Emirates
reviews and complaints

Hello Emirates,
We are deeply saddened by the unfortunate incident that has taken place at Dubai airport and send our condolence.
We understand that during this period, there is a lot of chaos at the Dubai airport right now and unfortunately we have lost one of our bags while travelling from Mumbai to Accra. There was an enforced one day halt in Dubai due to flight delays.
The baggage tag number is EK 371994 and the flight number is EK 787 dated 5th August.
We have spoken to the lost baggage desk at Accra airport but they had a very negative attitude towards helping us. On the day after making the complaint, no one from the department contacted us and it was me who called and asked for updates on the bag. They responded to my call saying the baggage had arrived with today’s flight and I could come to the airport to collect it. When I went to the airport, the baggage wasn't there and they knew nothing about the whereabouts of the bag as well. There is no system in place which could track the bag and that is a shame. It is impossible for a person to visit the airport everyday only for the confirmation of the arrival of luggage to turn out into a hoax.
You are requested to take this into your hand and deliver my baggage to me as the people in Accra are incapable of doing that. I understand the unfortunate happening at the Dubai airport has turned the system haywire but expect Emirates to deliver my valuable belongings to me ASAP.
Passengername:BILQEES KHANAM

Many Thanks

Thanks and Have a Good Day!
Warm Regards,
Rafi

I am Dr.Khalid Farooqui was travelling from hyderabad to doha via dubai in emirates airlines Business Class EK527 with my wife and twin 7 month old little infants, first to start with the flight was delayed from hyderabad for 20-25 minutes, any how it was a pleasant journey just before we were about to land dubai international airport, the captain of the flight announce the plane has stuck in the runway of airport so we are not able to land at present and have been diverted to other nearby airport from there hardly we will be moved to main international airport either by flight or through the airline buses and it may take a little time about 45-60 minutes, , after 1 hour again captain announced it may take little more time and this is how they made us to wait 7-8 hours in the plane itself, u cannot imagine how difficult it is to sit with two infants and how difficult for infants to sit for 7 hours in the same place, , i appreciate air lines crew who were doing maximum efforts to make us comfortable, but it was in vain, we suffered and it was really suffocating.in the mean time i also attended a patient in the flight who was ill and gave my opinion about his need for hospitalization which was taken care by the cabin crew, at last evening around 2000 hours they called as buses has arrived, were taken to maqtoom international airport by buses with no air to breath, after getting down at the terminal we were given transit boarding passes by un mannered airline staff and we appreciate the one boy from mumbai who is a flight catering incharge for emirates at maqtoom international airport was very co ordial and humbly made a seating arrangement for us, as they was no place to rest .After 2 hours they shifted us to terminal 3 at main dubai international airport in bus, can u imagine me and my family how much we suffered specially my kids..Once we reach terminal 3 we went to get the new boarding passes for our flight to doha, there were hundreds of passengers standing in que and no one was there to separate first class, business and economy forget about this no one bothered to separate for families, elders and bachelors.. i was standing in the que with my infant in thickly packed area for almost 2 hours, how u feel u take your 7 month infant and stand in such crowd, she was crying a lot, the other people beside me concerned about my child but no airline people bothered to look after us, inspite they were watching but just ignored, at one point my eyes were wet as i cannot my child stop crying or take her out, on the other hand my wife was sitting on floor of airport with other infant.The Airline Staff told me next flight is at 8 a.m in the morning and its now 3 a.m already better to spend time in airport rather then going for a hotel, i took boarding pass and was in business lounge sitting for 3 hours, my children's suffered a lot and also my wife.The next day morning 4th august we started to move for GATE c 3, my wife after walking for almost 2 kilometers from gate A, when we reached gate C my wife with my child asked for the electronic transport vehicle driver to drop her till gate C3, , but the driver refused and told he will not carry one passenger ;we all the way walked to c3 and boarded flight, again their was announcement that flight is delayed initially captain told because of laguage, then told because of backlog flights he is not allowed to fly, after 2 hours 15 minutes the flight takeoff. At last we reached Doha, but the sad part was my entire laguage was missing and still waiting for that after 2 days of arrival.WHAT THE HELL POST DISASTER MANAGEMENT TEAM WAS DOING, ITS A WORLD FAMOUS AIRPORT AND WORLD FAMOUS AIRLINES YET FAILED TO MANAGE THE POST DISASTER MANAGEMENT, IT WAS LOOKING LIKE THEY WERE TOTALLY CONFUSED AND NOT PREPARED FOR SUCH INCIDENTS..I KNOW IT WAS AN INCIDENT WHICH WAS NOT IN OUR HANDS AND MY CONDOLENCE TO THE FIRE FIGHTER WHO LOST HIS LIFE DURING EVACUATION OF PASSENGERS..BUT I FEEL EMIRATES AND AIRPORT AUTHORITY OF DUBAI FAILED TO MANAGE SEQUELAE OF DISASTER AND MADE US TO SUFFER, SUFFER, AND SUFFER..IT YOUR JOB TO QUICKLY MAKE ARRANGEMENTS, TRIAGE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WITH FAMILIES SPECIALLY WITH LITTLE KIDS AND ELDERLY..I CANNOT FORGET THAT HORRIBLE NIGHT ME AND MY FAMILY EXPERIENCED AND CANNOT TRUST FURTHER EMIRATES AIRLINES MANAGEMENT...IT WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE..THANK YOU EMIRATES

