Dubai International Airport

I had a tax bicycle spanner and a crimping. tool/wire stripper confiscated. I didn’t agree with that as they where not scissors and asked to speak to the manager who came abruptly shouting loudly and threw them in the bin and said this was not respect and got louder and louder shouting, then he lead me to the desk and threatened me he could make trouble for me and don’t care even if got diplomatic and got me to apologize to women who couldn’t explain herself why not allowed!!.Then he made note in his book and I was allowed to go.

very bad hospitality not good ole big enough nothing else heathrow airport is much better the staff is unfriendly and rude i asked for the free services they told me to walk.

Dubai airport is the worst, the staff are just nasty, rude and have faces like vomit when they see us westerners. They go out of their way to make you feel like a dog. I will never wish to go transit there again. I will never fly Qantas again.

We went via Dubai from Birmingham to Bangkok and the same route return 16th October.

You are collected from the plane OK, you are then taken to wheelchair Lounge very nice place and parked on a seat furthest from Toilets and Reception without wheelchair, sit for 10 mins and asked to move by the reception you have to walk (not nice), you then wait a further 18 mins and worry, because your flight leaves in 15 mins, they then take you down a lift to awaiting buggy (still walking no wheelchair) you wait a further 15 mins because they have no driver, they then get another buggy and driver to take us to our Gate, on arrival at Gate (now overdue takeoff) they inform me it's stair's for the plane (I cannot walk any further never mind stairs, so they walk me outside through Gate to an area they have a Sizzer lift body on a lorry to take you to plane passenger level, they refuse to let me get on the lorry because I have no wheelchair after another 10 mins they Walk me onto this lorry with no seat for (lorry full of wheelchair's with seated people) thankfully a Lady gave me her seat seeing how much distress I was in and we drove about 3 miles on this lorry to our Plane, we were then loaded on and seated.

The outward journey was worse, we were taken off the plane by wheelchair and left in a waiting area for 3 hours without food or drinks available.

We did not get opportunity to see any duty free area.

It took Emirates SIX months to reply to an incident report we personally lodged with their local office concerning the atrocious service at Dubai International Airport. 6 MONTHS!!

The reply from their so-called Customer Affairs was a joke!!

The incident report relates to a return trip we recently made from South Africa to the UK. We had requested wheel-chair assistance for my husband who has problems with his right leg – he has a degenerative condition in the ankle joint and had recently undergone foot surgery which was still in the process of healing. He is able to walk slowly with a walking-stick but requires assistance with longer distances, e.g. at airports.

Upon arrival @Dubai, en route to London Gatwick, my husband was collected from the plane, and taken by wheelchair to a “special assistance holding area”. I accompanied him on foot. Our boarding passes were taken from us and we were told we would be collected when it was time to board the connecting flight to Gatwick.

It was immediately apparent from the general air of disorganisation and confusion in this area that there was no obvious supervision of the ground staff working there. For example, staff were continually running backwards and forwards in search of wheelchairs that failed to materialise, or calling out for passengers they could not locate. To add to this, one was continually aware of passengers who had been left in this holding area, limping around trying to solicit some assistance or information regarding boarding status.

As boarding time approached for our flight to Gatwick I endeavoured to establish what the procedure would be to get my husband to the plane: there being no wheelchairs in evidence at this stage. No one could tell us. I became very concerned about the time factor as there was less than hour to departure time. (An elderly Japanese couple sitting near us in this special holding area were experiencing the same concerns and equally concerned as they were also on our flight.)

With only 20 minutes remaining before departure time we were finally told that if we wanted to make the plane we would have to hastily make our way to the boarding gate on our own as there was no wheelchair or assistant available for us. We were given some garbled directions in very poor English, of how to get there and then it took a few more minutes for them to locate our boarding passes.

