Telling Stories in Japan

I recently spoke with a chief editor of an influential business newspaper about his experiences with Emirates. As he was based in Dubai, he was a regular customer of Emirates and belongs to its frequent flier program. Many aspects of Emirates airlines has induced him into becoming a regular customer. These include Emirates' high quality veneer of having new aircrafts, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. However, despite these attractions, he spent much of his time telling me stories of his travel woes -- several of which involved mistakes in booking and cancellations, missing baggage and payment declines.

One unfortunate experience with Emirates that has stood out in his mind, involved a 2-day baggage delay. On this particular trip to Yemen, he was expected to host a group of 30 Japanese investors composed of top executives from major business firms and banks. Upon arrival, he discovered that his luggage had been shut out of cargo and would be trailing behind on a two-day lag. At that point, he had little option but to greet Yemen's prime minister and other officials in his casual attire. Even now, the experience has left him feeling indignant.

The experience, he mentioned, was aggravated because he received little acknowledgement or apologies for the inconvenience despite being a priority member with a gold card. When he sent a claim to the Emirates headquarters, he received a follow-up email a month later from the customer affairs department. "The email was so generic, titled 'Reference no. X' that I almost deleted it thinking it was spam mail."

In recapping his experiences with Emirates, he acknowledges that the airline does offer high quality service on the hard aspects such as its cutting edge equipment but it's the soft aspects such as his experiences with personal service that stands out in his mind when he shares his stories.

Give travelers a story worth telling. Make it personal. Reconcile the space between the hard attractions and the softer ones.