FW: customer complaint.

Dear Sir / Madame,

Below is a copy of a complaint letter I sent to Emirates Airlines detailing

the horrendous experience my family and I had recently on there airlines.

Could you kindly post this letter on your consumer complaints web site.

Should you require further documented evidence please don't hesitate to call

me.

Also, can you advise other consumer publications, newspapers, journals or

web sites that I can write to so as to highlight the problems I encountered

with Emirates. I believe other consumers should be informed of the poor

standards at Emirates and hopefully spared the nightmare we endured flying

with them.

Regards

David Greene

Manager

ASUDO Engineering & Fabrication

Tel: 08 9414 9003

Fax: 08 9414 9008

Direct: 08 9417 9988

Mob: 0427271285

_____

From: Dave Greene [mailto:Email User]

Sent: Wednesday, 30 July 2008 10:19 AM

To: Email User';

Email User'

Subject: customer complaint.

Dear sir / madame,

I write to you in regard to my recent unpleasant experience flying with

Emirates airlines.

I booked 5 return flights at the Emirates office in Perth for myself, my

partner and my 3 children to fly to Paris via Dubai with Emirates. I had a

connecting flight from Paris to Dublin with Aer Lingus. This was supposed to

be our big family vacation, an occasion which was supposed to be a holiday

of a life time for all concerned, a first ever visit for my children to

visit their family in Ireland, to attend my brother's wedding and my

nephew's christening.

The 5 return tickets to Paris cost over $10,000.

The major complaint I have with your air line is that you lost all our

luggage en route to Paris and took 9 days to return our bags, but if only

that was the only issue.

Below is a brief overview of our experience with your air line.

3rd July 2008 - Our party of 5 checked in at Emirates desk at Perth

International at approx 3 am to avoid the children having to queue. We

inform the Emirates employee that we have a connecting flight from Paris to

Dublin with Aer Lingus and require our bags to be checked all the way

through to Dublin. The emirates desk employee adamantly informs us that it

not possible to check our bags through to Dublin as this is a different air

line. He insists that we will have to remove our luggage at Paris and take

it to the Aer Lingus desk. Shocked by this sudden policy change in

international air travel, I argued this with the emirates employee for some

time until he finally agrees to refer the matter to his supervisor who

promptly instructs him to check the luggage through to Dublin as requested.

I don't know if this problem was caused by arrogance, ignorance or laziness

on the part of your check in employee.

3rd July 2008 - On arrival at Dublin airport, we went to baggage claim to

pick up our bags, to our horror none of our bags had arrived. We immediately

informed Aer Lingus lost baggage counter at Dublin airport, they took our

details and issued us with a lost baggage claim reference, DUBEI88746.

Luggage ref EK733981 & EK733982. We can accept that sometimes a bag can be

mislaid but when all our luggage is mislaid, that cannot be by explained as

purely accidental

4th July - 9th July - we contact Emirates office in London, they advise that

they cannot assist with locating our luggage. We contact Emirates office in

Paris, they are extremely difficult and unhelpful, they disclaim any

responsibility and inform us that this is an Aer Lingus problem as they are

the final carrier, we inform Emirates Paris that Aer Lingus didn't lose our

luggage but Emirates Paris are completely disinterested. We contact Emirates

in Dubai but again we get a similar response as we got from Emirates Paris.

Meanwhile we are in daily contact with Aer Lingus lost baggage office in

Dublin, Aer Lingus staff were most helpful, they returned our calls as

promised and were in regular contact with Emirates staff at both Paris and

Dubai. Meanwhile from 3rd July to 10th July my partner, my 3 children and I

were left without any clothing or personal belongings. Amongst items in our

lost luggage that caused most distress were my daughters' dresses which were

specially made for my brother's wedding, my children's dolls which they have

had since they were babies, and christening and wedding presents. We were

forced to attend my brother's wedding and my nephew's christening in

substandard replacement clothing and of course did not have the gifts that

we purchased. What had been planned to be a joyous family reunion was

quickly turning into a nightmare.

9th July - Aer Lingus inform us that 1 of our bags had been located in

Paris. The bag is delivered on the 9th July, all tags, luggage ref numbers

and my name still on the bag. At this stage we were just glad that our

luggage had finally been located but with all original tags, names and

numbers still on the bag we're stunned that it'd taken so long for Emirates

to locate the bags.

10th July - Aer Lingus inform us that the 2nd bag had been located in Paris.

The bag is delivered on the 10th July, again all tags, luggage ref numbers

and my name still on the bag. Why both bags weren't returned together is a

mystery.

24th July - we attempt to check in at Emirates desk in Paris to return home

to Perth. The Emirates employee at the check in desk informs us that my 7

year old daughter's passport is invalid and she cannot travel with us. We

were again stunned by this, my daughter's passport was only issues by the

Australian passport office in June '08, she had travelled from Perth to

Dublin, via Dubai and Paris on this passport without any problems and now

suddenly her passport is no good. The child is completely distressed and

sobbing at the check in counter as the Emirates check-in representative

adamantly insists the passport is not valid, I show her the stamps from the

previous legs of our "holiday of a lifetime" but to no avail, as far as this

Emirates employee was concerned, my daughter was not gong to travel with us.

I ask her to get her supervisor, reluctantly she calls someone to review the

issue, after some time the supervisor advises that there's a problem with

their computer and all is good with the passport. Does the Emirates check-in

rep offer any apology for her adamant refusal to let the 7 year old travel?

No chance!

We ask the check-in rep to confirm our vegetarian meals which we ordered in

Perth prior to setting off on the start of our journey. Unsurprisingly,

there is no record of vegetarian meals being ordered. We ask if vegetarian

meals could be arranged, absolutely not she replies, 48 hours notice is

required for special meals. I booked the vegetarian meals 6 weeks prior to

this but that doesn't matter apparently.

25th July - we're on the final leg of our trip home, just happy to be

getting off this disaster of a holiday, Emirates cabin crew are serving

drinks, my son is sitting on an aisle seat, the stewardess attempts to reach

across my son to give a drink to a passenger sitting inside him, she drops

the entire glass of drink on his head. Does she offer an apology? Absolutely

not! She hands him a couple of serviettes and keeps going. The poor child is

left sitting there dripping in orange juice with his chair soaking, I tell

him he's lucky she wasn't giving the other passenger a cup of coffee or he

would have been heading to the burns unit. Finally, just to add some comic

relief to this trip from hell, as every one is relaxing, watching a movie or

whatever, the stewardess for no apparent reason runs down the aisle from the

middle of the plane to the back waving her hands frantically in the air like

she's been chased by a gun wielding terrorist. I look around to see startled

passengers darting looks around the cabin in search of the person who had

frightened the stewardess so badly to cause her to run like an Olympic

sprinter through the plane, fortunately for all concerned, it's a false

alarm, though none of us would have been surprised whatever had happened,

such was the catalogue of disasters we encountered with your airline

My question now is what compensation Emirates airlines are prepared to offer

my family and I, to in some way make up for the appalling customer service

we experienced. I would expect far better from an airline purporting to be a

world leader in it's field. Am I to believe that our experience was a one

off isolated incident that doesn't accurately reflect your standard of

customer care and professionalism? I suspect your handling of my complaint

will indicate your degree of commitment to customer care and good public

relations.

Regards

David Greene

Tel: 08 9414 9003

Fax: 08 9414 9008

Direct: 08 9417 9988

Mob: 0427271285