EMIRATES AIRLINE SAUD AHMED EMIRATES AIRLINE INDIA ABUSIVE AND RACIST - DENIED BOARDING FOR A FAMILY WITH AN INFANT, A 4 YEAR OLD AND A 5 YEAR OLD. MUMBAI MAHARASHTRA

On Nov 9, 2019 I was so happy and excited to travel to Spain from our native Philippines with my husband and * small girls ( 5 years old, 4 years old and 7 months infant).

Earlier, From the Philippines, we had traveled to Mumbai via Singapore Airlines with absolutely no issues. We had few days tourist layover in Mumbai, and our journey to Spain was on Emirates Airlines via Dubai onwards to Madrid, Spain.

In India, when we were at the Emirates checking counter in Mumbai. This is where I experienced my worst personal nightmare ever, something no family traveling with small kids and infants in a foreign country should experience.

We were excited as this was our *st time to fly on Emirates supposedly world #* best airline in **** according to Forbes. We arrived at around *:** AM and patiently waited for about ** minutes in the check-in line. Finally, when we reached the check-in counter the check-in agent started weighing our bags and said the total checked baggage allowance for all of us is *** Kgs and that we have *** Kgs. – in short we are * kgs over allowance for check-in bags.

Which in my mind is just 0.8 Kg extra per passenger.

She never offered us any options of how much it would cost so there was no question of asking her or paying. Since we often travel with small kids and an infant with strollers, we always have just a few light carry-in bags so we knew we could transfer some clothes to the carry-in bags.

At this time my husband was mad at me and questioned why I didn't check the weights before leaving. I explained that I moved some stuff but since we didn't buy anything in India and explained to him in Tagalog (my native language) that maybe he should ask the agent to check properly again.

Before he could say anything to the agent, the agent pocked in between my private conversation with my husband and said that their machine isn't faulty. My infant started crying and we were upset and my husband asked the check-in agent not to interfere in our orivate conversation and to keep quiet while we figure out what stuff to move, where.

I then moved some documents which we believed were heavy from one of the bags into the carry-in bag and asked her to weigh in again. Now it was just *kgs extra (*.* kgs per passenger). My husband asked her if its okay, but she said it is not. He asked the agent since we are * passengers with food for kids and milk, why such a small weight is a problem and explained her that we have had no such problems ever with any airlines for such a small excess in check-in.

She intimidatingly, with folded hand and clearly, grumpy and disgusted looks told him that even *kg extra overall passengers won't be allowed.

He told her that it's such a shame that family traveling with small kids and infants are treated like this by a top airline like Emirates.

While I was sitting on the floor with an infant in my hand trying to move or throw some more clothes to reduce *Kgs easily, My husband reminded me that we can always throw food or just wear extra clothes which certainly is permitted and that now we certainly not pay for them to get commission. The surprising fact is they never even informed us how much it would cost, probably assuming we wont pay.

At that time the girl rudely asked us to move the bags from the weighing counter and do whatever we have to do elsewhere. When my husband noticed no passengers behind us waiting to check-in and gave a shocked look, I lost my cool and told her to be ashamed of herself and that she probably doesn't have kids so she won't feel the bad experience and pain travelling with small kids. I also told her that we won't flight Emirates ever again after such a horrific experience and she said “fine, whatever it is up to you”.

Frustrated with the situation we were in, my husband took a photo of me opening the bags and transferring stuff- a picture for our travel blogs. Suddenly the check-in agent became hysterical and assumed that he was taking videos and started yelling that he can't take videos (again assuming he was going to post it on social media).

Then this guy (later identified as Saud Ahmed: Sr Airport Services Agent at Emirates Airlines, Mumbai) came from nowhere within seconds, as if he was just pre-determined to find an opportunithy to get out his frustration on us, and started screaming at us saying this is a violation, and asked my husband to hand over his phone to him.

My husband immediately handed over his phone to Saud Ahmed asking him if it is illegal to take my photo. Saud Ahmed couldn’t find any photos or videos of the check-in agent, other than one photo of me. Then he said my husband was attempting to take a video and its still a violation and that he is calling security and instructed the check-in agent to not allow us to check-in and that he will get us thrown out.

At that time my husband felt appalled and insulted, since this happened in front of my now crying kids, many onlooking passengers as well as hundreds of other people at the airport. My husband asked him how he can do that when we have a paid confirmed ticket, to which he says he is an Emirates employee and he has powers to refuse us to board, claiming we were abusive.

At that time my husband told Saud Ahmed that this is extremely pathetic of him to just accuse us without any proof and that he should be ashamed of himself and that he was a heartless and awful person not fit to be an Emirates employee. I also told the agent who had already walked away from the check-in, if she had any kids and probably no since she can't feel our pain.

