The first question from Trustpilot is 'what went wrong?' My answer is what didn't!Flight from London Heathrow to Dubai then Dubai to Johannesburg then Jo'burg to Skukusa. We checked luggage in at Heathrow and specifically asked Emirates staff to confirm that the luggage was checked all the way through to Skukusa. Two different staff members confirmed this. We had upgraded our seats to extra legroom in economy flex at an additional cost. First flight was late leaving Heathrow by an hour which put huge pressure on the connection at Dubai. We had boarding cards for the second flight but when we got to Dubai we were given 3 new ones splitting our family group around the plane and without our extra legroom seats. Once I complained, and our original seats were empty! we were eventually moved back into what we paid for. We arrived at Jo'burg in time for our Skukusa connection only to be told we weren't on that flight anymore but had been bumped to the next day. Another massive complaint session, along with an explanation that our destination resort was £3000 a night, so the compensation claim was going to be huge persuaded them to get us back onto the original flight , in the same seats .We made our transfer pick up but our luggage didn't. None of it, 3 large cases, we only had what we stood in. Lost luggage claim started at Skukusa. No communication or assistance from Emirates. Next day they told us they'd found 2 of the 3 cases and they were coming from Jo'burg to Skukusa on the next flight, guaranteed, but they didn't know where the 3rd case was and we'd have to collect the cases from Skukusa, 2 hours away from our safari lodge hotel. The lodge were great but said we'd have to pay for the collection, fair enough. We had to buy clothes for 3 people from the lodge shop as we only had travel clothes we'd been in for 3 days. The cases didn't arrive as guaranteed by Emirates and we incurred a collection charge for nothing. No communication from Emirates. I was chasing hourly for info and just getting nothing back . The third day our lodge got a message saying 2 cases arrived in Skukusa and that a third was coming later the same day so rather than additional transfer costs they waited for all the cases to be confirmed as having arrived as they didn't trust Emirates information either! Eventually after 3 days and lots of stress we had 3 cases and a large bill for additional clothes, toiletries and laundry ( we couldn't buy underwear so had to launder clothing) as well as pick up costs. 5 days later Emirates have got a formal complaint with a request for reimbursement for costs. Not heard anything from them yet apologising, or advising how to submit my claim for costs and compensation. I have flown with many airlines over the last 55 years, never have I been treated with such contempt, like I'm doing them a favour. The service from Emirates is diabolical, unacceptable and completely inadequate. If zero stars were an option I'd give it. Hopefully they will read this, reach out and put things right. I will then happily upgrade my review.
