Aussie couple’s shock Emirates first class ordeal

A Perth couple who spent $25,000 on luxury flights with Emirates say they will never fly with the airline again, claiming they were ripped off.

An Australian couple who splurged $25,000 on luxury flights between Perth and London with Emirates have sworn to never fly with the airline again.

Eamonn and Karen Gilmore booked return business class flights from Perth to London via Dubai and were given the option of upgrading to first class on the way there for $7000.

“We thought, woo, Let’s do it,” Mr Gilmore told news.com.au, excited to treat themselves to first class for the first time.

Although once on board, he said his entertainment system wasn’t working. He accepted it and used his iPad instead.

Then he was woken up mid-flight by his panicked wife.

“She was lying in her seat and she couldn’t get the seat to come up. The buttons wouldn’t work,” Mr Gilmore explained.

He said crew came back and forth trying to reset the seat.

“Eventually they had to force the seat into the seated position from the lying down position,” he said. “My wife had to spend the rest of the flight in the seated position.”

Two customers who flew first class with Emirates say they won’t fly with the airline again. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Mr Gilmore said they were told a supervisor on-board had informed Emirates head office about the broken entertainment system and seat via email during the flight.

When they got to London, they contacted Emirates and were told their complaint needed to be in writing.

Mr and Mrs Gilmore requested a refund on part of their $7000 upgrade to first class.

They only requested what the upgrade was worth (estimated to be about $3800) on the first leg of their flight – Perth to Dubai – because that was the plane with issues.

He said he thought this was more than fair, given even without the upgrade they would have expected a reclining seat and entertainment system in business class.

“This may as well have been an economy flight we went on and we paid thousands upon thousands,” he said.

Eamonn Gilmore said his entertainment system did not work and his wife’s seat was broken. Picture: Emirates

Weeks later, on May 4, Emirates came back to Mr Gilmore and apologised.

An email said “as a gesture of goodwill and in consideration of the inconvenience you experienced” the airline would credit Mr Gilmore’s Emirates Skywards account with 100,000 “complimentary” Skywards Miles.

They offered to do the same for Mrs Gilmore if she signed up for her own account.

Mr Gilmore said his wife already had an account and these details were provided in earlier correspondence.

He said he was “disgusted” he had to wait so long for a response and then the response completely ignored their refund request.

“We didn’t want the 100,000 Skywards points because we’re not going to fly with Emirates ever again. Not the way we’ve been treated,” he said.

Emirates said it would give the Gilmores reward points as compensation when they requested a refund. Picture: Damien Meyer / AFP

Mr Gilmore responded to Emirates on May 6 explaining this.

Speaking to news.com.au last week, Mr Gilmore said not only was there “complete radio silence” from the airline, the Skywards Miles were not credited to his account as stated.

“I just can’t believe it,” he said.

After news.com.au contacted Emirates about Mr Gilmore’s story, the airline said it was in touch with him, however Mr Gilmore claims he still has not heard from them.

“Emirates’ focus is always to ensure that it delivers an extraordinary customer experience,” the airline said in a statement.

“We take customer feedback seriously and have a thorough investigative process in place when we review each case. Our Customer Affairs team has fully looked into the matter and are in touch with the customer.”

Mr Gilmore is considering legal action.

In March, a New Zealand court awarded a man $NZ13,555 ($12,500) over a falsely advertised Emirates business class seat.

In May, a man who lives between Perth and the UK, took legal action against the airline for what he claims was an “absolutely disgusting” business class experience.

Airlines ‘ghosting’ passengers

Consumer advocate Adam Glezer believes airlines ghosting passengers and only offering reward points as compensation has become a huge industry issue. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Adam Glezer of Consumer Champion told news.com.au passengers being ghosted by airlines was becoming a huge and common industry problem.

“A large number of airlines desperately have to review their complaint process,” he said.

“It is inefficient, not good enough, and is causing a great deal of stress and frustration for customers trying to get answers.”

He said it was terrible customers needed to go to the extent of legal action to get a result but encouraged Australians not to let airlines get away with treating them unfairly.

“In my opinion, reward points are not acceptable compensation when a customer should be receiving their money back,” he said.

“I have found that airlines have been providing points as a solution regularly so they don’t have to pay customers a cash refund.”

Mr Glezer, who is working with Mr Gilmore, said the initial solution Emirates offered to him was a “disgrace”.

“If they treat their first-class passengers like this, I’d hate to see how they treat their economy passengers,” he said.