We argued with him how he can do such a thing especially since we have connecting flights and hotel and transport reservations etc and then he said we should ask an apology of him if we want him to reconsider his decision. We refused to apologize since we believe we didn't do anything to an extent to be humiliated and denied check-in and that retaining our self-respect is more important than any monetary, emotional, mental or physical stress we were going through at that time and all of us including our family and friends for next *-* days.

We reminded him we are a paid customer and that we booked * flights tickets through Emirates and not through him and in any case without selling our rights of self-respect to him or Emirates Airlines or India.

Out of frustration, I said he is not fit and he should be kicked out by Emirates and that Emirates Airlines should not hire such non-professionals who don't even consider the fact that we are with small kids. He got mad and charged physically at me and cursed me in a soft initimidating voice saying I was a b***h and a Chinese foreigner (wrong I am a Filipino, and not all Asians are Chinese – So Ignorant) and that it is his country and nobody can do anything to him. We were frightened and shocked that how can a customer service agent man come so close physically to a woman with kids instead of just calling security if ever.

My husband tried to calm me and instructed me in Tagalog, not to talk to him and that he is a pathetic, heartless, sad person probably suffering personally and bringing his problems to work.

Saud Ahmed then physically came back at my husband and said my husband was a b*****d and that he has won because he refused us to be checked in ( thereby showing off his powers) – all this while lowering is voice so he wont be heard on CCTV.

He then continued to giggle and laugh with other staff present there and loudly kept saying “great last passenger checked in”, “check-in closed great”, “ no more passengers will be allowed to board” etc all to intimidate us in front of all the other staff and people present there and making it appear that nothing had happened.

At that time my husband asked him what was his name, he said Saud and that can we not read his name tag, and then my husband asked him what is his full name, he refused at first and when we insisted he gave it as Saud Ahmed. I asked him where is the security he was calling to arrest us as per his threats. He said it's not needed anymore and we can f*ck off as the matter is over, check-in has closed and smiled to intimidate us.

Then we told him we will want to launch a complaint against him and to give us a complaint form or contact details of his supervisor. He said he is in charge and he can do what he needs to and there is no reasons to complain and that we were the abusive one, he then started to run towards the immigration gates and my husband chased him, asking him what are we suppose to do, we have no where to go. He just refused to even look back at my husband, never gave the name of his supervisor or where we could file a complaint and signaled us , in short, to get lost all the way pretending he was busy, important person, on a phone and he has work to do and making an impression that we are in fact useless people who shouldn't be at the airport.

We went to the airport information desk and asked for the Emirates Airlines manager only to find Saud on the phone himself. Saud now was talking ver sweetly, I am assuming the phone was being recorded. My husband asked him again that we would like to speak to his supervisor and he said he is busy at the boarding area and can't come out and hung up the phone.

I asked the information desk where to launch a complaint and then they called a certain Amit Tiwari, Deputy manager at GVK Mumbai International Airport Limited. Amit Tiwari came to the info desk already on phone with somebody probably with Saud( then we learned he was already aware of what had happened as Saud had already discussed with him after our call to Saud).

For the entire duration of our commmunication with Amit Tiwari, he was on the phone. He said we cannot file a complaint regarding the Airline with the airport management.

Amit Tiwari didn't ask us what happened or tried to resolve the issue or even gave us directions to whom we could file a written complaint in spite of us almost begging to him. Instead, he shouted at my husband in front of me, my kids and other passengers and asked my upset husband to keep quiet and not to talk as he is being disturbed on the phone while talking to perhaps Saud.

Amit Tiwari kept talking on the phone and did not assist us in filing a complaint. I have a feeling that the airport staff and airline staff probably work together all the time so its always them v/s a one-off foreign travelers.

While still on the phone, Amit Tiwari told us again in a non-professional rude tone, that he will ask somebody from the Emirates Airlines to come and they can help us further and that he cant do anything about it.

We were expecting to talk to the supervisor of Saud Ahmed, Instead, somebody a junior agent from a contracted company of Emirates came, who took our passports and quitely escorted us out to gate # *, without talking to us, signed somethings at the guards at the gate and disappeared and left us without saying a word. We were essentially stranded with all our luggage and kids in the heat with no internet access, no local money and no clue of what to do next.

I was in tears with my crying kids, an infant in my hand and a desperate, clueless, upset, sad and lost husband. We were all completely exhausted and stressed and shocked at what just happened to us for no fault of ours. We ask the security outside what to do and they said perhaps, we have to file a complaint at Sahar Airport which was somewhere in the city - and that it is at a non-walkable distance. He also said we cannot go into the airport again as the flight has already departed.

Finally, with the help of kind airport staff, we called some of our local contacts, who came after about an hour. Then we found out direction and rented vehicle to go to the police station where after waiting for another **-** minutes we were able to speak to some officers who helped us file a police complaint against Saud Ahmed of Emirates and Amit Tiwari of GVK Mumbai Airport.

