Dubai Airports / Dubai International Airport
Reviews and Complaints

This is the second time we transit through Dubai Airport. With 4 hours to spend during flight, not even half the seating available for the passenger. We had to sit on a floor with hundreds of other passengers. What a horrible place. Put some chairs instead of infinite number of shops. As a protest I am not spending a penny here and I will avoid this terrible place for future travels.
Garbage place. I would not recommend to anyone.

This is for the Airport authority who handles wheel chair assistance for senior people and the disabled. My mom, a 66 year old woman recently traveled from New Jersey to Kolkata via Dubai and she had the most dreadful experience at the Dubai airport. She had a wheelchair access mentioned but still was made to walk around the airport with an airport personnel who took her boarding pass, making her sit at the airport promising to return soon but never did. She had to literally hunt for that person asking every other airport assistant she was coming across only to hear 'we'll do something.' She was assisted by one of your persons finally but she was made to walk the whole airport and he was extremely rude. He told her that she has time left for her next flight so why is she bothering people?

I mean is this kind of a crazy joke? I did hear horror stories before about how sick and disgusting you guys are in handling wheel chair people but I never knew u guys could stoop so low to have insulted and harassed an elderly woman like this. I feel like going to the city and lodging a police complaint against you all who are doing such cheap stuff with helpless people everyday. I need an answer to this. Why was my 66 year old mother who was traveling alone was treated like this? And it's not only her, there were other senior people who were treated the same way from what I have heard.

I am traveling by spice jet and duty free baggage has been charged to me as extra / over weight luggage. If I knew this would be a case of over weight I would have not bought any from dubai. As same would have been available in Mumbai and saved money. As UAE is any how losing on economy and this kind of practice brings bad taste to the Traveller. UAE should save Gaurd interest of self and people who travel through its land.

I lost my hand carry luggage purple colour today 4/12/2018 around 1400hr in Dubai airport before the immigration check arriving from Kuala Lumpur .
It was my own careless 😩as I forgot the hand carry luggage inside the toilet. The problem here I already make a complaint to the loss and found department but no serious action was done. I came again after 3hours to the department and said still not found🤔🙄 .

Seriously such a big bag still couldn't be found.
Unsatisfied customer
Malaysian
[protected]
Winawati simin

To whom it may concern
Dear sir/ madam
I MrQsee hamed saif alomairi I would like to rise a complaint to you regarding the verry bad laggage handling of your airline this is not the first time that this has happened to me and With a new one every time that though a very good quality and expensive ones but I gess your staff are talented in braking if they were able to brake the best quality ones, point that I have kept the fragile sticker on.
Anyway this time it was even worse my bage was fully broken and even the content inside were exposed I think if I didn`t have that inner plastic wrap my clothes would be all over the place this is unacceptable at all and I`m really angry and disappointed, I
.
My booking flight number IX-813 fling from manglore to dubai on the 20th of this month.
20/11/2018 at20:00 pm
The bag that was broken costed- 62 Omani rial

Plz do the needful and I would like to get a refund for the broken bag and I hope this never happens again.

Looking forward for your reply
Thank you
Qsee hamed saif alomairi
[protected]

I complained many times and nobody did anything in my case it's very big problem I sent 16 emails and 2 official complaint in Amer and
4 months passed and didn't happen anything
If u don't call me I will take this matter to Law court
And I will take legal actions about this
[protected]

Today - 17 th Oct at 3.20 PM I was on immigration counter while flying via Emirates out from Dubai to Kuwait ( Flight at 6.20 PM, Gate B20). There were no signs about who can go in which line, so by mistake ( I admit) I end up being in line which is privileged for GCC citizens. There was absolutely no one in that whole line up- just me alone. The immigration officer on desk 32, a female screamed " why are you in this line", move to another line. I followed the screaming and moved to regular line for everyone.

After standing 10 min in that line, I end up on desk 32 where that female officer said " does this happens in Bombay also ( she meant standing in privileged lines), and then she gave physical gesture of slicing neck and said we punish people like this for switching lines" .

How rude, arrogant and impolite an immigration officer can be? She represent her country on that counter beside doing her job. I said thanks to her and took my passport and left for Kuwait. I don't know her name. She was on desk 32, date 17th Oct and time 3.20 PM. I am sure there are records of who is on duty? I don't care for action, but she needs some mentoring and coaching on how to interact. Travellers can do mistake. Officers should realize that and accorindgly advise travellers, rather threaten and being arrogant.

I came to dubai airport with paper employment visa, there was some mistake from the guider near to immigration counter...she guided me to exit the gate...unfortunately there was no entry stamp on my passport and visa copy,
Hence i came back next day 3pm they asked me to come back again next day, i came to terminal 1 at immigiration couter he listened my full story he filed a complaint he took almost 2 hours and then he sent me to Dxb terminal 3...here there is guy named ahmed badri he sent me to dnata couter to get the immigiration paper...and they asked me to pay 105 dirham...here is my question why they charged me, is it was my mistake I didn't got the entry stamp or the immigiration department mistake, some one is entrying to Dubai without entrt stamp. This is not my mistake i came outside, this is wrong why they charged me 105Aed.

the police staff has stopped me 3 times and 2 of the times I had my bag checked. being the only African on the group of 4, I felt very humiliated in front of my wife's family, the last police officer which was not wearing an uniform, even yelled at me for not looking him in the eyes.
for a first time visitor, this has changed my whole expectation and experience, making me buy my return ticket as soon as I arrived in the hotel for as soon as possible. I cannot handle racism and this was 100% racism as no one else in the group was stopped and they are all white European. I really hope to have a feedback from you as this was a very humiliating experience.

