The Emirates Experience

Today morning my Sister was suppose to board the early morning Emirates flight from Dubai to Bombay. I had booked that flight because it was very important for my Mom that she be at home on 3rd Dec 2009 plus she wanted to join office.
So my cousins, Sister and I reached the airport terminal 3 by 01:00 hrs. She tried checking in through the electronic check-in at the start of terminal 3. But the electronic machine did not accept her passport so we decided to do the normal check-in.
There was an Arab guy (Not a UAE local but definitely GCC) at the counter. He checked her ticket and then very bluntly said “Madam, you cannot board this flight and you can board the next flight at 09:30 hrs plus we will give you an extra ticket that will be valid for a year.” My sister is travelling out of the country for the first time, so she had no idea how to react to this. She just walked to me saying there is some problem.
Then I walked to the guy at the counter and asked him about the problem. He repeated the same sentence with the same arrogant tone. At first even I went blank and then started thinking “Is it fucking possible?” I thought since I have paid for the ticket why the fuck should I just walk off. I asked him the reason and thinking there might be some serious problem (you can never trust what can go wrong these days). The guy then told me “Sir, We overbooked the flight and there is a chance that she might not be able to board this flight and but to find that out you will have to wait till 02:30 hrs.” On hearing this naturally my 1st reaction was “Overbooked???” “The (fucking) flight? What is that suppose to mean?”
The guy then told me that it was the airlines mistake and they overbooked the flight as in sold some of the already sold tickets to some other transit customer? Then I called in my cousin who was parking his car, who too was shocked at such a thing. We stood there arguing and had mild altercation with all the people at the counter. Then they told us that we are not the only one that most of the people checking in now were being held off and it was true. There were like 5 more customers waiting on other counters arguing about the same point. One guy had a connecting flight from Bombay to Goa. There was one more guy whose mother was serious? And there were a few other guys like my sister.
Cutting a long story short, we argued but as time passed, it sunk in to me that there is no way that any of these people were getting on that flight so it will be better to choose from what they have to offer. This was as follows:
1) Travel by any other flight that day (9:30, 13:20, 16:30 and 22:30 flights). I selected the 22:30 flight for my sister as I shall not be able to drop her before that since I am at work today.
2) Plus one return ticket between Dubai and Bombay (only in the current passengers name and not en-cashable). We had to take this as this was the only Solace from this situation.
3) Stay at the hotel till the next flight. If it was a guy we would have definitely availed this option but since it is my sister here I didn’t want to leave her alone in a hotel for a day.
By 03:00 in the morning the deal was done but anyone who is not a frequent flyer can be far from happy by this. I understand there is no point in cribbing about this, since it is done now. But thinking about this there are a few things Emirates can do about such situation.
1) How the fuck does someone overbook a flight? It is not metro ticket counter that you keep selling tickets and customer will choose from the scheduled trains to board. You have fixed seats to fill in and standing passengers are not allowed. It is suppose to be an International flight and that too Emirates. They are so highly ranked.
2) If at all they have such a situation, they should inform the passenger at least 5 hours before the flight (i.e. 2 hours before the check-in time). They should call or at least inform through text message.
3) Emirates staff could do away with the tone and attitude, especially at this kind of situation. Just not expected off such reputed airlines. I am not just complaining about the Arab guy but the other Indian female who was at the counter (forgot their names though). The Indian girl had a technique of breaking this news to customer. She just rudely told them with a Sir prefix “We cannot allow you to board this flight, you will have to take the next flight out of here and there absolutely nothing that we can do to get you on this flight” (The ticket is mentioned only when the passengers revolts). That strategy actually works as I saw 2 guys just simply take the next flight ticket and leave.
Now let’s start with the inconveniences caused:
1) My Sister won’t be able to join work as scheduled.
2) My Sister won’t be attending the Some Puja (a Hindu ritual) which my mom follows religiously. (I personally, didn’t want to mention this reason as I myself oppose such impositions from my Mom )
3) One day stay at Dubai (unplanned / forced).
4) My cousin and I are deprived of sleep and are working today. (I had only 3 hour of sleep)
5) We had to pay AED 25 for his parking. (Which could have been avoided if everything went according to plan)
6) Staying awake at the Airport from 1:00 to 3:00 am (Doesn’t go well with such unpleasant news).
7) Putting up with the attitude of Emirates staff (one of them was polite) at the counter.
8) The free return ticket provided as compensation is non-transferrable, or I could travel on it.
I am putting this up on my blog and sending to all my friends. I would like to request all who read this blog, please post your comments. I will send the link to this blog to Emirates complaint box and would like them to consider some suggestions. I am not raking up a movement against this airline, just providing them suggestions from the passengers. More like a suggestion box slip (hope it is taken seriously).
There is just one more thing; I just hope they don’t fuck up my Thailand flight (Booked them before this incident) it is schedule for this month.