Lost in Transit

My wife and I were caught up in the mess at Dubai Airport during the first week of March when heavy mist delayed a number of flights into Dubai resulting in a backlog. Our flight was delayed by 8 hours in Johannesburg, resulting in us missing our connecting flight to Europe. The flight was nevertheless comfortable with great service on board - a trend which continued on all the connecting flights. "Don't worry" said the explanatory letter "on landing in Dubai, please report to our ground crew who will connect you to your destination." This message was echoed by the flight captain as we taxied in.

What ground crew, pray tell? On disembarking in Dubai we went to the transit lounge to be confronted by well over a thousand other passengers who had all missed their connecting flights to various destinations. Some had been in that transit lounge for 2 days - babies, old folk - the lot. No flight schedules, no information counter, no announcements and precious few personnel. Those that we managed to find nodded politely and with the words "sorry, no English" moved off. The only information available was passed around by rumour. "It was like being held hostage without guns," my wife remarked.

You'd think Emirates would increase staff numbers to deal with the huge backlog of passengers? Wrong again. Most of the time there were an average of two patient but traumatised ground crew issuing boarding passes, a process that takes several minutes per passenger. The queuing system was practically non-existent - you got to the front by pushing harder than the other guy, a practice that we South Africans have been taught is rude. This caused a potentially volatile situation - a number of people feinted and others were sporadically losing their tempers and hurling items at the counters which would ricochet on to other passengers. How there wasn't a stampede, borders on a miracle!

By teaming up with other passengers going to the same destination we managed to find a queue that was making progress at 19h00, and 2 hours later, after 11 hours of waiting - all 12 of us got boarding passes for a flight to Munich for the next morning. We were lucky. That night, along with over 1000 other passengers we slept on the floor. We were, however, fortunate enough (via an upgrade we managed to score) to get into the business class lounge. Our advantage didn't last long, however. Our flight to Munich sat on the ground for almost 2 hours before taking off. At Munich our luggage did not appear. Another hour was spent in the queue (with all our new friends) reporting our lost gear (we had to hand in the keys so that when the luggage arrived they could clear it through customs) before we finally made it on to a bus for our final destination.

But wait, there's more! When we arrived at our final destination that evening after over 50 hours of travel, our room had been given away to someone else, so we had to be relocated to other accommodation. (We'll let Emirates off the hook for that one)

But that's not all! Our luggage arrived 2 days later without the keys. So our one week holiday in Europe was effectively reduced to 5 days, and we only had our luggage for half the time.

My point? An airline runs an advertising campaign in South Africa reputed to be in the region of R26 million without any contingency plan if things don't go as planned. You just can't do that. And you certainly can not treat passengers that way and think you're going to get away with it!

Because just your luck that one of your fare paying-passengers whom you've left stranded in a transit lounge just happens to have a newsletter that goes out to around 8000 influential people who may just think twice about using your airline if a transfer is involved.

And please don't think this kind of thing only happens in the movies. It just did in real life - to me!

The thing that amazed me was despite the obvious stress and uncertainty, how cheerful most of the people around me managed to stay. And the rest of my European stay? It was just awesome - thanks for asking!

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The moral of a true story: A few pointers on customer service, Emirates.

Why have I bothered to share this with over 8,000 newsletter subscribers. It's wonderful to be a great airline when you're in the air, as Emirates has proven itself to be. But you've got to keep it up on the ground as well, regardless of difficulties. If you have an interest in customer service, here are a few observations:

1. Most customers don't bother to complain, they vote with their feet. In this instance I elected to join the masses. On phoning Emirates I was asked to put it all in writing and that I would receive a response within 4 to 6 weeks. So, let me get this right. I've been seduced by a R26 million advertising campaign, I buy my air ticket in good faith and get delayed in transit with no help for 24 hours. Now I must write a letter and then wait four to six weeks for a response in the hope that they may make a board decision to refund me for my locks? I think not.

2. As the public we get lied to by politicians who seldom deliver what they promise, and get hoodwinked by expensive advertising campaigns that have no answers when things go a bit pear-shaped. Whatever happened to plan B - or the contingency plan? We're supposed to be so bad in South Africa, and Dubai airport is supposed to be so fabulous. Well, at Johannesburg International there is a queuing system at all check ins that ensures the person that got there first gets served first - and it works. Our counterparts in Dubai had no interest in effectively handling a situation that was already a few days old when we arrived! Where was Plan B??

3. If you (in this instance the flight captain) promise people that they will be assisted by ground crew on their arrival, you'd better be sure that you're telling the truth. In other words, if you promise something, kindly deliver. Over promise and under deliver can have serious consequences.

4. If you are travelling internationally and there is a transit involved, lock your luggage, and take out extra insurance, because the chances of your luggage going astray have just sky-rocketed. This is my second lost luggage situation in 3 years - the last time British Airways lost my luggage, it was never found and they paid out a grand 20% of the value. I will never, ever fly with them again internationally. Ever wondered why the airlines have a lost luggage department at every airport. You do the sums.

5. Be a little cautious about saying "it only happens to other people." I used to think the same, until it happened to me - twice.