Flying the Friendly Skies of Emirates

Dear Jawad,

I totally agree with you. I have also had bad experiences with Emirates. It was a nightmare. Anyways, I checked out your webpage. It is so cool! I also saw your picture on your main page. You look great:)

So you are a Seattlite huh? I have friends in Seattle and I go there every now and then.

So if you have any other bad flying experiences, please be sure to let me/``us the world`` know :):):)

Sehr

sehr_saleem@hotmail.com

Re: Masoor

Actually Emirates isn`t all that bad - I flew on it last month. The point to take away is that there is some discrimination sometimes in the asian sectors.

The other airlines to consider are KLM, Lufthansa, Virgin, Thai and Singapore.

Oh and I suppose, PIA.

I am a regular Emirates flyer and like the airline a lot. Have had isolated problems but nothing to shake my loyalty. However, I do agree with teh article and some of teh comments on the attitude being perceptible different for European sector flights than for those between Dubai and Pakistan.

The justification that the passengers are uncouth is a feeble one (though not totally unrealistic). Generally the crowd is not a crude and mischievous one - just less urbane than the airlinewalas would like. They are in fact better than some more urbane desis I see on teh European leg going stinkingly el-blotto and being rude/lascivious towards the attendants. The handicap of the Dubaiwala crowd not being well-seasoned should be dealt with more sympathetically esp. an airline such as Emirates (PIA alas, has Carte Blanche to be ``nukchira``)

Here is another Emirates ``Believe it or Not``:

My friends mother lost one suitcase while enroute to USA and another suitcase on her way back to Lahore. Each time the responsible airline was Emirates! The first suitcase was lost in September and the second in November 1997. All attempts to recover the suitcase have failed.

I think your experience is a terrible one and you have every right to demand some kind of ``ehtesab``. On a personal note, my wife, 5 month old daughter, sister, and I flew Emirates and Virgin and had not ONE problem whatsoever. I was surprised at how well everything turned out. Considering we had to have a bassinet seat reserved the entire way, three seats booked in advance, a hotel in Dubai, 6 suitcases, one box, one stroller, and one car seat checked in all the way through.

I suppose one shouldn`t find all this remarkable. However, considering the state of the skies to Pakistan these days, good service and a good outcome DOES seem remarkable unfortunately. If only it could be the norm.