I grew up in Dubai so I watched this airline grow but I was surprised with an experience I had yesterday that who voted this airline to be the number one .
First food sucks from Houston to Dxb flight .
777 used on this route with so uncomfortable seats, then I had an emergency while in Bangkok and had to change my flight so I called Emirates Houston office very bad customer service couldn't help then I called dubai office no help very rude Indian, then I called the local number in Bangkok and guess what I found the right person who knew her job she knew what to do in situations like mine her name Wallay Saheen excellent customer attitude she was the women in Emirates who went over board to help me after listening my issue and knew it how to resolve .
I want Emirates to know get there acts together with customers and specially who are loyal customers .me and my family fly twice a year I spend lot of money with this airline .
And please someone should reward this lady in Bangladesh Emirates office .

I find it very disheartening that you cannot do anything to make up for our losses on our tours, hotels and our flights beyond Bangkok. It all stems from the fact that you cancelled our flight. In case you are not aware we make our plans months in advance and for you to cancel a week in advance is bad service. We cannot get our money back for our prepaid tours and hotel. This does not end here.
I also find it disappointing that someone from your offices does not even take the time to find out whats going on.

-----Original Message-----
From: ekreservations
To: verna williams
Sent: Mon, Jul 25, 2016 4:38 am
Subject: Re: Payment methods

Hello Mrs Williams,

Thank you for contacting us.

I understand that because of a schedule change, you need to make some adjustments to your travel plans.

However, please note as much as we try to avoid delays or cancellations; in the event that there is a need for us to modify the schedule due to operational reasons, we contact the customer at the earliest and offer alternative flights available.

I can see that an earlier flight has now been confirmed for all passengers on August 1 2016 to Bangkok, and the updated e-Tickets have been sent to you.

I'm extremely sorry we'd be unable to offer you compensation in the form of upgrades for such a situation.

Hope the above clarifies.

Sincerely,

Fateh Shaikh
Customer Sales & Service Representative
Tell us what you think about your experience with us today in our 10 second survey ?

On 23/07/16 02:02,
Country Code: -

Language Code: en

Title: Mrs

First Name:
Last Name:
Email: [protected]@aol.com

Telephone number: Mobile: +1 [protected]

Booking Reference Number: pv264f

Departure Date: 29 Jul 16

Departure City: Chicago (ORD)

Destination: Bangkok (BKK)

Class of Travel: Economy Saver

How did you pay?: Credit/Debit Card

Attachments:
https://usercontent.emirates.combt201674f6e449e-4f21-43d8-b278-b7dfaa866e00185_2.pdf

How can we help: I just got a call from the Dubai Offices and the New York office and they keep pointing the fingers at each other. Dubai says New York have to handle it and New York say Dubai have to handle it. I am very frustrated at this point and I need a resolution and compensation immediately.
-----Original Message-----
From: nveej
To: onlinesalesnyc
Sent: Thu, Jul 21, 2016 12:59 pm
Subject: Flight Cancellation
My name is Verna Williams and per our conversation here are the details of our flight. First her are the confirmation numbers PV264F FIZXUW CSE7QB. We were all booked on a flight that we received a voice mail stating that it was cancelled. We already had Tours, Hotel and transportation booked according to our confirmation. Our reservation was booked months in advance and we got a call for a weeks notice about our flight. All we are asking for is a complimentary upgrade to Business not First class for all our inconvenience. Because of this interruption we have to make a lot of changes and have to cut some of our plans short. Hotels have to be rebooked and we have to pay for changes weve have to make. Our tours are not willing to refund our money and the flights that we are connecting on beyond Bangkok are not willing to work with us. We are just asking for the upgrade for all of our inconvenience and loses.
Sincerely

