FlyDubai from Damascus, 5-hours late, expensive, poor service
Posted on 21 November 2010 with 9 comments from readers
On RyanAir the landing of another on-time flight is celebrated by the sounding of a claxon. Last night, or rather this morning, the arrival of the FlyDubai flight from Damascus should have been accompanied by a giant raspberry.
Five hours late the weary passengers headed home having lost a night’s sleep. It was perhaps unfortunate for FlyDubai that ArabianMoney had chosen to review this flight.
Very poor customer service
Sometimes these columns are accused of being too kind to the travel industry. Let this be the exception that disproves that rule.
On arriving at the airport at 7pm we first learnt of a delay from the departures screen. We then went to the departures gate only to be refused access, and that was not allowed until 10pm.
At no point in this three hour wait was their any attempt by the airline to contact its passengers. Where was the duty manager?
One local tour guide apparently managed to contact somebody who authorised free drinks and snacks for his guests but sadly that invitation only applied to his customers and nobody else got anything. He said the airline ‘Did not give a damn about the passengers’.
No information
Totally ignoring customers. Keeping them waiting three hours with no information. What kind of hospitality is that from this Dubai Government owned airline? This is bad for the image of Dubai, so expensively built up over the years. It’s bad for business. And it was an appalling way to treat paying customers.
Once inside the terminal building the baggage check-in was handled by a single member of the airport staff. Again nobody from FlyDubai came to talk to passengers, and there were no coupons for free drinks or meals, something that is mandatory in European airports when flights are delayed.
All ArabianMoney could do was pay $30 to access a lounge and watch the flight departure information screen, that said ETD 1.20am. In fact the plane left at 2am, five hours late.
On board the aircraft we asked three flight attendants why the plane was so late. Replies ranged from ‘don’t know’ to ‘problems with the weather delaying the aircraft’ to ‘technical problems’ or rather the latter was the response relayed from the local tour operator to his guests.
Pilot not apologetic
The very young sounding pilot barely gave an apology. He generously gave us one free bottle of water. The general staff attitude was one of arrogance and incompetence. But it is not as though this comes for free.
Those paying the premium rate of AED2,300 complained bitterly to ArabianMoney that this was a totally unacceptable level of service and that they would be flying with Emirates or Etihad from the UAE to Syria in future as the flight cost is similar.
You also have to use the Dubai airport’s terminal 2 which has less facilities than the other terminals and mainly serves flights to places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our assessment is that travelers are well advised to give FlyDubai are wide berth, and we will not be traveling again on this airline for any purpose. All the passengers on flight FZ118 on November 20th ought to get a full refund but we doubt the airline would have the courtesy to do that.
9 Comments posted by readers:
This was horrendous last night. None of the passengers received any messages or updates regarding the delay.. we were just brusquely informed by the guard outside the check in area about the delay. I was shocked by the lack of any interest on the part of the airline. I was amazed how no one was present to atleast update us on the situation! We should be compensated for this nonsense.
There is no way I will use FlyDubai ever again. I had to come to the office this morning after a zero sleep last night. This is the worst flight ever for me.
In Sunday we have flitted from Dubai to Amman (Jordan – My country) at 6:30 pm (Dubai time), it was the most boring that ever seen, when the pilots want to land the flight attendants said “dears passengers please fasten seat belt, the plane will land after 5 minuets,” but after five minuets this was repeated many times and the landing was after 20 minuets. This the first time I tried FlyDubai but it seems this will be the last one. Really this is the worst flight ever for me.
We are very concerned to hear about the events outlined in this article. This is not the experience we want our customers to have and we thank Arabian Money for bringing the situation to our attention.
A number of operational and weather related issues, beyond the control of flydubai, were responsible for the delay experienced by the Damascus flight on November 20.
This was a creeping delay, which is very common with weather related problems, as it is often impossible to accurately predict when the weather will clear. The problem arose very close to the departure time of this flight, so it was not possible to contact passengers in advance and advise them of the delay. However, we accept that the communication with passengers should have been better and we are looking at ways to improve that.
Some of the factors that contributed to the problems experienced on Nov 20 were beyond our control, however, there were also some things we could have done better and we are taking steps to ensure that similar situations are handled differently in the future.
Our policy is that customers should receive refreshments if they are delayed by more than three hours. Clearly this did not happen in this case and we are working with the local staff to ensure this does not happen again.
One of the differences between low cost airlines and full service airlines is that we don’t operate with large numbers of staff on the ground, as this escalates costs. We use third parties and most of the time this works extremely well. However, there are times when the service breaks down, as it clearly did on this occasion, and we will take that up with the local staff and ensure improvements are made.
flydubai employees are highly experienced and professional. The average flying hours of our Captains is 9,100hrs and for our First Officers it is 4,600hrs, which is far above industry norms. Although many other airlines accept trainee pilots with as little as 250hrs of flying time, we do not hire trainee pilots. Our least experienced pilot has 3,100hrs of flight time.
As with all low cost airlines, the price for flights rises nearer to the time of departure and depends on availability. There are seats available at the lowest advertised fare on every single flight, and these prices are much cheaper than you would find with a full service airline. We also have regular sales, where prices are discounted by as much as half, so if you plan in advance and can be flexible on your travel dates, you can really grab a bargain.
flydubai takes the safety and comfort of our passengers and crew extremely seriously and our focus is always on maintaining a safe, reliable operation. flydubai has one of the best on-time records in the industry. In our first year of operation we had an 85% on-time record. Delays like those experienced on the Damascus flight on Saturday, Nov 20, are a rare occurrence at flydubai, but from time to time it will inevitably happen and we will endeavour to handle the situation better in the future.
@ Heather Astbury :As you have rightly pointed out, delays happen and are part and parcel of air travel. What was the serious problem was a total lack of any communication from the airline. The passengers had no idea what was going on and we were not even allowed into the check in area for many hours.
I hope that, as you have mentioned, flydubai is able to rectify these problems with third parties and essential passenger/customer relations.
Avoid Fly Dubai. Unless you want; disorganized check-in; rude cabin attendants; lousy/no in-flight service; lost baggage; ZERO customer service and, ultimately, to miss your flight. I experienced all of this on just one trip. It took me two days to make the one and a half hour trip from Kuwait to Dubai! I’m still waiting to find my lost duffel bag but after twenty phone calls, numerous emails and an official lost baggage report, I have had no return correspondence from Fly Dubai. Not even a “were sorry sir…still checking on it.” When I Google “lost baggage fly Dubai”, high on the search results are a bunch of articles stating “Fly Dubai shows incredible growth.” No wonder; they must be saving a fortune by not having a customer service department!!!
Oh, and, by the way. Ironically enough. I just realized that Heather Astbury is one of the people I attempted to contact (before I read this article).
This is what I got:
“…heather.astbury@flydubai.com
The recipient’s mailbox is full and can’t accept messages now. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please try resending this message later, or contact the recipient directly….’”
“Full” of complaints, no doubt!
Hi Patrick,
I’m sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with flydubai. I’m also sorry that you weren’t able to contact me. I have been experiencing some problems with my emails which our IT Department are looking into.
I will pass on your complaint to our Customer Service team and ensure that someone responds to you urgently.
Thank you for bringing these events to our attention.
Regards
Heather
Thank you for your prompt and professional response. At least now I have renewed hope that someone at your company will talk to me.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Patrick