[Anonymous]

[sueclements]

I was on flight EK407 on the 24th of January from Melbourne to Dubai.

This flight was eventually aborted, 7 1/2 hours after us taking off from Tullamarine, after us circling over Ballarat for a couple of hours, dumping fuel in the bay, then sitting on the tarmac for a couple of hours while attempts were made to repair the aircraft.

We disembarked, went through customs, collected our luggage and were then either put up in hotels, or, if you lived in the state, sent home using cabcharge vouchers.

Information was fairly sketchy, but we were informed of everything as the crew was updated.
They did not give us as much information as I would have liked regarding what needed to happen next; even when we were waiting for our luggage, we still did not know what was going to happen next. I would have thought that they would have contingency plans that deal with an issue of this sort, even if it is a rare occurrence. It was fairly hit and miss, with us reporting to a temporary desk that was set up in the departures lounge and being told – one by one! – that all new information about a flight out would be on the website (never appeared).

I had to phone the airline three times during the next day to find out what would be happening, as information was sketchy and the flight times changed twice. I think it was handled better while we were onboard than afterwards and would question why people were then moved to different seats for the next intended flight. As it was one that was designed to deal with the affected passengers only, I would have thought it was simply a matter of rebooking us all again.

I was dropped into another area completely, with my travelling companions, which wasn’t as good, while our original seats remained empty! We were eventually moved back to our original seats after requesting them, but it made no sense. We were also travelling with a baby, and my friend had to hold the baby for the entire time, as they would not give her a bassinet, even when we had landed and were waiting for 2 hours to find out what was going to happen.

We were given a 50% refund on the flight as well, and then eventually flown out the following day with the original flight and cabin crew. I was really interested to see how calm everyone remained; people appeared to be resigned to what was happening and simply waited to hear what was happening next. An interesting experience overall!

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