not reverting back on customer service which did not effect my flight or experience too much.

To all who are pointing to a cultural aspect, the company is run (operations) mostly by expats and that too from the west. I seriously doubt the top guys get the letters or will reply it is the middle that throws it into the dustbin cause they know they can! I think it has got more to do with not knowing what to answer in most cases as questions 1 and 2 and 4 are commercial decisions and question 3 could be rebutted by "check your internet settings and connection"

I totally agree and I suppose this is why one expects the same from their (EK) administrators, particularly if they are Western Europeans.

Yoyonow, you were obviously on the wrong fleet or didn't know the right buttons to push :p

Are you guys pilots or journalists or plane spotters?
Usually we discuss airlines from the pilots angle here. Plenty of forums about travel experience on the net...

Managers, CEO's etc are mainly western expats, administrators etc. are NOT, they're mainly from the eastern part of the world, same as in most of the banks and other office jobs here in the UAE. No news that there is no reply! I once tried to reach my bank here in Dubai and over two whole days I rang them several times per hour and nobody thought it was necessary to pick up the phone! When I drove to their branch they were all behind their desks and when I asked whether the last two days were public holidays or whether their phone connection doesn't work they answered with no. It's true, they just don't care. Call me racist now but that's just my very own experience. Except it's a complaint about my work as a cabin crew (I didn't serve a customer the diabetic meal first thing, it came last (maybe a 5-10 minute delay). A complaint was made and when I returned from my layover I already had an invitation from my manager wanting to talk about my performance on board. :ugh:

My post was from a retired pilot's angle and it regards the general operations of the airline. You can't be a driver without the passengers or a working administrative infrastructure. This should concern the flight deck if they have any interest in the future of their company (and their pension).

"Pension"......???!!
What's pension. They have no such word here. The money you contribute towards the same every month will never be seen by you. Or it has yet to be seen by another..
:=

Do you really expect an answer from a professional pilot?
Or do you expect these questions raised by us on the next recurrent ground school?
No disrespect but honestly you cannot have pilots involved in this part of airline operation.
We are all about safety/efficiency and all that.
You as an aviation consultant certainly wouldn't like pilots messing up your agenda with the clients.

Tinyjet.....its a very appropriate forum for a thread such as this one. Concerns the professionalism(or lack of) of a present or prospective employer.
Which in itself alone makes the thread appropriate.
So either contribute to it or then stop winding.
:cool:

2. Why is it so difficult to utilise air miles?

Piece of cake compared to trying to use BA Avio's.....where, if you find manage to find a suitable flight, a reward booking generally works out more expensive than just booking with cash.

G.....o
And you really contributed by explaining the pension system of the company you don't work for.
Can you answer why there is no chauffeur at ATH?
And can you say is it a good or bad decision just by that fact?
BTW why was your EK DEC thread closed for a while?

The pension scheme, or lack of, in this case, was told to me by a very reliable insider with 380 managment. So i trust him. I have decided against joining EK. Something far more lucrative in the ME.
My thread is back tinybrains. Thanks for asking.
Now get ur sorry a$$ back to the grammar school you're trying so hard to qualify from....
:/

Gestapo,

Me thinks you are very misinformed!

The pension performs poorly because there is NO PENSION at EK:ugh:

We have what is called a provident fund whereby you put 5% of your salary in every month and the company puts in between 12-15% (depending on length of service).

The fund is managed by a large UK based fund management company which allows you to manipulate which funds to invest in. You have 24/7 access to viewing/changing your fund.

When you leave (after 7 years), you get to keep all the contributions in the fund. I have never heard anyone who has left that has not been handed their money......... Other airline 'pension' funds around the world have however vanished along with the airline!!

Like I said you have been misinformed, I suggest you correct the A380 'manager':hmm: (clearly I smell a slight whiff of bullcrap from you incidentally), and let him know that he doesn't actually have an EK pension anyway!!

Exactly an answer from a guy who like to use the nickname I am ashamed to even mention. But then, the outcome of WW1 and 2 proved the point.
How's "we destroyed your a#s" sound?
No need to be rude.
As for the provident fund...and no money and all? Seriously?
It's not that big you don't have to be jealous

Can't understand these stupid discusions where a guy says "there's no pension" or "there's no whatever".

Look, EK is not perfect, is not the paradise or heaven, that's absolutely true, but one thing they do good is they show all the info in the website so the future EK pilots or interested guys on working with them can get a point on their conditions.

I'm sure if you take just 2 minutes of your time you will find there some nice info about the "end of service benefit" which is, at the end, a really nice money to go back to your place with.

Whenever you leave you get the amount of money from your own salary back to you.
If you leave from year 5 to 7 you get your own money plus a part of the company contribution. And then, if you leave after the 7th year you get 100% of own pilot and company contribution. And that's according to basic salary percentage. I did take some calculation few months ago and the money you will receive when leaving looks everything except "no pension".

Oblaaspop,
When I used the word 'pension' it was obviously used loosely and was used in context of the thread starter's previous post. All thru it was indicative of the PF.
And no BS here bubba. Just what I heard. Which incidentally, besides the rampant mis management of crew rosters, leave bidding, poor pay etc was amongst one of the primary reasons for my not taking up the DEC offer with EK.
Pprune has a whole lot of little truths floating around too you know!
Thanks anyhow.