I was booking in online in rome for my return to johannesburg from rome
Date 13th july 2016 departure 10.55 rome dubai johannesburg arriven 05.30 johannesburg.
Out popped on the screen in rands 8900 you can upgrade to business class. I thought about it and decided to upgrade. Boy I did not know this was all a con by emirates airline.
I went to the airpoirt had security wrapping put on for 10 euro and proceeded to the book in counter. Placed my case on the scale and I was issued with my boarding passes I noticed my short leg 5 hours day flight was business but my long haul night flight dubai to johannesburg was economy I queried this, the booking lady said she would go and speak to someone, on her return shed told me that I had not upgraded all the way.
- I requested that she cancel my business upgrade ticket as I did not to fly for 5 hours day flight r1500 per hour flying up and above what I already paid, I was informed that was not possible from her computer as I had booiked on line. I told her I would try from my computer. Also not possable I told her this is a con
-she then informed my case weighed 27.6 kilos and I was overweight and would have to pay 46 euro. I could believe what I was hearing I said business you get 32 kilos, she said no my business class ticket does not allow me 32kilos.
- I informed that I would take out my books etc to bring down the weight I took the case and then cut off the security wrapping which I just paid 10 euro for put the books into my jacket pockets in front of the booking in lady my case was now according to what the con business ticked allowed
-not happy as this pure con'' misrepresentation''misinformation this was disgusting. I would never book a business upgrade for a 5 hour day flight knowing I then had a long haul flight dubai to johannesburg it does not make sense I was conned well done emirates you zapped me
It was not over yet, I asked for my ticket to enter the business class lounge
I was informed my business class ticket for the short day flight did not entitle me to go to the business class lounge can you believe this, I don't understand a business class ticket is a business class ticket or am I going crazy or do emirates have different business class the seats looked all the same to me and seats don't go all the way when you lie down I am 5ft 10in
And me feet were hanging over the edge. The food was average and I was only allowed to order one starter however the on board service was fantastic. There were only 12 people in business
When being offered a business class upgrade on emirates air beware it is a huge con.

Thank you Emirates informed us that they've hidden the posts on Facebook that contain images of their crew to protect their privacy about Emirates provided very poor and rude service, food supplied but did not supply any beverage; when requested but we got a very rude answer there was a box of water in the tray (very small one). The Flight Attendants were only busy on chatting and enjoyed the snacks during flights.

These happened not only in our round-trip flights; there are many passengers complained Emirates these poor service and rude have frequently occurred in different flights recent years but still not improve and more serious.

Passengers made the formal complaints to Emirates, they said Emirates no response or only perfunctory response. All complaints of Emirates can be easily searched online.

Emirates asked us file a Formal Complaint share these experience to their Customer Relations Team ?
For what ~ We do not ask get back the free drinks / wines. Just hope Emirates maintains the most basic service to ALL ECONOMY CLASS passengers, not only provides excellent service to the passengers of First / Business Class; Economy Class passengers also paid.

Emirates should be ashamed for these !
Please respect the job !

I booked/buy an online (14 June 2016) ticket to Emirates thru their website and unfortunately I cannot travel on the said date (19 June 2016).

I cancell the online ticket on the 16th June 2016 on thier website itself and follow the step by step procedures. As per other airlines regulations and as im doing it also on other airlines here a charges will be levied upon the cancellation of the unused ticket.

After a week I received an email regarding the cancell ticklet amount, guess what, I only received an amount of €62.38 out of the total cost of the ticket of €452.38

I called thier office here in vienna, austria and the agent said that the dubai office is the one who decided the refund.

Is there any other way to get the full refund or partial since I did not used the ticket. The ticket i buy online is not sale since I booked it 14th June 2016 and will supposed to travel on 19th June 2016.

