The same day SVV was going under the knife in San Francisco for a shattered wrist, I was paying homage to the porcelain gods halfway around the world. Up until that point, my entire month in Africa had gone off without a hitch: Although I had packed Pepto Bismol, Cipro, a variety of antibiotics, Zantac, everything short of the kitchen sink, I didn’t so much as have an upset stomach once—until my flight on Emirates, that is. I hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink the entire day until my in-flight meal on the overnight leg from Johannesburg to Dubai. About four hours later after eating it—”it” being poorly undercooked mystery meat—my stomach started gurgling violently. Uh-oh. That’s never a good omen.
I arrived amid a flurry of South Africans, many of them on holidays to Dubai, for a 24-hour layover in the glitzy city and went immediately to the transfer counter. I told the woman my problem, that I was very sick and had a connection the following morning to San Francisco (17 hours, it should be noted) and could she put in a request for me for the front exit row seat so I could be in close proximity to the lav (my current seat was a window in the back and would require I climb across a row of people each time nature called)? She said no, that exit rows weren’t released until the last minute and that I’d have to ask again the following morning.
I spent much of my time in Dubai terribly ill in my hotel room, then arrived three hours before my connection the next day. I immediately went to the counter, asked again for a better seat should I need a quick escape route and was told all the exit rows were booked (so much for releasing them “last minute”). I explained the situation, that I had gotten food poisoning from their flight and needed a seat with better accessibility. The check-in agent said sorry, no can do, no sympathy here. I went to another counter, this time customer “service” (a questionable term, no doubt), where the agent was equally as unhelpful. By this time, I was in tears, as I was having to frequently run to the bathroom, and two Emirates employees (after the previous two mentioned) went as far as to LAUGH in my face at my misfortune when they saw my pallid face, spouting, “she a funny passenger!” Nice. Just what one desires—mockery—as she bolts off to empty her internal organs in the loo. The worst part is my doctor had given me all sorts of antibiotics and pills should I get food poisoning, a bacteria infection, etc. but my bag was checked from South Africa all the way through, and the agents wouldn’t let me reclaim my bag to get proper medication.
I had all but given up–not only were the Emirates employees not willing to help in any way, but they clearly lacked all displays of human decency. So imagine my surprise when I went through the boarding gate and was stopped by security. At first, I breathed a sigh of relief: “Finally, some kind soul has come to my rescue, to move me to a more comfortable seat. There is a God after all.” WRONG. Rather, they heard my pleas and instead of aiding, sent a medical professional to me saying they weren’t going to allow me on the flight due to being ill! He wanted to check me out and hold up the flight; I told him I simply had food poisoning, nothing would make it better but time, that I had picked up something over-the-counter at a local pharmacy and that little could be done other than wait it out. I just wanted to get back to San Francisco, not stay in Dubai a moment longer. He raised his eyebrow, questioned my illness and didn’t believe I had food poisoning (let alone got it from the airline)—claiming it would only last a few hours if that were the case, not 24+. Funny, this inaccurate advice from a medical “professional” as food poisoning can last a number of days (something SVV and I learned the hard way over Christmas). I finally just had to tear away and scamper off in frustration as he wanted to give me a full examination before allowing me to fly or hold me back and put me on a later connection (still in the nose bleed seats, I’m sure). All this because I asked for a seat close to the lavatory!
I guess I should know more about this working in the industry that I do, but I do very little writing that has to do with airlines specifically. That said, I had always heard airlines have contracts of carriage that give passengers some rights, such as stating they’re required to relocate an ill passenger’s seat in such a circumstance. One Norwegian friend had a similar occurrence—food poisoning and poor treatment on Continental aboard a transatlantic LA to Oslo flight—and due to their code, she later got a free round-trip ticket because they handled the situation all wrong, similar to how Emirates did in this instance. The flight was far from full; in fact, all of business class was empty. They could have upgraded one of their premier members and moved me to their economy seat, but they said they only do upgrades when economy is overbooked. Though I think it’s pretty obvious that these days passenger comfort is the last thing airlines care about.
The worst part of it all? I figured, oh well, at least my United premier status is already renewed for next year considering Emirates is a United partner and my trip was nearly 25,000 miles in all, and that maybe, just maybe, it was a rather large price to pay for such insurance. Only, I returned home and checked my account online to find that while it is a United partner, Emirates is not a Star Alliance member, so my miles don’t even count, $@!#^$!@. If I’d known that, I would have forked over the extra cash for South African Airways. Spoken by a true traveler, yes I know.
How about you…have you had such an experience on any airline? Encountered such rudeness aboard Emirates? If so, pray tell! Misery loves company, especially when it involves airlines!