We rushed out…attempting to assist my husband who was hobbling along on foot as fast as he could, I also had to manage our hand luggage as well. When we finally got to the gate, we were told the last bus to the aircraft was about to depart and we should rush to make it. As we rushed out of the building, across the paved sidewalk (the bus was parked on a tarred driveway adjacent to this) other passengers were rushing by to get to the bus and my husband was knocked off his feet. He flew off the sidewalk, falling flat on the tarred surface. It was a hard fall, with his right leg taking the brunt of the fall. (His recent surgery had been to the right foot.) The pain he experienced was obviously excruciating and he appeared to be in a state of shock for some while afterwards – he does not recall all the details of what followed immediately afterwards.

What astounds me to this day is that there were ground staff standing alongside to “oversee” the boarding of the bus but they did not even attempt to come forward to assist us at all. A male and a female attendant were present and they merely looked on and neither said nor did anything to help, even when I called out. I was very afraid that my husband might have broken a bone in the fall. Thankfully he had not. A fellow passenger – a young man– kindly stepped forward and helped me to get my husband up off the tarmac and onto his feet again. We were desperate not to miss the plane. I have no idea how my husband managed to make it up the steps to the aircraft. Perhaps at that stage, the state of shock he was in protected him from feeling the full onslaught of the pain: that came later

Upon reaching our seats I immediately reported the incident to the flight attendant allocated to our area of the cabin, and requested an ice pack or something similar to put on my husband’s leg. His right knee was troubling him greatly by then. The attendant agreed to obtain some ice. He took some prescription painkillers and anti-inflammatory medication he was carrying in his hand luggage. After a long wait - and several enquiries about the ice-pack, a male attendant who later identified himself as chief steward/flight manager (?) came and informed me that he would like to upgrade us to more comfortable seating where my husband would be able to stretch out his wounded leg – which he was obviously unable to do in Economy Class. He also indicated that he would apply an ice pack once we had been re-seated.

I won’t labour the details of our return trip. Suffice to say that upon reaching Dubai International Airport for the last leg of our journey home, we were once again met the same “air of confusion and lack of communication”…..non-existent customer service…..and lack of wheelchairs. Once again we almost missed our plane home. I couldn’t believe it was all happening again. A nightmare replay!

We lodged our report with Emirates upon our return home, on the 6th January 2014. On the 18th June 2014 we finally received their puerile response. This constituted a delay of six months after their initial acknowledgement of our incident report, wherein they indicated that we would hear back from them with 30 days. How about that for service delivery!! Disgusting treatment!

As far as we are concerned – we will never choose Emirates again. As for Dubai Airport – avoid at all costs!

Was waiting at checkin counter excited about my trip. Was heading towards philippines and everyone was passing smoothly. When i arrived and handed in my lebanese passport, the lady started to investigate me and asked for details the philippine embassy didnt ask such as hotel bookings and tickets. Upon providing them she was still unhappy and called her manager. I felt like i was on an episode of border security.

I know for a fact that this is not the job of the lady at the check in counter, yet i still cooperated and was still being harrassed. I know this because i have family members working at certain airlines.

upon asking why I was being questioned all these questions and on what grounds does she have the authority to take such measures (since i have a visa) , and whether she was being racist for one reason or another, an unknown lebanese lady standing in line trying to make sure her maid cant run away started indirectly calling me a disgrace for being with a filipino girl.

upon calling for security in order to keep the crazy old lady from insulting me any longer, she told the security i insulted the check in lady by calling her a racist.

I was then threatened with the airport calling the police, and i ended up apologizing to the check in lady instead as i had already paid for many tickets and bookings i didnt wanna lose.

the old lebanese lady got away with insulting me, in fact the manager was very kind to her and approved what she had done.

I sent various emails to the airport with this complaint THROUGH THE CORRECT FORM ON THE WEBSITE and no one cares, no one even replied, my vacation was ruined as i cannot stop thinking of the humiliation i was put in. Just because the employees are empowered to do as they wish.

Welcome to Dubai. This is the image the airport is proud of. Someone treating u unfairly? Get on your knees and beg for mercy.

04:30 am Thursday morning, we arrived at Dubai international airport. From the moment you check in to the time that you board your flight you will get dealt with by arrogant staff members that wont even look at your face and if they do it will be as though you are just some dirty creature that doesnt belong on planet earth. All staff members address you by shouting "OI" or "EY YOU". Anyway moving on, our flight connecting flight to istanbul was delayed and then canceled. There were no staff members at the Gates as we has to find this out by ourselves. after doing hours of running around and treated worse than wild animals we ended up sleeping on the floor in the airport.