Please someone help me for this refund is unfair on my part. or is there a way to file a direct complain to Emirates Airlines. Im truly dissappointed since it will be supposed my 1st travel to emirates airlines and now this refund. I think this is robbery and its not normal practise since other airline here in austria is not charging a ticket refund for 80&% of the amount will be lost.

Jill Mandajoyan

I’m so disappointed that staff of Emirates are giving me different requirements and information’s. I went to Emirates group office yesterday In Deira (near clock tower), the lady who assisted me advise me that they need a salary certificate minimum of 4K. Whereas, the lady I spoke through [protected] advised me that they don’t need any requirements from me as long as the requirements of my parents are complete. I went to the office and all my plans are failed because of their different information. I booked already the hotel and now i have to pay for the cancellation.

Who will educate your emirates staff working on multan international airport pakistan. They are really non professional and mis behaving with the passengers. We had a flight for colombo yesterday and even with refrence of your previous email regarding otb, they took back our issued boarding passes and cancelled them, didn't let us board making an excuse that you need an ok to board for srilanka.

This is not required for srilanka and even not practiced on any other airport of pakistan. Our meetings our whole plan in srilanka and on return joining atm dubai is messed up by your staff.
Looking to hear from you something quick and positive.

Both I and my wife were scheduled on Emirates flight # EK0247, leaving on 1/29/16 from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires. I found out late December 2015 that I could not make that trip. I requested a ticket refund from Emirates and they approved it. They sent me e-mail confirmation. The ticket was charged on my Visa. I never received that credit. I checked with my Visa bank and they have no record of ever receiving the credit. Emirates claims the refund was made 12/30/15 to my Visa. This is for Record Locator # MHUH3N and ticket numbers [protected] and [protected]. I need an e-mail from Emirates stating that they have already made the refund, showing the date and amount. I can then forward that e-mail to my Visa bank and they will give me the credit. I have been waiting months for this to get resolved.

Emirates Airlines is wonderful to fly in but recently I had a very bad experience with lost and damage baggage and claims reimbursement.

My bags were transferred from an Air France flight to Emirates. They arrived 3 days later than my arrival in India from Paris. The bags were visibly damaged, several items were missing including some perishables.

Subsequently, I filed the claims form with receipts of the missing, newly purchased items-which thankfully I had retained. However, I did not have receipts for some cheese I had bought worth a small amount of $20.
In the final claims settlement, Emirates insisted on providing "evidence" of damage for the product- which I had shown to the delivery agent as I discarded the same. Also, they settled for a much lesser amount for my brand new turtle shell luggages without any reasonable explanation.

They refuse to reimburse these items and issued a final statement that a "detailed review" was done on my claims. Again, there was no rational explanation on why customers need to provide receipts for food products that they did not anticipate will be lost.

I find this to be a case of complete lack of discretion and faith despite inconvenience caused to the customers. The claims processing of emirates clearly needs to be better managed to serve customers.

Purchased emirates business class ticket in december 2015 for travel in march 2016 on the dfw-maa route. Purchased through their website. Paid a premium for the business class travel on their airbus a380 service from dfw. Shocked to know that we were put on a boeing 777 aircraft. There is a huge disparity between the a380 and the boeing 777 business class seat. At the time of booking we were sold the business class ticket on the airbus a380. We even preselected the seat that we wanted to be in. Emirates may have the right to change their aircraft but don't have the right to mislead their passengers. Emirates should have informed all the affected passengers officially through proper correspondence and given the choice to the affected passengers to either accept this change or be given the chance to get a refund or change of class. For sure I would not have bought an emirates boeing 777 business class ticket. I wanted the emirates airbus a380 business class experience. At no time at all did emirates contact us to intimate of this aircraft change. I feel this amounts to an illegal act on emirates side. There is also definitely a price difference between the a380 & boeing 777 seats, boeing being cheaper. So I feel theft of money by deceit is also committed by emirates.
I'm sure that I am not the only person affected by this unscrupulous act by emirates airlines. I request all affected passengers to come together and we may take legal action against this unethical, illegal action by emirates airlines. Without a doubt emirates airlines has violated the contract that it has agreed with their passengers when they collected the money from the passengers at the time of sale of seat / ticket.
Had emirates airlines offered the affected passengers a choice or refund for the difference in price prior to travel date then maybe we would not have been here in this position today.
I am open to suggestions and request all passengers affected due to such aircraft change by emirates airlines to join together to find a legal solution against emirates airlines.
Regards.
Yogi bala.
[protected]@gmail.com

