Over the last five years I have been a frequent flyer with Emirates and have flown from Dubai to England, Germany, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and the USA. I fly frequently enough to have reached the Gold level of their horrific frequent flyer scheme, but more on that later.
Firstly, let’s look at Value For Money. Emirates are consistently more expensive than their full service competitors, even in the face of falling oil costs. By contrast, the quality of their service has been in steady decline for the last 4 years. On my first flights between LGW and DXB in Economy on the Boeing 777 and 777-ER, staff were friendly and attentive, multiple drink services were made during each flight and attendant requests were followed up promptly. On my first Business Class flight from LGW to DXB I was greeted by name with a glass of Champagne on boarding and looked after beautifully throughout the flight. Compare to my experiences in the last twelve months: in economy the in flight drinks service on medium haul flight has been cut to once per flight (usually about half an hour after the meal has been served) and staff have become surly, impatient and inattentive. The same is true in Business Class, food service has become sloppy and erratic and drink requests frequently go ignored. On a flight from Cape Town to Dubai in June, my wife and I waited nearly two hours for our main courses to be served after we had received our starters. When the hostess eventually did re-appear to clear our starters, she asked if we were ready for dessert. On another flight I had the audacity to ask for a second glass of wine to accompany my (extremely dry) chicken biryani. I waited for 20 minutes before the hostess returned and confiscated my wine glass. I was not even offered a glass of water for the remainder of the flight and the biryani gave me food poisoning.
Now, let’s look at entertainment. The Emirates ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) system is generally pretty good, but is inconsistent across the fleet. In 2011 Emirates started to upgrade the ICE hardware in their 777s, but seem to have abandoned this program. I don’t know the exact figures but in the 28 flights I have taken since 2011, I have seen the new hardware 3 times. The equipment is unreliable with video and/or audio frequently failing, and in some cases not working at all. Twice while travelling in Business Class I have arrived at my seat to find the ICE system not working (things like this really ought to be checked pre-flight) and I have had to move to an inferior seat. On another occasion, travelling in Economy, my wife had to ask the Purser 5 times to have her ICE screen reset so that it would work properly. This brings me on the Customer Service…
The Emirates Customer Service scheme is deliberately designed to be as obtuse as possible. Complaints about poor in flight service can no longer be made on board direct to the Purser, instead you are told to send an email to [email protected]. If you do this, you will hear nothing for a month before finally receiving a reply telling you that issues with in flight service should be reported directly to the purses and that consequently your complaint has been closed. I have had cause to lodge several complaints with Emirates of the last 5 years, for a variety of reasons; poor in flight service, damaged/missing baggage, unexplained flight delays, poor check in procedures etc… And the outcome is always the same. After making a unilateral decision to close my complaint without my consent, the case is closed and all further correspondence is ignored. On the one occasion that Emirates did acknowledge that they had done something wrong and offered me compensation, it was on the condition that I sign a document stating that they had not done anything wrong. Essentially, this is Blackmail.
Finally, the Skywards frequent scheme. Between us my wife and I have several hundred thousand Skywards miles. This is because whenever we try to spend the miles on Flights or Upgrades we are told that we can’t. Most of the member benefits of Skywards Gold membership were withdrawn earlier this year and the dedicated checkin area for silver members at DXB is frequently left either understaffed and completely unmanned. So, a frequent flyer scheme that promises a lot, but delivers very little, regardless of membership tier.
All in all, Emirates have stopped trying. When they were a fledgling airline striving for recognition in a global market place they went out of their way to excel. Now that they have achieved the recognition that they wanted, they have given up and are resting in their laurels. Very bad form!!!
