OzEire
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2013
- Posts
- 1,367
This could be a long post, but I'm writing on my phone so I will cut to the chase.
Recent Y flights on EY (purchased as a VA codeshare) from MEL EY461, stopover in AUH then on to DUB EY41. Family and I will return in about 3 weeks.
The Good: VA happy to interline check-in bags to AUH, VA Platinum status recognised for weight allowances and later for priority boarding at the gate. NZ lounge is poor but staff were great and turned off the lights in the kids room so the little one could sleep before our late boarding call. Helpfully there are bright orange baby strollers available in the AUH arrivals concourse. AUH Premium lounge in T3 was nice, spacious, lots of food, (cough coffee) but I was very happy with the kids room.
The Bad: 14 hrs in Y is bad enough but lots of delays getting away from MEL so consequently the little one bawled until we reached cruise when he could lie down and sleep. I had spoken separately to VA and EY call centres about seating - apparently the process is that you cannot reserve a seat when travelling with an infant, however, we were assured a bassinet on a priority basis (youngest child onboard gets first dibs, etc). Onboard there was no bassinet set-up due to my son being aged >10 mths old. Surely the call centre could have provided this advice since they have the child's DOB in the booking. Anyway, lots of spare seats for others to spread out, but bassinet bulkhead had solid armrests so no chance of the child even lying down across our laps. The bassinet confusion, created by the EY call-centre made for a more uncomfortable flight than might have otherwise been possible if we could choose our seats. EY staff were generally disinterested and often could be found gathered in the gallery discussing duty free or flicking through magazines, it seemed quite a chore to get a coffee or snack when I asked for something to take to my wife who was nursing our son. Also the famed "onboard nanny" was a joke, we saw her all of 2 min in 14 hrs and she left our son's bottle in the galley and forgot about it, until I found it about 15 mins later, still empty, with no milk as we had requested (by this stage our baby was pretty upset looking for his milk).
The Ugly: as we were nursing our son for most of the flight we had not opened one of our armrest mounted tray tables until breakfast service only about 90 mins before arriving in AUH. We were shocked and disgusted to find the table had been packed away filthy, with a brown stain and remnants of a baby wipe stuck to it. Clearly the cleaners had missed this, and we had been sitting there inches from the muck for 12.5 hours. As it was busy, we had a child and landing to deal with, and out of shock, we didn't raise it with cabin staff.
In summary. I don't think the Bad, nor Ugly, is how EY would like to be known. I want to give constructive feedback to improve things for other flyers. But part of me thinks that EY should have done better and ought to provide something in this regard, even it is only an apology and ensuring improved service for our return trip. Is my expectation here reasonable ?
OzEire
Recent Y flights on EY (purchased as a VA codeshare) from MEL EY461, stopover in AUH then on to DUB EY41. Family and I will return in about 3 weeks.
The Good: VA happy to interline check-in bags to AUH, VA Platinum status recognised for weight allowances and later for priority boarding at the gate. NZ lounge is poor but staff were great and turned off the lights in the kids room so the little one could sleep before our late boarding call. Helpfully there are bright orange baby strollers available in the AUH arrivals concourse. AUH Premium lounge in T3 was nice, spacious, lots of food, (cough coffee) but I was very happy with the kids room.
The Bad: 14 hrs in Y is bad enough but lots of delays getting away from MEL so consequently the little one bawled until we reached cruise when he could lie down and sleep. I had spoken separately to VA and EY call centres about seating - apparently the process is that you cannot reserve a seat when travelling with an infant, however, we were assured a bassinet on a priority basis (youngest child onboard gets first dibs, etc). Onboard there was no bassinet set-up due to my son being aged >10 mths old. Surely the call centre could have provided this advice since they have the child's DOB in the booking. Anyway, lots of spare seats for others to spread out, but bassinet bulkhead had solid armrests so no chance of the child even lying down across our laps. The bassinet confusion, created by the EY call-centre made for a more uncomfortable flight than might have otherwise been possible if we could choose our seats. EY staff were generally disinterested and often could be found gathered in the gallery discussing duty free or flicking through magazines, it seemed quite a chore to get a coffee or snack when I asked for something to take to my wife who was nursing our son. Also the famed "onboard nanny" was a joke, we saw her all of 2 min in 14 hrs and she left our son's bottle in the galley and forgot about it, until I found it about 15 mins later, still empty, with no milk as we had requested (by this stage our baby was pretty upset looking for his milk).
The Ugly: as we were nursing our son for most of the flight we had not opened one of our armrest mounted tray tables until breakfast service only about 90 mins before arriving in AUH. We were shocked and disgusted to find the table had been packed away filthy, with a brown stain and remnants of a baby wipe stuck to it. Clearly the cleaners had missed this, and we had been sitting there inches from the muck for 12.5 hours. As it was busy, we had a child and landing to deal with, and out of shock, we didn't raise it with cabin staff.
In summary. I don't think the Bad, nor Ugly, is how EY would like to be known. I want to give constructive feedback to improve things for other flyers. But part of me thinks that EY should have done better and ought to provide something in this regard, even it is only an apology and ensuring improved service for our return trip. Is my expectation here reasonable ?
OzEire
