Dear Emirates.
I have just returned back to England from travelling to Cape Town on the worst flight delays I have ever experienced.
I booked to leave London Heathrow Airport on the 28th of May with flight EK0004, departure at 20.40pm.
At about 20.30pm we were informed that the flight had been delayed due to a technical fault which they would inform us about as soon as they had more details. About 30 minutes later we were notified that a hydraulic fluid leak was picked up by the service engineers which needed repairing and that they were looking for spares. At about 22H00 the entire flights passengers were sent to departure terminal 26B in hope of then boarding the repaired plane? Once we got there we waited for 1 hour to eventually be sent back to the Duty free waiting area in the airport. Just after 24H00 we were told we were going to be sent to the Holiday Inns for the night and would need to re-arrange flights for the next day.By the time we were all taken to the airport and given a room it was 3am the next morning. On waking up in the hotel at 8am, I contacted both The Emirates and my travel agent "The Wise Miser" for some assistance to get to Cape Town on a direct flight that evening seeing as the purpose of my trip was to be with my 9 year old daughter who I see twice a year. Due to working a continental shift pattern which doesn't coincide with the South African school holiday calendar I could only spend 4 days with my daughter which was now being halved by the delays. Emirates airlines couldn't help me with a direct flight which they don't fly to Cape Town and they weren't prepaired to deal with a re-imbursement for me to change to an alternate direct flight that night. I then had no choice but to stay with the option of flying to Cape Town via Dubai leaving London at 13H30 the next day. After all passengers boarded the plane and the pilot taxi'd to the start of the run-way, one of the passengers decided they weren't feeling well and the plane needed to turn back. It turned out the passenger had a fobia about flying and wanted to get off immediately!! The pilot then turned back the plane and the passenger and her luggage was removed. The pilot mentioned in all the years of his flying he has never experienced a double string of delays before. Just over 2 hours later we were ready to take-off. Just as I accept the Emirates have acted in the best safety of us all not to allow the plane to take-off until it was 100%, and they had to deal with a passenger that decided to voice their flying fobia at the last minute, I have lost half the time on what was already a short trip to be with my daughter. I am surprised that despite my efforts that the Emirates Airlines weren't more willing to try and get me to my destination any sooner, given the circumstances I so clearly explained over the phone that delayed morning from the Holiday Inns?
0 comments