While waiting and stranded at the police station with our kids and luggage, we called Emirates Phone Customer service and spoke to a certain Advait, to check the status of the tickets, he said its a no show, that we will have to pay apprixmately **,*** to ***** Rupees per passenger plus the difference in fare.. He also informed us that - Saud Ahmed remarks says we had extra baggage weight for both check-in and carry in and that Saud Ahmed reported that we were abusive.

Frustrated we booked an expensive last-minute flight to Spain for the same day, using our credit cards on Saudia Airlines – so we could get out of India, the country we thought we liked – as soon as possible same day, we did not feel like staying there any more at all. We had no choice to book an immediate flight because otherwise, we were going to lose all our hotel bookings, other travel plans within Spain, tour bookings, car transfers and quality time. Not to mention the extra cost we will have to spend on hotels and transport in India and scared to meet others like Saud Ahmed. We never felt so helpess and scared anywhere ever.

All claims of Saud Ahmed and the check-in agent are false. The matter was blown out of proportion by Saud Ahmed, because, he felt his manly ego was challenged by a foreign woman with kids, something he could not easily accept, especially in front of other people present near the check-in counter.

The CCTV cameras should prove we were not abusive and if we did what exact words were said by us. On the other hand, the same CCTV cameras would show how Saud Ahmed physically stormed at me and my husband and possibly hear what he said and how he behaved and that he did not do his job of arbitration and customer service or even tried to resolve the matter or gave us a fair chance.

We would like Saud Ahmed and the check-in agent to answer what language we were cusring if ever, what exact words were used, when was it used before or after check-in denial, why did he do to resolve the issue, why di dhe not give us the customer commplaint form, why did he not allow us to speak to his supervisor.

We had * check-in baggage, * each for each passenger, we had only * carry in bags instead of * allowed because we were traveling with an infant and * small kids and simply, its not possible to drag bags and strollers at the same time.


The CCTV cameras Instead would show how Saud Ahmed jumped to the conclusion and was biased to the check-in agent and abused his power and cursed us and made us and our small kids suffer in a foreign country.

The CCTV cameras will also prove that Saud Ahmed remarks entered in the Emirates system is falsified that there was extra weight in carry-on bags ... simply because the carry-on bags were never weighed at all.

We didn't even reach the point of weighing the carry-on bags because the check-in agent didn't want to check the carry-on till the check-in bags were done... not even a single carry-on bag was weighed. So how can they claim we were overweight. We were fixing the weight distribution and they simply had no patience - probably because they lost their commissions?

In fact, at no time they said how much it will cost as they assumed we would not pay. So since we were not presented with a cost there was no question of refusal of payments.

The CCTV cameras would show that Saud Ahmed kept walking away from us and not talking to us properly and only would physically charge-back at us if we raise our concern out of desperation.

Saud Ahmed was behaving as if he wanted to impress others to show his powers at our expense, not considering or thinking even for a second this will leave a bad impression on Emirates... No customer service agent anywhere has ever told me that I am a bi*ch or has told me to "f*ck off" or that my husband is "a b*****d".

If this was done to a UAE citizen he would have probably been in jail by now. He did it in India to a Filipino tourist family and thought nothing can happen to him as we won't know where to and how to complain against a powerful him. He was WRONG.

We did do the initial police blotter against Saud Ahmed and Amit Tiwari of GVK.

If we were so wrong, abusive, harmful or dangerous enough to be denied boarding, why was security not called, why were we not arrested or a police complaint filed against us. Just because people like Saud Ahmed can use his power and say what he can say and do what he can say - resolves it in his favor? A grave inconvenience and distress to me and my kids, infant, and husband is none of his concern or concern of Emirates?

Ask him if he even tried to resolve it - he did not - he is not fit to be in customer service.

He was adamant of showing his powers and abusing his role at our expenses with zero consideration to what will happen if we missed the flights the connecting flights our plans our losses our trauma. Nobody deserves this. He should not have a job in customer service anywhere, let alone in a reputed company like Emirates. My closure would be that Emirates investigate the matter using the CCCTV and take strict action of it’s employee Saud Ahmed and the contracted check-in agent and keep us updated on the case.

If we are satisfied with your action against Saud Ahmed, we will just be happy to move on, else we will have to escalate this matter to a Civil and Criminal lawsuit against Saud Ahmed and the contracting check-in company. Unfortunately, since Saud Ahmed is an Emirates employee, Emirates is completely responsible for his actions. At this moment we do not want to take any extreme action against Emirates which we believe is not aware of what some of there employees may be doing to damage their reputation.

However we will file complaints with Airport Authority of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Tourism- India, GVK Group, Embassy of the Philippines - New Delhi, British High Commission - New Delhi,Better Business Bureau, Federal Trade Commission - US, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution – India, against Saud Ahmed, who unfortunately happens to be an Emirates employee.

