I have recently had a most unsatisfactory and disappointing experience flying Emirates. My bag was lost for 6 days, my children were served the wrong meals, we suffered a 3 hour delay and certain members of your staff were unhelpful.
The most serious incident which caused the greatest distress and inconvenience was the loss of my hold luggage for 6 days. This occurred at KLIA at the end of flight no. EK 346 on July 20th.
I was met by a friend who was also inconvenienced by an extra wait of 2 hours whilst we tried to find out what had happened to our bag.
This bag actually contained the clothes, medicines and toiletries of 3 people, myself and my 2 young children, so 3 passengers were seriously inconvenienced at the start of their annual holiday.
The staff at KLIA lost luggage counter were less than helpful, but they did make an interim payment of RM 350 (representing 2 passengers not 3), after some heated discussions.
The bag actually turned up 6 days later. During that period I had to waste time in KL buying replacement bare necessities such as underwear and toothbrushes etc.
Later on in Kuching as the bag still had not turned up I had to waste more valuable holiday time and spend more money replacing the bag, trainers, waterproofs and more clothing so that we could take part in the trekking activities we had booked in Mulu.
I tried to replace the items we needed as cheaply as possible. In most cases I did manage to get a receipt (copies enclosed), but it is not always possible at open air markets, as I am sure you will understand.
The lost luggage department at KLIA never contacted me during this time, refusing to ring my mobile. Therefore I was compelled to ring them regularly, at some cost, to find out if there was any sign of my bag. I was told that the bag had definitely left Dubai, but nothing more. Eventually after 6 days, when it did turn up I was told a lie – that the bag had been lost for so long because the tags and labels had come off. However when the bag was eventually returned to me the tags and labels were still on it (copy enclosed).
By the time we learnt that the bag had been found it was 7 30 pm on 24 July and we were booked to fly from Kuching to Miri the following day. The lost luggage department/Emirates initially refused to get the bag to Kuching to our hotel saying that we would have to collect it from KLIA. Finally after more lengthy, expensive phone calls and negotiations they reluctantly agreed to deliver the bag to the Airport but explained that I would have to catch a taxi at midnight to get it. I refused and after several more conversations they agreed to get it to our hotel in Kuching. We got it at 8 o’clock on the morning of our departure on the 25 July (6 days after landing) to Miri.
So 3 people were massively inconvenienced for 6 days and the whole family wasted a lot of time shopping rather than relaxing on holiday, much to the distress of two small children.
On our return to KLIA, to spend our last week in Penang, on 11 August the Emirates staff were not very helpful. They said they had no authority to compensate us in any way (eg earlier flight, upgrade etc.) except to make a payment of RM 750 which represented 2 more days of lost luggage for 1 person.
The other instances of poor service were less serious but still disappointing and annoying when travelling with an airline which claims to be the best in the world.
We had booked children’s vegetarian meals on all our flights. On the way out from Manchester the 2 children were given non-vegetarian meals which we did not notice until we opened the main meal.By this stage the children had already started some of the other parts of the meal - chocolate and crisps etc. When the meals were exchanged and the correct vegetarian meals were brought all the ‘nice’ food that all children like had been replaced by so called healthy alternatives.
So the complaint is two-fold; firstly being served the wrong meal and secondly the quality and contents of the child vegetarian meal. Young vegetarians are not ‘freaks’, they enjoy ‘treats’ (as long as they are vegetarian) just like all children do, and my children were given these and then had to watch them being taken away and not replaced.
Finally in Dubai on August 18 we suffered a delay of approximately 3 hours. There was a lack of information (and this in your centre of operations!) and if we had been told earlier about the delay then we could have planned our time accordingly.
I do not make a habit of writing letters of complaint, but I feel very strongly that I have not been treated fairly or received adequate compensation for loss of holiday time and for also having to buy clothes and equipment that we no longer need and would not have bought if my bag had not been lost for 6 days. (Items which are now surplus to requirements include waterproofs, trainers, swimming costumes, a bag, a month’s supply of contact lenses etc.) I was given RM 1050 purely to replace clothes and items as my bags were lost – I actually spent RM 1500 and have received nothing for the distress and inconvenience caused that has been outlined in this letter.
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