Issue with Israeli passport spoils trip

Cape Town offices, but to no avail.

I have been directed to their website to register a complaint, only to find it had a technical hitch resulting in wasted hours again.

It is impossible to contact someone in Emirates to speak to.

I cannot help but feel we are being given the “cold shoulder” and “runaround”.

Emirates are so quick to take your money, but it seems that once they have taken it, all else vanishes out the window when you have a complaint.

In conclusion, I would like to outline the following scenario:

How would anyone feel if they planned and organised with a number of people, a “team”, to go overseas, making use of an airline, and verified with the airline that all was in order with their travel arrangements and documentation, only to find after the trip had started – with two members of the team having flown and waiting for the other in Dubai – that the remaining member has been stopped from flying out of South Africa, compromising the objective of the members of such a trip being together to carry out their planned mission?

Steven Chaimowitz A spokesman responds: We appreciate the opportunity to follow through with the customer’s complaint brought to your attention.

While we are happy to know that the customer has had good experience with Emirates before, we

for Emirates would like to clarify a few issues concerning this complaint.

The suggestion that Emirates introduced a new regulation to their airline’s policy whereby admission is refused to nationals of Israel is untrue.

Emirates would like to state categorically that no such policy exists.

It does not fall within the airline’s authority to determine the entry right into the United Arab Emirates for any passport holder of any country or state.

On the date of the journey, Mr Treister presented himself at the check-in counter and advised that he would like to exit South Africa on his South African passport and enter Barcelona, his final destination, using his Israeli passport.

Mr Treister expressed concern about travelling through the UAE on an Israeli passport, and the local Emirates representative contacted Dubai immigration to address the passenger’s concern.

It was confirmed that Mr Treister could indeed travel through (transit) UAE without any problem and this was communicated to him.

We can confirm that before the flight departure, Mr Treister returned to the Emirates representative to voluntarily cancel his trip.

At no stage was Mr Treister denied boarding on any Emirates flight to Dubai (en route to Barcelona). In line with normal cancellation procedure, Mr Treister was referred to the Emirates ticket desk to cancel his reservation before the flight departure.