One thing is for certain, though: I’d rather fly Aeroflot for the rest of my days than ever giving a penny to Emirates again.
That is HORRIBLE. I haven’t had that experience and am hoping I won’t… I’m currently in Cape Town trying to recover from the worst food poisoning of my life, caught in Mozambique, and I am scheduled to fly on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I’m glad you posted this now, because I’m going to look into Virgin’s fine print to see what my rights are. I was already thinking of asking for a seat closer to the lav because I’m 30 weeks pregnant, but I think I now have twice the reason…
So sorry you dealt with this. Food poisoning is the worst, worst, WORST. And that 24 hours bullshit? Maybe it’s sometimes true in the developed world, but in the rest of the world it doesn’t apply. I’m on day seven.
Ugh, I’m so sorry that happened to you! I don’t have any similar stories to share, but, ugh. What a horrible experience.
That’s awful! Ive never had food poisoning let alone have to deal with it on a flight or while traveling, think that would be my worst nightmare! Im sorry you had to go thru that. My friend is an air hostess for Emirates, I wonder what she will have to say about this, shed probably agree theyre shit! haha
Oh man that’s awful, you poor thing!!!!!!! I hope someone from their company reads this and compensates you in some way!
My experience was not nearly as bad as yours, but I did get stuck in Colombia while sick. I had a raging cold – I was in that stage where your sinuses are totally clogged but things still seem to be draining so you can’t blow your nose and you can’t sniffle – all you can do is jam some tissue up your nose, breath through your mouth and be miserable.
It was like this that I flew 30 minutes from Medellin to Bogota for my 2pm Mexicana Air flight from Bogota to Chicago (with a stop in Mexico City). But when my husband and I arrived at the gate, we were told we couldn’t check in for 30 more minutes. We came back a half-hour later and still no gate with the Mexicana logo. We asked at the Avianca desk where a nice gate agent took us on and said she’d help us figure out what the deal was.
She disappeared for 15 minutes and when she came back, she only asked us to follow her…behind the agent’s desk, over the moving luggage conveyor belt, and into a back office of Mexicana Airlines. There we found out that our flight that day had been canceled (and it had obviously been canceled some time ago as we were the only people to show up and everyone looked very surprised to see us) and that the next flight was tomorrow at 8am. We’d be given a hotel and a voucher for food, and we were told to be back at the airport by 5:30am. So we went to the hotel, where we stayed from 2pm until the next morning. My husband ate the free food (a disgusting dry chicken breast) and watched tv while I slept and was generally miserable.
The next morning, we tried to figure out what happened. We had been given a piece of paper with our itinerary on it and were able to surmise that the flight we were supposed to be on was canceled and we had been moved to an 8am flight that same morning. But, since we were never told about it, we didn’t show up. So when we showed up for the afternoon flight, they bumped us to the flight the next morning. When I asked to speak to a manager to find out why it happened, she was incredibly rude to me. She wouldn’t answer me, and instead spoke to another employee in Spanish, then went into the back room. The manager never came back – the other person came out with a complaint form for me to fill out.
We finally got back home, 22 hours later than planned. After badgering the airline for three weeks, they offered me a $100 credit.
I’ll normally jump at the chance to get a free extra day of a trip, but there is no worse feeling than being in unfamiliar or uncomfortable surroundings while miserably sick.
I have Emirates by its scrawny little neck and am slapping them around like the petulant child that they are. It is simply cruel they didn’t move you to Business Class once the airplane took flight. It wouldn’t cost them a penny more to do so. Airline FaIL
I’m so sorry about your horrible experience! One year, when flying home for Christmas, I had a layover in Cincinnati. By the time I got off the plane for my layover, I was miserable with some sort of bug – fever, chills, headache. I had put on a tee-shirt with my skirt suit and heels (classy!) and curled up in a ball at the gate and cried. When I asked the gate agent if I could have a window seat, instead of the aisle seat I was assigned, so I could lean against the window and sleep, she looked me up and down and said “um, no. I shouldn’t even let you on the flight because of your germs.”
More tears and, finally, when I got on the plane, I was lucky enough that the person in my row in the window seat was 5 million feet tall and was glad to grab an aisle seat.
When did flying become so inhumane?
I’m seriously appalled by how rude and flat out disrespectful (not to mention unprofessional) they were to you. What was the point of that? Their treating you so poorly, I mean? Honestly, it didn’t help them in any way, as it wouldn’t have HURT them in any way to treat you with kindness. In fact, it would have HELPED them. Having a professional and much beloved travel writer as a fan and advocate of your airline? I would think that’s the best kind of PR in the business.
