The quality of the tools affects staff and customers, while the attitude of staff can overturn good service

My family and I have been saving for 6 years for our dream holiday, which was a roadtrip from New York to Orlando. We chose Emirates specifically because we wanted to ensure that our family has comfort and good service at a rate that we can afford, because it is a very long journey.

The flights to New York were great, and so was the holiday, the worst part of our journey, sadly was both flights back. The worst of which was sadly the last leg of our holiday which was Dubai to Johannesburg. Our entire row 19H, 19J, 19K, had an entertainment system that didn’t work. Initially it at least had sound but after about a couple resets to fix the movies, the sound went away too. The only thing that didn’t have issues was the safety video, albeit that it was fuzzy. This left us with nothing to do for the full 8+ hours. I would have kept myself busy with staying connected, but the wifi connectivity that Emirates Skywards members get to enjoy while in the air, also wasn’t working. We then played our phones flat with games and wanted to charge, but we only had USB chargers (which we had on the flights to New York), however this aircraft seemed to be extremely old and we didn’t have the required adapter. The air hostess lent us her charging adapter, but she didn’t have the same phone and couldn’t assist with a charging port.

The air hostess as well as the supervisor, Michael, tried everything to assist and I felt bad that they felt as bad as they did. Ultimately we know it wasn’t their fault. Having aircraft’s that are not in top quality is not only frustrating for your passengers, but places the crew in difficult situations. We remained calm, albeit very frustrated and unhappy. I’m not so sure the crew get patience with every passenger, because flights aren’t cheap and it is very frustrating to see everyone around you watching something while we stare at broken screens. Neither my husband or I find it easy to sleep on a plane no matter how long the flight is, not even with sleeping aids and we are also trying to reset body clocks to avoid jet lag getting the better of us for too long.

Ending a holiday such as this, which has been painstakingly planned for years, is the equivalent of receiving a much sought after letter, only to have the last page missing or illegible.

I know you deal with many passengers, and I also appreciate that old aircraft’s need to stay in use for business reasons. I do however wish to impress upon you how frustrating it is for a family that don’t have the means to travel a lot, but we make every effort to give our children that experience, albeit once in a blue moon. This is why such an experience as this has been more painful after so much saving. To add insult to injury, our brand new suitcase that we bought on holiday has pop off wheels, which we didn't know about. One popped off during handling (which we don't blame Emirates for). With the help of the lady on duty, we filled in a report and she advised us to call at 8:30 when they open the next day, because they will look to see if it was found and then we don't have to follow the excruciating claim process (this is good service in my book). The next day when my husband called, he was put through to multiple people, and then rudely told, we expect to much by calling so soon and that we shouldn't call them, they will call us. (This is SHOCKING service)