This is her favourite pic from London.V loves tea, playing video games and traveling. Her travel has taken her to Germany, Melbourne, Singapore and London this year.
Travel, she comments has changed with 9/11 and other international events. She, like, most others remains annoyed when having to handover creams at the counter simply because of the 90ml rule.
Her preferred airlines are Virgin, Etihad and Lufthansa. Emirates, does not pop up in a good light. In fact, she describes Emirates as being ‘unapproachable’, rude and although smiling, seeming ‘fake.’
“When you travel on other airlines, the manner in which the cabin crew engages with you feels natural and genuine. With Emirates, you know it’s a routine. In one go, row by row, they ask each passenger if they need anything. Following this, they only come if a passenger presses the assistance button. Rarely do they pass by otherwise.”
She also shared a bad experience she had on her Emirates 13 hr flight from Melbourne to Dubai. She had gotten an aisle seat, upfront in the Economy section. Her seat was a few rows from the bathroom. Annoying and horribly enough, one of the bathroom door locks was defective; it allowed for the door to be locked only from the inside. Hence, if the bathroom was vacant, the door kept on swinging open and she and her co-passengers were forced to bear the foul smell. The crew didn’t do much to ease the situation.
While nearly all airlines, have a class seating structure – First, Business, Economy - Emirates gets the cake for making you feel you’re not worth the attention and care because you choose to travel Economy. “Their message seems deliberate. They seem to be saying because you’re flying business class, you‘re privileged and so we will take care of you. If you are in economy, yes we will fly you but we will not take care of you.”
Interestingly, when discussing about Emirates communication, V becomes slightly agitated & mentions “they are everywhere.” But most ads she recalls are only of the business class offering, “The wide seating, the person holding the champagne glass! What about economy?” She continues to comment that there is a lot of hype about Emirates & skywards but it doesn’t translate into something valuable for a customer.
Her choice of airlines depends on who she is traveling with and where she is traveling to. If traveling alone, she prefers to fly an international carrier over a regional one because of the people she would be traveling with. “I wouldn’t choose Air Arabia or Air India Express for example.”
End of the day, the quality of an airline’s engagement builds or breaks its brand equity and therefore the relationship with its traveler. “When I fly Virgin, I really feel like I’m going on a journey with friends. That's not a feeling I get when I fly Emirates.”
Sorry, but having a number of air hostesses with perfect smiles for face value's sake at important functions on the ground cannot reverse or counter the damage being done by broken toilet doors on long haul flights & the cold attitude facing 80% of the passengers in the sky.
- Aruna
No comments:
Post a Comment