Emirates business class passenger awarded $12.5K after complaining about seat

A man who travelled in business class on an Emirates plane has been awarded a whopping $12,500 after complaining about his seat.

Your first impression when you hop onto a business class flight should be “wow”. But what if it’s not?

One pointy end passenger just answered that question. The man, travelling from New Zealand to the UK with Emirates, was rather disappointed with his business class seat, Escape reports.

He was so saddened that he sued Emirates for false advertising and – astonishingly – won $12,579 ($13,555 NZD) in the process. His complaint? He bought the ticket imagining he would be settling down to a mini bar, a flat bed and an updated entertainment system.

He apparently received none of the above, despite the fact that – as he claimed – his ticket showed a photo of Emirates’ new style business seating.

In a shock turn of events, “his flight was operated by an Emirates 777-300ER, featuring the carrier’s most outdated business class product”, One Mile At A Time reports, adding, “these seats don’t have minibars, and technically aren’t fully flat (though they’re about as comfortable as angled seats get)”.

Ouch.

A man who travelled in Emirates business class has been awarded a whopping $12.5k. Picture: Emirates

The man said this was false advertising, because it wasn’t a one-off switcheroo to a jet with an older style product, but rather the standard jet for Emirates’ Auckland route.

Emirates tried to get out of paying the man by saying they do not guarantee aircraft types in its contract with customers.

Emirates also said the seats on the 777-300ER recline to 166.1 degrees and that “to the ordinary air-traveller the seat made available is equivalent to a lie-flat seat”.

Live and Let’s Fly, a travel blogger who claims to have flown on this exact route, called Emirates’ defence “laughable”, adding: “it is hard and certainly not fully-lie flat … There’s a huge difference.”

The Disputes Tribunal ruled in the man’s favour, deciding Emirates had to cough up because, “this was the result of advertising a service that they were rarely delivering” and “the promotional materials were based on an updated/new business class seat and service that is not in place in the older aircraft that Emirates flies to NZ”.

The man was disappointed his seat did not lie fully flat.

Stuff reports that the man “sought a partial refund of the price of the tickets he bought, as well as a refund of the price he paid to upgrade to first class one leg of the journey so he and his wife could get seats that lay flat, so they could sleep”.

Comments in a discussion thread on Executive Traveller reflected a healthy admiration for the precedent.

“I say good on him! The Emirates 777 business class product is appalling, especially if you end up in the middle seat,” one wrote.

Another added: “Good to see Emirates being held responsible for what was very clearly a case of intentional misleading advertising. There should be more of this.”

“Yup … laws need to be tightened,” a third said.

The tribunal ruled that the man’s claim was a fair reflection of the difference in service advertised versus what he paid for.

Now, all we need is for someone to set a precedent like this for the knee-crushing horrors of economy, and we’ll be laughing.

This article originally appeared on Escape and was reproduced with permission