07:00 pm was now approaching as we all walked up to the newly allocated Gates at which a huge queue was forming. Here were to get checked into the new flight and get new boarding passes. When it came to my family they checked half if us in and told us that the rest were not on the system and that we were to go and speak to turkish Airlines. As we got sent to another desk the guy arrogantly and rudely told us to go back to the other desk. He wouldnt let us explain that we has just come from there. He then said "Fine just stand there and wait i dont care" horrified at how we were being treated we then tried talking to the guy at another desk who told us the dame thing that we were not in the system and he couldnt do anything. Not slightly taking into consideration that we had an elderly person, a very young baby and a disabled child travelling with us who has already spent hours waiting.

Finally after getting sent from pillar to post, and getting told that half of us werent on the flight and there was nothing we could do, one of the staff members came over and made a call to the turkish Airlines manager and got us onto the flight. However the arabic staff members didnt even care about us and would rather watch us suffer than help us. If it wasnt for that staff member who I think was pakistani or indian, god knows what would have happened.

Just a little note for people thinking about taking a holiday or business/work trip to dubai. The locals and arabic staff members wont care about you at all, Dubai is an arrogant and uncivilised nation. You would think that they were nice people as everything is all new and modern. They are unprofessional and they will look at you as if you should be the dirt on the bottom of their shoes. Such a beautiful country being let down by an arrogant nation.

OMG, I don't know where to begin. My husband and I were travelling back to Australia and at the departure immigration we were being assisted by an female officer. We were standing at her counter for a good 10min before I heard finale call by our airline and I said to her oh excuse me is there a problem because the plane is about to leave. No answer, so I repeat and she looked at me as if I was the dirtiest thang to walk on this earth. So I said to her excuse me are you able to get Airport assistance to help us board the plane quicker, OMG the lady gets up and shouts to a guy wearing all white. He quickly comes over and says YOU! Come here AND YOU to my husband go to the plane. My husband and I terrified and he refuses to leave me and I kept saying goodness what is wrong. He then asks me get back on this HUGE line coz I argued with the officer. I said to him excuse me what can of treatment is this and told him my plane is leaving. He said I don't care and to sit and not move and took my passport. I rang the Australian embassy but it was closed so rang our international line back in Australia than the guy comes back and asks me if I wanted to go. I told him no coz the plane has already left and that I was speaking to the Embassy. He then says no need stand up and let's go. So I followed him and takes me to the same lady who made the complaint and says NOW YOU say SORRY and go. I was like WHAT! So I rang than the embassy again and just walked right pass as they all knew the plane has left and that was the main objective of their ridiculous acts.

I was gobsmacked, I stayed there 2weeks and spent more than $20,000 USD and even strongly considered buying properties from here. I am so glad I got to see the true colors of the locals and WILL never ever enter here again. Not even on a transient.

I hope this isn't experienced by anyone else and wishing all the future travellers a better and pleasant experience.

Regards,

Mummy to 3

I am frequent traveller and have visited almost 70% of the countries in the world. However, I travelled to Dubai on a business trip for the first time in my life.I was excited to explore business opportunities in connection with expo-2020. Thanks to a lazy and a racist idiot, whose uncivilized behaviour, in not attending me at the first place and then yelling at me to look into the camera, spared me from dealing with bunch of ignorant and an arrogant nation on the face of earth. I would never go to that dirt again.

Ive been travelling to Dubai quite frequently for work relared matters. Everytime i try to get a visa on arrival they keep pestering me with various question , which i perfectly understand is part of their job. The funny thing is just because i have an Indian passport, they star talking to me in hindi, which unfortunately I do not understand, being brought up outside India. When I politely reply back that i do not speak Hindi, they start getting annoyed and start making fun of me . Is this the kind of attitude an immigration officer should maintain ? Isnt Dubai supposed to a modern , bustling metropolis? Well thats not the impression one gets when they land here.