Wow!! What kind of customer service is this! I’m so sorry for your trouble. I think you should consider sending this post to the airline. I thought they are one of the highly rate airline. Guess I was misinformed! Or maybe there is no such thing as highly rate airline anymore.
I’ve never flown Emirates, and will now stay away. How terribly rude of them. Yet I’m not surprised that airline food made you ill, it’s never anything to brag about but this deserves looking into more.
I really enjoyed African Air, great service, good food and free poured alcohol. Plus they gave me my United miles. Sorry to hear about this yet glad you passed it along. Hope your recovery wasn’t too terrible on any more flights.
How awful! And also surprising, given their fancy schmanzy reputation. Hope your story goes forward and you get the compensation you deserve!
I’ve never flown with Emirates, however my Past Dream Jobs include an Emirates flight attendant. Four years ago I decided to apply on a whim, and although I’d never wanted to be a FA in my life, was all of a sudden obsessed by the idea. So I started the long and complicated process, made it through stages 1 and 2 and so on, until there was five of us left for the final interview. Interview went well, I showed the tattoos I was worried about, and they were all FINE FINE. After that (LONG after that) turned out that they dropped me altogether because of the tattoos, just failing to let me know, and it wasn’t easy to contact them either. They certainly weren’t going to contact me! A quick email at least would’ve been nice after all the time & energy devoted for the whole thing, not to mention the waiting.
Looking back now, it probably was for the best! Your story is just awful.
Poor you! I have only had food poisoning once in my life, and I pray I never get it again. I felt like dying!!
Fortunately I have never had a bad experience flying, but I am sure my luck will run out one of these days!
eek! being sick on an airplane is the worst, but being sick on an airplane in a foreign country layover has got to be even MORE worse!
Ugh what a horrible experience! As someone with chronic motion sickness, I am always asking for front bulkhead seats to alleviate my pain. My worst airline experience was with Delta, who treated us so inhumanely that I will never, EVER, travel with them again. Boo Delta!
I had food poisoning on a flight once – awful. I got it on Indonesian air – somehow I felt like being on an airplane magically meant I could eat lettuce. Bad idea. Of course that was my second of 5 flights home. My third, from Hong Kong to LA on Singapore air was the 12 hours of puking. In a middle seat, having to step over a sleeping Sikh gentleman because flight attendants won’t throw away puke bags and get mad when you camp out outside the bathroom door. Singapore air also made me sign waivers saying that it wasn’t their fault I had gotten sick, and talk to EMTs when I got off the flight (and I was quite lucky not to be placed in quarantine, which they considered). When people complain about bad flying experiences or bad seatmates I just laugh, because I was the most terrible seatmate possible and had the worst overnight flight possible.
Ugh what a terrible experience. Not sure what it is with the airline industry, but they certainly don’t have much of a rep for customer service. Maybe they are a little jaded from the people that go to the counter and yell about absolutely nothing, but in cases when people are actually in distress, you would think (hope?) that compassion would win out.
UGH. I cannot even imagine dealing with food poisoning on a plane. I actually got food poisoning on a Grupo Taca flight out of Guatemala, but luckily, I didn’t get really ill until I landed.
That’s really unfortunate that you got ill flying Emirates, I’ve flown them about 3 or 4 times from Australia and from the UK and never had a problem with food or with there service. Its unfortunate that you wouldn’t fly them again. Food poisoning on a plane would not be great, touch wood it never happens to me.
Bummer about your experience on Emirates. I just flew Emirates for the first time 3 weeks ago from Dubai to Cape Town and back. I was very impressed with the airlines. We flew economy down and business back thanks to upgrading with my husband’s miles. Everything was wonderful on my flight and I had nothing but compliments for the airline. I try to stay away from meat dishes on airlines, especially in the Middle East where they do not have any pork products on the planes and thus only mystery meat. As for the Emirates staff in Dubai airport, I can say that they are not friendly at all and must consult the manager for any modifications to the passenger’s itinerary, including seat changes.
My husband got food poisoning on a United flight in the First Class section by eating a salmon salad. It was a flight from Dubai to USA, so 14+ hours in the air. He got sick about 1 hour after the meal and spent 8+ hours in the bathroom onboard. These days, they would probably have pulled him out of there due to security concerns, but they let him be. He said it was the most miserable experience. We now try to stay away from fish and meat on airlines, even if we are in First Class!
I feel your pain regarding United being a partner with Emirates. We have separate mileage accounts so we can accrue points for each airline. Don’t give up on Emirates yet.