Purchased emirates business class ticket in december 2015 for travel in march 2016 on the dfw-maa route. Purchased through their website. Paid a premium for the business class travel on their airbus a380 service from dfw. Shocked to know that we were put on a boeing 777 aircraft. There is a huge disparity between the a380 & the boeing 777 business class seat. At the time of booking we were sold the business class ticket on the airbus a380. We even preselected the seat that we wanted to be in. Emirates may have the right to change their aircraft but don't have the right to mislead their passengers. Emirates should have informed all the affected passengers officially through proper correspondence and given the choice to the affected passengers to either accept this change or be given the chance to get a refund or change of class. For sure I would not have bought an emirates boeing 777 business class ticket. I wanted the emirates airbus a380 business class experience. At no time at all did emirates contact us to intimate of this aircraft change. I feel this amounts to an illegal act on emirates side. There is also definitely a price difference between the a380 & boeing 777 seats, boeing being cheaper. So I feel theft of money by deceit is also committed by emirates.
I'm sure that I am not the only person affected by this unscrupulous act of emirates airlines. I request all affected passengers to come together and we may take legal action against this unethical, illegal action by emirates airlines. Without a doubt emirates airlines has violated the contract that it has agreed with their passengers when they collected the money from the passengers at the time of sale of seat / ticket.
Had emirates airlines offered the affected passengers a choice or refund for the difference in price prior to travel date then maybe we would not have been here in this position today.
I am open to suggestions and request all passengers affected due to such aircraft change by emirates airlines to join together to find a legal solution against emirates airlines.
Regards.
Yogi bala.
[protected]@gmail.com

I'm frequent flyer on emirates, I book return tickets from you branch in cairo airport office with employee called khaled, I asked him to put me in a window seat as my wife doesn't like to sit on the side as she is very religious, he confirmed with me that the window at the very end in the plane and he put me in 42 a & b he on the return wasn't not window and he promised to change and call me to confirm
I told him that I can book business if there is no window in economy and he said it too expensive why you do that, I discovere yesterday that what he booked for me want window seats it was 42 bc I called him over his mobiles he said forgive me it is mistake my flight was 924 on 10/2

Upon arrival in geneva on flight ref: ivxfbj (Per - gva) for 5 pax, we were advised that my father in law was killed in an accident in south africa. We went to our accommodation that was booked for us and proceeded to make arrangements to return to south africa to plan his funeral. We were advised by emirates in gva that the copies of certs and passports for the kids were fine and allowed us boarding in gva to travel to cpt.
Upon departure from gva to dubai the first leg of our trip we were all fine no hassles. When we arrived in dubai for our 2nd leg of our ticket we were told we could not go to capetown as we now needed original unabridged birth certificates for our kids. We were not advised of this in gva and neither the web nor the ground staff of emirates advised us of requirements. I sat for 2hrs 17 minutes at your ticketing office to get assistance. I had to wait for a supervisor to come on duty as the agent had stated that it was emirates error for advising us to book firstly and allowing us to board our flight in gva. I was told that the supervisor would waiver the costs of making changes to the original ticket we which we were supposed to return to perth at the end of our holiday flight ref: ivxfbj as we were told we cannot onward fly to capetown on ref:ybgm7v and that we would have to apply for it to be refunded and that we would be would be given compensation for denied boarding by emirates staff. We said my husband would onward journey alone to south africa to make his fathers burial arrangements and the gate staff denied him boarding to saying our ticket is booked as a family they cannot allow him to onward travel and she tore all our boarding passes up after she off loaded us from the flight. The service we received in dubai was shocking no staff were on roster to assist and I have to wait along time for a supervisor to come on duty and even then she was incapable of assisting me... Not happy with emirates service. I worked in the travel industry for 8 years and have never encountered such shocking assistance. It cost me a tremendous amount of money due to unskilled staff advise. Not happy at all. I expect compensation from my tickets, I also expect what my rights are for denied boarding compensation. I even had to pay additional change fees on our original ticket to change to fly back to perth. After I was specifically told that we will be given compensation due to denied boarding and specifically as my husband was ill advised that he may not onward travel alone. You better fix this I am going to lodge a complaint at iata

06.12.2015 - cancellation of 4 flight tickets jhb - perth return
15.01.2015 - enquired about refund then well overdue
18.01.2015 - informed by emirates refund request for only 1 ticket was received although all 4 tickets were submitted for refund on one form! i was informed that i should change the refund request to bank transfer - this was only after numerous complaints from myself. At no stage did emirates contact me to say there was an error on my initial refund request.
03.02.2016 - i re-submitted a full claim for all 4 tickets again
05.02.2015 - received confirmation of re-imbursement due for only 3 tickets. What happened to the refund for the 4th ticket which was submitted on exactly the same form. This is ticket number [protected]. Reference number NRP5H2.

