Saturday, July 22, 2006

 

Emirates Airlines

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Parker, Martin <Martin.Parker@petrofac.com>
Date: Jul 21, 2006 9:28 AM
Subject: RE: Emirates Airlines
To: Jawad Asghar <jawad@alumni.washington.edu>

Whilst on holiday to Dubai I tore the ligaments of my ankle resulting
in having to get around on crutches for the remainder of my visit. On
the day of our return home, we checked in early at the Emirates
Airline desk for the flight to Glasgow. My wife pushed the trolley
with our luggage, while I hobbled to the check in desk with a holdall
over my shoulder. My wife asked the Emirates Airline representative if
we could have a seat on the flight that would give me some extra leg
room as the thought of a 7 1/2 hour flight back to Glasgow with
restricted movement was quite unappealing. The Emirates Airline person
was quite rude to my wife and more or less said we'd just have to
accept the seats that we were given. Again she politely asked for his
help and understanding, but her request was rudely ignored.
Because of my injury we asked for some assistance to the departure
gate (which was a very long way from the check in desk), but again no
assistance was offered or given. 40 mins later we arrived at the
departure gate, then stood in a long line to show our boarding passes,
and then, once everyone was settled we were moved to another departure
gate. Again no assistance was offered to us by any Emirates Airline
personnel, although it was quite obvious to everyone all around that I
was in pain and struggling to get from A to B.

Eventually we were instructed that it was time to board the plane, and
as usual there was a mad rush by most of the other passengers to go
through the departure gate. I slowly hobbled down a 5 storey ramp,
where on reaching the bottom was instructed to wait to board a bus
that would take us to the aircraft. I struggled on to the bus again
unassisted as my wife had all of our hand luggage, and then stood for
approx 10 mins as we were ferried to the awaiting aircraft, no-one
offered to give up their seat during the journey. Then when we got off
the bus we were instructed to move from the front of the plane to the
back. I really struggled to climb the stairs to board the plane, it
seemed like climbing a mountain. About halfway up, I fell and my
hands, shoulders, arms and sides were aching by the time I reached the
plane door. The only time anyone hinted of being helpful to me was
when I was told by a crew member to "mind the step" before entering
the plane. Then my crutches wer!
e taken away from me. "You can have them back when we reach Glasgow,"
I was told by an Emirates crew member, and took my crutches away to
stow them somewhere. You can imagine how difficult it was for me to
get to my seat, not to mention how awkward it was going to be to go to
the toilet without them.

When we landed at Glasgow, my wife had to search for my crutches as
the girl who took them failed to return them to me. I'm sorry to say
that it was the same in Glasgow as it had been in Dubai, no assistance
from any Emirates Airline personnel was offered to us. I slowly
hobbled off the plane, and onwards to baggage reclaim. Of all the
passengers on our flight we were the last ones out of baggage reclaim.
The cabin crew from our flight rushed past us without a second glance.

My wife and I are completely disgusted with Emirates Airline and will
never fly with them again. I have real sympathy for people who are
disabled, and may have endured such rudeness and lack of compassion
from their fellow human being. It has certainly opened my eyes.

Martin Parker.
HORIZON ZERØ
changing the energy for safety




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