My Furious Emirates First Class Seat Mate: Fair Feedback, Unfair Delivery

As someone who has been writing about airlines (and has a particular interest in passenger experience) for nearly 18 years, I always appreciate seeing how other people perceive various flight experiences. After all, we all have our own biases and preferences, so I never claim or believe that my perception is more correct than anyone else’s.

Along those lines, I shared the incredible flight that I had with my dad in Emirates’ A380 first class from New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP), which we enjoyed immensely. However, the passenger seated across from me seemingly had a very different perception, and she wasn’t shy about expressing her displeasure. I think there are a few interesting lessons here.

Why an Emirates first class passenger was really angry

I don’t know how one can be anything other than overjoyed when stepping into the Emirates A380 first class cabin. 😉 Toward the end of the boarding process, a woman boarded and took the window seat across from me. She was warmly greeted by the crew, and the flight attendant asked how her day was going.

“Horrible, that was the worst experience of my life,” she responded. I don’t usually eavesdrop on conversations, but she said it in a loud voice with an angry tone, and that certainly got my attention.

She proceeded to quite aggressively rant at the flight attendant about how bad Emirates’ first class ground experience is, posing the question of why she paid more than double as much compared to business class for such a crappy experience. She explained:

• The security lines were really long, and there was no help at security from Emirates staff
• The lounge was crowded, with no special area for first class passengers
• Boarding was chaotic, with all priority passengers having to get in the same line

She explained that she usually flies SWISS first class, and in New York they escort you through security, have a special lounge for first class passengers, and then escort you onto the plane. She just couldn’t believe how chaotic the ground experience was. She swore she’d never fly Emirates first class again.

This went on for at least a few minutes, and the flight attendant handled it really professionally. Eventually the purser also came around to greet each passenger, and then she went through the whole spiel again. The purser was once again apologetic, and said that she’d be sure to document her feedback and share it with the company.

This is the wrong way to share feedback and frustration

Before we talk about the substance of the woman’s complaints, let’s talk about how she presented them. The way that she interacted with the crew was incredibly off-putting, in my opinion.

Based on her tone, you’d think that the crew personally wronged her, as if they have anything to do with the type of ground service Emirates offers. I just find this to be such an unfortunate way to interact with frontline employees:

• As a first class passenger, your feedback at Emirates does matter; by all means send an email to customer relations, or even figure out the email of an executive, and share your opinion, and how shortcomings in some area would prevent you from booking the airline again
• I also think there’s nothing wrong with sharing the feedback politely with the purser, so that they can document it, because at Emirates, pursers do take notes about feedback, and it is reviewed by management
• Crucially, that feedback can be conveyed in a polite tone, recognizing that the frontline employee isn’t in any way at fault for what you experienced

I do agree with the substance of the complaint, though

I actually don’t in any way disagree with the substance of what the first class passenger shared — if what you value is an exclusive first class ground experience, then Emirates first class should be avoided. The truth is that Emirates invests massively in its inflight experience, while the ground experience is a totally different story.

I suspect this is partly because of the sheer size of Emirates’ first class fleet. The airline has over 2,200 first class seats across its fleet, so the airline has more than 3x as many first class seats as the next biggest airline with the cabin (British Airways), and nearly 10x as many first class seats as SWISS (the example she gave).

So while I’m not expecting Emirates to have anything comparable to Air France’s La Premiere first class experience anytime soon, I am utterly confused by Emirates’ complete indifference.

For example, Emirates doesn’t even offer priority boarding to first class passengers in New York. First class and business class passengers, as well as Skywards Platinum, Gold, and Silver members, can all board at once. There are 90 first and business class seats, and that doesn’t even account for elite members.

So if you’re traveling in first class, you’re potentially boarding with way over 100 people, potentially as many as would fit on a Boeing 737 (and that says nothing of wheelchair and family pre-boarding). For an airline that has such incredible attention to detail onboard, it does confuse me that the airline just completely overlooks this, as this would be so easy to implement.

Similarly, Emirates has the largest international lounge network of any airline in the world, as the airline spends an immense amount on operating its own lounges at outstations, even in many markets where there’s just one daily flight. That’s clearly a reflection of how the airline likes to manage its customer experience from start to finish.

However, I find it odd that the airline operates these huge outstation lounges, but then doesn’t do anything to offer a special experience for first class passengers. You’d think it would be super easy to partition off a small portion of the lounge for first class passengers, and to offer elevated drinks, perhaps a la carte dining, barista coffee, etc.

I fully agree that I wish this were an area Emirates would invest in, as it’s just so odd to see an airline so focused on the inflight experience, while completely dropping the ball with the ground experience. But of course I’ve also flown Emirates first class many times before, so I know exactly what to expect, and I still think it’s pretty awesome, on balance.

Presumably this traveler hadn’t flown Emirates first class before (or at least recently). If what you value is a seamless first class experience where you’re looked after every step of the way, then Emirates absolutely isn’t for you. That’s an area where Air France has no competition, though even carriers like SWISS and Lufthansa do a better job at outstations where they have lounges.

Bottom line

The woman seated across from me in Emirates first class boarded in an absolutely terrible mood, as she was extremely disappointed by the Emirates first class ground experience. She claimed she usually flew SWISS first class, and if what you care about is a seamless ground experience, I can see how flying Emirates out of New York would be disappointing, by comparison.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sharing feedback with a purser. However, I think it’s important to do it nicely, and to make your point and then move on. After all, there are better avenues for sharing this feedback. In terms of the actual core of her message, though, I largely agree.

What do you make of this Emirates first class passenger’s “feedback?”