I am a silver member and have been flying with emirates for under 2 years. I will be gold in a month.
I had an emergency trip from kabul afghanistan home to washington dc, usa on 27th of jan 2016 and retuned 2 feb 2016.In the us and my return flight to kabul my bag was delayed for an unknown reason. 1 day going to the us and 2 days returning to kabul.
Dec 17 2016 I flew home for leave. My bag was delayed by one day in the us.
Aug 29 2016 I flew from washington dc usa to kabul afghanistan and my bag was left at jfk ny us airport for 4 days. I had food in the bag that spoiled and when my bag was "inventoried" by an emirates employee the person decided that they liked several items in my bag and took them.
There have been other issues but I really would love to find a way to make a complaint and get a response (Doesn't happen-if you can find a way to complain) and get resolution.
Why are they such a horrible airline? Simple, always new associates, they are underpaid and treated poorly and not proper training. A company that does not care about associates can not operate without an extreme about of complaints, problems and issues. I hope they get bought out.

It s very simple trick, they sell ticket with a determined fee, it depends what you choose, but when you have to change, they ask a fee much higher, 3 times in my case, and the trick is not giving any detail about the total price you have to pay, except if you check the full website, so you think you pay more because a different fare in the class.Actually they charge a higher fee.In my case, fee should have been 50+ 40e for difference in fare.They asked 40+ 150 for fee. No answer from customer service. They don t care.