Ouch! What a horrible experience… I didn’t have any problem flying with Emirates before, but I’m sorry that you have to experience that! Must be unpleasant being sick when you have a flying day, and those people were not helping either…
I’ve learned that in most industries, “customer service” means very little, anymore! I’ve definitely had my fair share of terrible flight experiences and even worse “customer service” representatives, but your story takes the cake! Have you tried contacting United about the Premier status issue, though? Over Christmas, I flew to Germany but my United flight got canceled and they put me on a non-partner Air France flight instead. I also am a Premier member and when I got home I wrote to United about the inconvenience (we lost over a day of our vacation and Air France lost our bags for 2 days) and how I had been counting on the miles from my United flight to maintain my status. United ended up giving me a flight voucher AND crediting me the air miles, even though Air France is not in the Star Alliance or even a partner airline. It might not hurt to at least try and see what they do for you!
I’ve never had any trouble beyond a lost suitcase here and there, but I think Kevin Smith might have something to say about the matter…
Wow, that’s the first time I have heard anything bad about Emirates, I had heard only good things. But it is only in times of crisis that truly good customer-oriented businesses shine. I am sorry that you suffered so much – that really sucks!
Wow, that’s horrible! I can’t believe they called in a doctor to exam you. Did you get on the flight? That’s crappy customer service for sure. I’d be pretty upset if that happened to me. We were ill a couple times we took planes with stomach issues and always took immodium before the flight. I’d write to their head office about this…
I’ve heard either great things or horrible things about this airline, not much in between.
You’re a lot nicer than I am. Faced with the horrid experience you endured, I would have taken pains to make sure I puked/dumped on their shoes, instead of trying to dash to the loo. There’s no excuse for such callous treatment. I’m especially apalled at the b*tch who actually LAUGHED at you! Ah well, karma and all that. Comfort yourself by knowing that it will come back on them, multiplied seven times. Meanwhile — very glad you’re safely back home!
We had a bad experience with Emirates on our flight from Nairobi to Bangkok via Dubai. I was really looking forward to flying with them, because they’re supposed to be top-notch but we found their service to be awful in many ways. One of the most annoying was that as we were boarding the flight from Dubai to Bangkok they scanned our tickets, then stopped us, and said that our seats had been reassigned. (After we’d gone through a huge rigamarole to get seats period when we got our tickets back in Nairobi.) Our newly assigned seats were in completely opposite parts of the plane. I put my foot down and said no way, that we had seats together purposefully and that we wanted to sit together, or at minimum within shouting distance. They resisted forever but then finally put us together…in the very last row. We walked by where we were supposed to be seating and saw a big family was taking them all. Apparently, they re-did their tickets to seat them together but had no problem separating us. The service on the flight itself was pretty shoddy. I passed on the food…good thing maybe!
harsh words if you would rather fly aeroflot. I’d NEVER fly them. i like to live.
Re miles: If the miles transfer over into ur united account, then all those united miles can then be used to fly on a star alliance carrier. Your united elite status carriers over to ALL of their partners, whether in star alliance or not. So if you used your united mileage plus number then it doesnt matter. If united says ur elite then its honored by all of their partners.
Emirates is the worst airlines i ever traveled. The air hostess are rude and some of them are over friendly giving away their plastic smiles…which is quite obvious..these ppl are soooooo ARTIFICIAL
I have worked as cabin crew for Emirates for just under 2yrs. I just want you to know that some of us work very hard in our job and really do care about the passengers. I always go out of my way to help everyone on board. I even carry a hotwater bottle with me incase pax have stomach cramps. On many of my flights I have pax giving me a hug or shaking my hand as they leave the aircraft. Plus I eat the food everytime Im working, many of the meals I enjoy and have never been ill from them. So we are really not all bad.
Catherine, there may be a few good people like you on Emirates, but the airlines you work for sucks. It is true you all have plastic smiles and very rude behavior to customers. I was served a gluten free mean where the chicken was raw and had so much fat and it smelled rotten. The hostess said it was not her fault and that it was the fault of the catering company. I requested for a regular mean and never got it. Instead I used the words PLEASE and she kept saying I am rude. Another hostess apologized for her wrongdoing but ended up throwing the left overs of customers dinner on me. Called for service several times pressing the service button, but no one turns up. Wanted water and walked to the galley during turbulence but was told rudely to get back to our seats. But not once was told that they would come back. During landing a few of your personnels rudely were waking people from their sleep and asking with an arrogant tone to open the windows. Four hours of flying time and no food. And you pay a high price for it. You people don’t understand what service means. If you are in this profession, you need to use your smile and also your sweet tounge to ensure that you provide professional service