geordieladinoz
Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Posts
- 383
I'd just like to take a few moments to thank the CSM and Emirates cabin staff on EK414 (QF8414) that departed DXB for SYD on Thursday 20th June. It was a shame they were put in the position by poor ground service.
So to give a bit of background, I flew back to the UK last Friday for 4 days to assist my elderly parents travel to AUS for my upcoming wedding. Plans had been made many, many months ago but only confirmed once EK/QF code shares came online. The partnership is great for my family as they live in NCL and have the daily flight to DXB which connects into EK414 so can be in SYD inside 24 hours. Great!
As soon as flights were booked, disability assistance was also booked throughout and my QF WP status was also designed to assist further with lounge access and better seating selection (not that useful on EK however so I have found).
NCL was great. Executive lounge for the 3 of us thanks to a kind lady on the desk. Assistance provided for my Mam and staff were all good. Further helped on board EK036 (QF8036) by the fact the plane was only a 3rd full, 127 passengers all up, very poor loading, good for us though.
All was ok on arrival into DXB and after finding the wheelchair we moved off. I explained I had access to the First lounge so we were taken to the area near Gate B20 (arrived B19, departed B21) and again the lovely lady on the reception allowed me to guest both parents in. I had explained that if there was an issue I would keep myself busy in the terminal whilst my parents relaxed but she was happy for us to all go in. We had a relaxing hour and a half prior to awaiting our disability assistance which had been arranged for 01:30.
This is where it went wrong.
No disability assistance arrived so at 01:35 I went to the reception area and enquired as to where the assistance was? At the same time boarding calls commences for our flight. A few calls were made and it was clear someone had dropped the ball and nobody was coming and they could not confirm when someone would arrive so it would be 'safer' to walk to the gate. I asked how this could possibly happen when they kept Mam's boarding pass and walked with us to where we were sat so they knew exactly where we were - blank faces! At this point I explained if it was going to be that easy to just walk to the gate we would already be doing that but we were left with little choice. So we walked to Gate B21 (I know it isn't far but to an elderly person who I was with I can assure you it is). We went through the security on the First lounge level and to the lift. The lift would not let us out on Level 1, only Level 2 for Business/First. We tried a second time, returning to the security level only to get as far as Level 2 again and deciding this would be the better option as time was ticking. We approached A380 and told the gentleman greeting us of the issue and that Mam did not want to tackle stairs on board due to the excess walking and lack of assistance. He went off with Mam and Dad whilst I took all of our hand luggage to squeeze them somewhere in cattle. 10 minutes later they eventually arrived after a 3rd visit in the lifts to the security level and a tour of a service lift.
Anyway, we were all on board, not very comfortable and very annoyed. But Mam just wanted to sit, rest and nod off. A few hours into the flight, after breakfast and after Mam had grabbed a small amount of sleep I got my WP introduction and unfortunately the CSM got it from me. On asking me how the flight was I took a moment to explain that the issue I had was not with him or his crew but that I was less than amused with the treatment we had received on the ground and that a complaint would be made as I was disgusted at such treatment. He was very sorry to hear of our predicament and said he would be back with a solution. To be fair he was back inside 5 minutes and spoke to Dad and I and explained that he had 2 seats in Business that he would put Mam and Dad in to. Mam had visibly deteriorated and was in a lot of pain with her leg so they got her up there ASAP and arranged for cold packs to ease the pain. After getting a few hours sleep laid flat she felt a lot better and was very complimentary to all of the staff and on leaving the plane we all said our thanks and expressed our gratitude. They took me upstairs just prior to landing so that we were all together on disembarking.
However, as good as all of this was, we would have all been just as happy had we received the assistance that we had requested and we would have happily completed the journey without any complaints.
So a big thank you to the crew on EK414. I will be providing positive feedback when I put in our formal complaint regarding the ground service.
So to give a bit of background, I flew back to the UK last Friday for 4 days to assist my elderly parents travel to AUS for my upcoming wedding. Plans had been made many, many months ago but only confirmed once EK/QF code shares came online. The partnership is great for my family as they live in NCL and have the daily flight to DXB which connects into EK414 so can be in SYD inside 24 hours. Great!
As soon as flights were booked, disability assistance was also booked throughout and my QF WP status was also designed to assist further with lounge access and better seating selection (not that useful on EK however so I have found).
NCL was great. Executive lounge for the 3 of us thanks to a kind lady on the desk. Assistance provided for my Mam and staff were all good. Further helped on board EK036 (QF8036) by the fact the plane was only a 3rd full, 127 passengers all up, very poor loading, good for us though.
All was ok on arrival into DXB and after finding the wheelchair we moved off. I explained I had access to the First lounge so we were taken to the area near Gate B20 (arrived B19, departed B21) and again the lovely lady on the reception allowed me to guest both parents in. I had explained that if there was an issue I would keep myself busy in the terminal whilst my parents relaxed but she was happy for us to all go in. We had a relaxing hour and a half prior to awaiting our disability assistance which had been arranged for 01:30.
This is where it went wrong.
No disability assistance arrived so at 01:35 I went to the reception area and enquired as to where the assistance was? At the same time boarding calls commences for our flight. A few calls were made and it was clear someone had dropped the ball and nobody was coming and they could not confirm when someone would arrive so it would be 'safer' to walk to the gate. I asked how this could possibly happen when they kept Mam's boarding pass and walked with us to where we were sat so they knew exactly where we were - blank faces! At this point I explained if it was going to be that easy to just walk to the gate we would already be doing that but we were left with little choice. So we walked to Gate B21 (I know it isn't far but to an elderly person who I was with I can assure you it is). We went through the security on the First lounge level and to the lift. The lift would not let us out on Level 1, only Level 2 for Business/First. We tried a second time, returning to the security level only to get as far as Level 2 again and deciding this would be the better option as time was ticking. We approached A380 and told the gentleman greeting us of the issue and that Mam did not want to tackle stairs on board due to the excess walking and lack of assistance. He went off with Mam and Dad whilst I took all of our hand luggage to squeeze them somewhere in cattle. 10 minutes later they eventually arrived after a 3rd visit in the lifts to the security level and a tour of a service lift.
Anyway, we were all on board, not very comfortable and very annoyed. But Mam just wanted to sit, rest and nod off. A few hours into the flight, after breakfast and after Mam had grabbed a small amount of sleep I got my WP introduction and unfortunately the CSM got it from me. On asking me how the flight was I took a moment to explain that the issue I had was not with him or his crew but that I was less than amused with the treatment we had received on the ground and that a complaint would be made as I was disgusted at such treatment. He was very sorry to hear of our predicament and said he would be back with a solution. To be fair he was back inside 5 minutes and spoke to Dad and I and explained that he had 2 seats in Business that he would put Mam and Dad in to. Mam had visibly deteriorated and was in a lot of pain with her leg so they got her up there ASAP and arranged for cold packs to ease the pain. After getting a few hours sleep laid flat she felt a lot better and was very complimentary to all of the staff and on leaving the plane we all said our thanks and expressed our gratitude. They took me upstairs just prior to landing so that we were all together on disembarking.
However, as good as all of this was, we would have all been just as happy had we received the assistance that we had requested and we would have happily completed the journey without any complaints.
So a big thank you to the crew on EK414. I will be providing positive feedback when I put in our formal complaint regarding the ground service.