Date of incident: 9 jan 2016 ticket number: 176 [protected] booking reference: cqdq76 names: randall smith ; maria cuellar connecting flight from dubai to dallas-ft. Worth (Dfw) : ek221 approx. Midnight in dubai, some 3 hours prior to flight departure, my wife and I arrived at emirates ticketing in dubai and waited in line to check in our bags along with ourselves for the final leg of our return home from a round-trip dallas-delhi-dallas set of 4 flights. When reaching the ticketing counter at approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes prior to flight departure, the ticketing agent asked if we would be interested in taking a later flight if we were given a free round-trip flight to dubai within the next year. We declined the generous offer to visit dubai again, explaining that we had to return to dallas on-schedule for employment reasons. The ticketing agent said she understood, accepted our 4 pieces of luggage, tagged them for dallas and gave us the baggage receipt tags for baggage claim in dallas, and then informed us that we were not on the flight! We were dumbfounded to say the least. I assumed we must have heard her wrong because it did not seem to make any sense. I asked the ticket agent to please clarify what she was telling us, and she proceeded to explain that all seats on the aircraft were occupied, and so we would be forced to take another flight, now without incentive, because we had already been offered the incentive and declined it. Nothing seemed to make sense: why had she checked in our luggage? Why had she hid the fact that the flight was full? Why had she made an offer and then withdrawn it? Why had we been booted off the flight? Could this treatment possibly be the way emirates airline treats their customers? What recourse did we have? What rights did we have? Why had she been so deceptive and sneaky about how she dealt with us? Was our luggage going to dallas without us? I assumed there was some major misunderstanding, so I started to sift through the situation one fact at a time. I showed her our tickets which had assigned seats and green highlighting, under status, which said "confirmed". She (The ticketing agent) retorted that our tickets meant nothing. I pointed out that we had seats, and we were at the airport in plenty of time for the flight. She said those were not our seats, that whatever is printed on an emirates ticket and receipt was merely a "suggestion", and in no way held a seat. I explained that we were on a connection, enroute from delhi to dallas. She said connection or no connection, nothing else mattered at that point because there simply was no seats to give away. My wife chimed in that we had paid thousands of dollars for our seats on that flight and had booked months prior. The ticket agent only said there was nothing she could do. I asked where we had gone wrong, where our mistake had been made, what crime or trespass or oversight perpetrated by me had led to being bumped off our flight home; or what had happened to bring us to such an unfortunate circumstance. The agent explained that emirates airline is a 'first-come, first-serve' air carrier, and so the only thing which matters is: who checks in first. I countered that we had arrived when the airport check-in began. She explained that we had been displaced by online check-ins, which had been going on for the previous 22 hours prior to our arrival at the airport. We had lost our place because we did not do the online check-in, believing we had seats on our through flight to dallas. The ticket agent made it clear that no one flying emirates ever has a reserved seat until after check-in. By not checking in online we had lost what we found we had never really had—seats on our second leg to dallas. So now we became very upset and distraught because further discussion with the ticket agent revealed she could not guarantee us any seats on any particular flight to dallas—she could not guarantee when we would ever get to dallas, although she did assure us that emirates would get us home sometime, on some flight, through some place, some day. We were beside ourselves, felt helpless and powerless and betrayed. Felt we had been deceived multiple times. Felt if online check-in was so essential that emirates should have told us it was far more than a convenience. (Our logic had been that online check-in seemed to be redundant for us because we had to check in baggage at the airport anyway: how wrong we were) I refused to accept that we were simply booted out in the cold—stranded indefinitely at dubai airport—by some inexperienced ticketing agent, so I asked to speak with a supervisor. She pointed to desk 501, where a throng of other passengers was piled up in front of his counter, desperately pleading for solutions to their own flight problems. I asked if perhaps since we were on a connection and needed to get home we could get an upgrade to business class seats. She said only a supervisor could make such a call. I inquired about getting our luggage back, since we did not want to be separated from it. The ticket agent said there was still a chance we or some of the other displaced passengers could still get on the flight if there was some 'no shows', so she advised us to leave the luggage with her so that if some seats opened up we could get there first, and get those seats before the others scrambling for the same seats. We didn't feel good at that point—physically or otherwise. We are middle-aged and now we had been thrown by emirates into a nerve-wracking scramble for seats, competing with teenagers, young adults, women and children. It was sickening, disgusting, bewildering, and angering, all at once. I still couldn't believe it was happening, there, in the middle of the night, when the previous 3 flights on emirates had gone so well. I felt I owed an apology to my wife, and maybe to good sense as well, for booking us on emirates airline for our holiday to india. We never were allowed to speak to a supervisor or anyone in real authority. There were far too many people in front of us and the other emirates staff simply said there was nothing they could do—all of them helpless to help customers. So we were forced to wait for a very tense and upsetting 50 minutes to see if by some off-chance, some of those who did online check-ins would also be 'no shows'. At 1 hr. And 41 min. Prior to flight departure, our previous ticket agent hurriedly and excitedly motioned us to come quickly, telling me to disconnect the guide straps for the line, to come directly to her counter. We realized we were racing the other stranded passengers, and that we had to beat them, so we ran like children to catch the train. We did get seats at the last nick of time and we made it onto the flight, no time for duty free or any other thing we had planned such as a bathroom break. I have been bumped off of flights before, having flown many times. I have never felt less appreciated as a customer, a passenger, as a dignified older person. I have never seen my wife so distressed as by what emirates caused us to experience. This was our first experience with emirates and, unless something is made right, I will not only avoid using emirates airline again in the future, I will get on every website I can find and give this same review, advising would-be american customers that if they do not like cattle-car, 'first-come, first serve' only, indian train style service, for their international airline travel, then do not fly on emirates airline. I also will tell my sister-in-law, who works for american express preferred to tell those in charge to deny emirates' application for listing and use by american express preferred customers. And lastly, I will tell everyone I know and ask them to spread the word about how emirates treated us and made our enjoyable vacation a dark memory and stressful episode not soon to be forgotten. My anger is now compounded because I made this complaint on www.Emirates.com on jan. 11th and have gotten no response at all, telling me once again that emirates does not value me or my wife as customers, or even as human beings. Things emirate airline could do which I would consider satisfactory to resolve my displeasure and affront which my wife and I suffered for no reason that we know of other than that which emirates failed to advise us: refund of that flight for the both of us round-trip tickets anywhere emirates flies without time limits on use. Free upgrade to business - or first-class if we ever fly emirates again, with no restrictions on destination or when the flight is taken. Thank you for having a complaint board to vent my displeasure. Randall a. Smith