Emirates Airlines (Comments about Emirates Airlines)

I am writing with regards to the appalling service or indeed lack of that I experienced during the aftermath of my flight with Emirates from Johannesburg to London Heathrow via Dubai on August 26/27 ^th 2007.

My friends and I arrived safely in London after a comfortable flight but unfortunately my luggage did not. After chaos at the Emirates baggage desk at Heathrow a member of your staff showed me a printout indicating that bag my bag was still in Dubai. I was scheduled on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin the following morning and the lady informed me that they were expecting a further two Emirates flights to arrive from Dubai   before I departed to Dublin the following morning and that the probability was that my bag would be on the same flight as me to Dublin.  I received a wallet containing a letter with a number to call if my bag wasn't on the carousal in Dublin. I called that number several times over the following hours and days.

I'm very surprised that an airline that has received over 300 international awards of excellence, a professional global company, doesn't have a personalised greeting. I'm not sure how many times I was welcomed by "the BT message minder or 02088973063 " and more times than not being told that the mailbox box was full and was unable to take any more messages. This really didn't install any confidence of every having my bag returned.

Out of all those international calls I reached a human voice only once, a fairly unhelpful voice it has to be said. I politely expressed my concern at being unable to talk to anyone about my problem but I was simply told that there was no point in getting frustrated or calling again because I would be contacted when my bag had been found. I was not given any indication of time or what to do in the event that I would not be contacted.

I continued to call several times each day hoping to meet a more helpful person but alas I was only ever greeted by BT. I left a couple of messages over that week leaving my name and contact number asking for someone to return my call. I also called every other UK Emirates number I could find hoping that someone would be able to talk to me but I was always directed back to the same number. I also tried Emirates in Dubai but not surprisingly they don't answer their phones either. I couldn't believe how arduous it was to get somebody to speak to me.

On day four I checked the Worldtracer website and saw that the status on my bag had changed from unknown to "arrived at airport". Which airport? Which country? From the information on the wallet I had received at Heathrow it read that I could use the link on the page to contact your airline. There wasn't any link on the page. Does Emirates have a customer service department? I only then noticed that the telephone number entered on my file was incorrect. Because of this little error made by the hasty Emirates staff member at the baggage desk in Heathrow I had nearly given up hope.

I decided to call Aer lingus in Dublin confirmed that my bag had arrived in Dublin but told me that the only party authorized to make changes on my file was the airline that logged the file and that I should get in contact with Emirates, easier said than done! To be honest as much and all of an inconvenience it was to have to make the trip to the airport it was well worth it for the hassle to be over and to put an end to the international calling charges. Aer Lingus also told me that my luggage came to Dublin with BMI. It's really quite pathetic when another airline with absolutely no involvement with this delayed bag saga was able to help me with the retrieval of my bag and you couldn't even pick up your phone.

I collected my bags seven days after arriving to London. Now I do realise that a week is not a huge amount of time. My problem lies elsewhere. Firstly I expected somebody to able to tell me what the delay was in getting my bag from Dubai to London. From the printout in London I saw that my bag along with others hadn't made the flight, fair enough but Emirates fly several times a day to London. If the bag wasn't lost then why did it take so long to put it on a flight to London?

The second and probably more frustrating issue to understand is the complete lack of customer service. Was it a bad week? Were they understaffed? Why bother giving out that number if nobody is going to grace you with answering the call? I believe there is another number and address for contacting if your bag is over five days late. Are you just expected to wait until the five days is up in order to get somebody to speak to you? And to top it all off I have to resort to a blog because I was unable to find an official email address to lodge a complaint!

Emirates your customer service is a disgrace.

Reference Number         : LHR 18958

Johannesburg-Dubai      : EK 766

Dubai-London                 : EK 003