If needed under Right to Information Act, we will ask for a CCTV Footage to be presented in the courts.

We think and you will see on the CCTV footage that he could be dangerous and intimidating to your other passengers. He overused his power without doing his job of resolving and hearing both sides.

At this moment I am traumatized to ever travel on Emirates, which means Emirates lost a lot of business which my huge family would have given over the years just because of one unprofessional agent we had the misfortune of meeting on what would have been our *st flight with Emirates.

Saud Ahmed and in turn Emirates forgot we have lots of choices to travel and dozens of other airlines to give our business. I am hoping to hear from you on this matter soon. We will actively be upon this case against all the parties involved.

As a senior customer service agent of Emirates, he should have checked the matter of fact *st, should have arbitrated, listen to both sides of the story. Instead without any consideration for * small kids and an infant, he just quickly blamed us because he could not stand a foreign woman questioning him, his claims even the carry-on bags were overweight without nobody even weighing them shows what an abusing liar he is.

We will not rest until we face him in the courts and will not hesitate to take this to higher courts and involve the press as well as social media. If we have to come to India *** times so he can face justice we will. If we have to expose him all over the internet we will, unfortunately, there will be collateral damage to Emirates but it is what it is - finally, Emirates is responsible for his behavior. We bought a ticket with Emirates trusting Emirates to be a customer-friendly airline.

Saud Ahmed is a coward. Who acts like that? A Customer service agent of a reputed airline like Emirates physically charging against a foreign woman with small kids? That's a shameful act. There is no reason for him to have done what he did. It's unbelievable. He had no right to do what he did. India is still beautiful and Emirates maybe a good airline, but certainly not Saud Ahmed or other power abusing agents like him.

All in all we had the worst experience of air travel in my life. We ended up going with Saudia on the same day ** hours later , which caused us several emotional, physical, mental and financial trauma.

However, the good point of Saudia as we discovered is that they offer double the baggage allowance compared to Emirates' offer. I am sure a lot of people online will be glad to know that. We certainly are and would spread the word around on social media, friends, and family.

After reaching Spain we called their customer service who asked us to file an online complaint with Emirates which we did but they sided with the agents by sending a templated initial response and just did not answer our questions or any futher emails.

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I am disgusted and appalled by your poor response, you did not even have the decency to read the ** page
incident report/complaint letter we wrote after going through the experience and insults we had to go through
dealing with your staff and your company.
Instead you jumped into a biased conclusion that the people who represent you are right and that the people who
pay you and the ones you have cheated are wrong and liars.
additionally in your response, you mentioned

------"You had excess baggage and was therefore requested to redistribute the weight of your bags or pay for the
excess. You were not happy with this but elected to redistribute the weight of your bag. However, when you
returned back to the counters, you still had * kilograms of excess baggage."
You are totally wrong
*) When *st we were told the bags were * kgs over weight between all * passengers combined. Then we
removed some stuff so it was * kgs over weight between * passengers combined, at that time we asked your staff
if its okay she obnoxiously told us even * kgs is not allowed. At that time while we were in the process of removing
more or adjusting the other * kgs, she become impatient not to wait for us to adjust more.
*) your staff including Saud Ahmed didn't not check the weights of our carry-on bags EVER
*) We travelled with * small kids * and * as well as an infant we don't carry extra weight in carry-ons as we have
strollers and simply we can't drag so many bags - which means we had a lot of room for adjustment and WE
WERE NOT EXCESS BAGGAGE AS YOU ARE CLAIMING.

You mentioned,
------"When it was established that you could not pay for the additional baggage weight, you were offloaded from
the flight."
Gmail - Feedback-Complaint https://mail.google.com/mail/u/*?ik=****f*****&view=pt&search=...
* of * **/**/****, *:** pm
Again. You are totally biased and wrong and just trying to cover the mistake of your impatient, unprofessional,
lying and incompetent staff. Because,
*) we were not presented with any price, any payment options or anything for you to even decide or claim that we
were in capable of paying.
*) we fly all the time, in fact look at the attachment, my husband has more than * miles on delta alone and
thousands of miles on one world, star alliance etc.
*) we booked a last minute same day flight with Saudi after your awful staff insulted and threw us out o the airport.
So your claim of us not ready to pay or capable to pay is pretty disgusting at the very least.

Finally you mentioned,
------------
"I
must point out that verbal abuse is not acceptable."
Again you didn't take any time to read our complaint.
We asked
*) who did we abuse
*) what language we were cursing if ever.
*) what exact words were used.
*) when was it used before or after check-in denial.
*) did you even check the CCTV?
*) Did you not see SAUD Charging at me and my husband
*) Did you not see SAUD CURSING US?
From your response, It's clear that you are just trying to brush the incident away and would offer us no resolution.
we will not rest till we have justice