Poor Emirates

<p>I visited Emirates offices in Umhlanga and the travel agent introduced me to the Emirates Regional Manager who was coincidentally at the branch and advised her on 11 May 2016 of my intention to travel in December 2016. After giving me assurance that the bookings will be done it was unfortunately not adhered to. In December 2016 Robyn Stander then requested that I go to Royal travel to secure bookings. She meet me at Royal Traverl and confirmed the bookings for travel on the 21 December 2016. </p> <p>I was advised that Visa will be done within the week and we still had 3 weeks before travel. I paid for travel, hotel stay, tours and groupon meal vouchers. On the day of departure about 4 hours before departure I was advised not to board flight due to visa delay. Couldnt get hold of Robyn but travel agent at Royal advised me not to depart and she will attempt to re-book flight.</p> <p>On the next business day our flights were rescheduled at an additional cost of R11000.00. Robyn avoided my constant sms, emails and telephone calls. I was offered a free night stop over stay in Dubai at an emirates hotel. The stay at the hotel and the food was very unsatisfactory.</p> <p>Dubai is the benchmark for superior accom and host of cuisine delights. Emirates Hotel was regrettably very distant from that idyllic expectation. The free buffet was equivalent to the South African soup kitchen.</p> <p>During return flight my 8 year old son was ill and the flight attendants were of no assistance and refused to dispose of the in flight disposable bag. He couldnt sit for the 8 hour return flight from Dubai to Durban and when he slept on the floor they insisted he be woken and be in the seat. I surrended my seat for his comfort to sleep across both seats, I requested pemission to temporary use flight attendant seats at the rear of the cabin which were available because the flight attendants were playing a card game in the kitchen. My request was blantly refused as I paced the cabin for 4 hours.</p> <p>Despite activating the assist button for a flight attendant, their reposne was delayed by 15 minutes, request for water to hydrate my son was repeated 3 times before they could respond.</p> <p>The flight attendant's attitiutude was certainly unacceptable. The nocturnal flight is much less busy due to majority of passengers sleeping allowing abundant of time to service the passengers but this was not to our advantage.</p> <p>In summary it must be noted that Emirates is one of the flagship aviation compeditors and passengers expect an acceptable level of service, despite having made the bookings with regional manager (robyn) it is an embarrasment for Emirates to disburse sub standard service. My repeated attempts to contact Robyn Stander (cell phone, sms, whatsup, email and personal visit to Umhlanga branch) was in vain. The Emirates hotel and in flight service was totally unacceptable.</p> <p>I have a vote of non confidence in the service of Emirates and will not consider using or reffering them in the future.</p> <p>Regrettably my losses incurred for delay of Visa issue and related travel arrangments (+/-R100 000) is unrecoverable. Dissapointing to note that travel agent / Robyn for and on behalf of Emirates accepted payment for Vusa application and flights without advising that tickets should be issued after Visa was approved. Royal travel advised that there was delay for male passengers travelling to Dubai in December but all other males travelling seemed to have no problem with Visas.</p> <p>Credit Card division insurance does not cover losses due to cancellations or delays if caused by Visa delays or non issue.</p> <p>My family December vacation was far less pleasant than expected but more costly than budgeted, thanks to Robyn Stander and Emirates.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>