This is with regards to a surprisingly obnoxious behaviour that I encountered at the Dubai Airport from a ground staff stationed next to the Air India Express flight IX-194 flying from Dubai to Lucknow at 23:30 hrs on the 25th of August.
After alighting the bus and while I was on my way to board the aircraft from the ramp at the back I heard someone shouting from behind and while I turned and looked back, to my surprise it was directed at me. I thought that i had dropped something while walking so the ground staff, running towards me, was calling me out, but it wasn't to be!

For the record, I have travelled the world over and may be in over 500+ flights, but never has some ground staff told me that ‘Cant you hear me, I have been shouting for so long, are you deaf?!' (2 cases here of ignorance/insensitivity and of pure dim-wittedness: 1) I was standing next to the aircraft propellers with a lot of noise, which wasn't very obvious to the lady in question 2) you are being insensitive to a 5% of the world population, which suffers from disabling hearing loss)
It took me 10 seconds to actually realise if she said these things and I retorted saying, "well there's a reason why there's a ramp at the back, and my seat is towards the back end".
The best reply came after this- "do you think you will get special treatment by being the only person getting into the aircraft from the back"!
At this point I started laughing and just turned back and did what Mademoiselle in-charge asked me to do as I just could not believe what was happening. I just asked her once again if she realised what she has been saying to which I got a look filled with a lot of disgust. At this point I found it futile to be even standing there and wasting even 5 seconds of this precious life that God blessed me with.

If I could describe her, she had a round face, long hair that was tied and was, may be, of a south-asian origin, but the best way to identify her would be to ask a passenger to try and board from the back side gate of the aircraft.

Once identified, I hope she is at least reprimanded for her behaviour and told that the salaries that she gets are from the price that we passengers pay for being treated in a special manner at one of the busiest airports in the world and the special treatment (or otherwise) that we get from someone like her spoils the good work done by a lot of hard working ground staff at DBX!

May good sense prevail!

Whilst in transit on a long haul flight from China (Beijing to Manchester) UK on 31st January 2018. We were totally surprised at the rude and aggressive manor of the security guard, as we were in transit I asked the guard why we needed another bag and person search, I couldn't believe in when he said to me "shush, shush, shut up" I said "I beg your pardon and he repeated at which point I told him not to speak to me like that, were was the respect of paid employee to a customer, or a young man to an elderly man, or a human being to a human being.? It was only my my wife who is white British told him to be more respectful and not be so rude that he stopped repeating it. She also involved the police officer who was on site he shouted at the guard.

We will never again set foot in Dubai again not even in transit and will advise anybody else to give them a miss. This is not a one off situation we witnessed other occurrences of rudeness whilst there and have since read other similar reports of rudeness on the internet forums. One of the most expensive countries in the world who desperately need visitors and their money will lose out if they don't do something about their staff. I also firmly believe that there is colour prejudice involved here as I am Pakistani and the other guy that I witnessed having a problem was black. The staff need to be retrained especially when it comes to politeness and respect they should be taught that we are profit and they are an overhead nothing more.

On Saturday 3/3/2018, at around 7:00 pm, I stop by The Draft House restaurant at the upper level, terminal D to have my dinner which was a crispy fried chicken burger with avokado, unfortunately I got a food poisoning for the next 3 days and I still suffering
Kindly check for this issue to safe more people if that is true by checking the food quality at this restaurant
I couldn't believe I will face such problem at the airport I really like so much

Thanks
Dr. Abdulaziz Alabidi
Surgeon consultant
[protected]@yahoo.com

Before my husband & I left for holiday to the Philippines on 7th February (2018) from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, we ensured that the weight of our hand baggages is 7 kgs each. Each one of us has personal bag which contained our own laptops (3 pcs), cables & powerbanks. Our hand baggages were weighed but not our personal bags. We arrived at Dubai airport 00:15 and had 2.5 hours layed over before our flight to Cebu, Philippines, Flight number EK338 at 02:45am. When we boarded our flight to Cebu, all our bags (i.e. hand baggages & personal bags) were weighed including the stuff we bought at duty free shop (4 bottled water, Dates, Chocolates, Refrigerator magnets, perfume, cosmetics) resulting an excess of 10 kgs. They asked us to pay $392.00 despite of our protest for the stuff we bought at Duty Free shops and our own personal stuff.
Could anyone please explain why all our bags were weighed including the stuff we bought at Duty Free Shops? Unfortunately, we don't have the copy of the receipt anymore but herewith attached is the copy of the statement from Visa showing the amount we paid. If there has been a mistake, we would to ask for refund.

Details:
Reservation number: NUCFXJ
Date of the incident: 08 Feb 2018
Ticket numbers: 176 [protected] & 176 [protected]

On an Emirates flight Dubai to Nairobi I checked in 2 suitcases.One suitcase was 1 kg overweight the other 2 kgs underweight.The check in agent made me take 1 kg out of the overweight suitcase and put it in the underweight one delaying and inconveniencing many passengers standing in line behind me.Can anyone believe this kind of inflexible customer service and attitude ? It stinks to heaven.

ON THE SAME FLIGHT I purchased my regular DUTY FREE. BELIEVE IT OR NOT They they weighed the Duty Free at the gate and asked for $ 200 cash in excess baggage. I ended up returning the goods to the shop. DXB used to be the most pleasant and most competitive DF SHOP in the world. Today it is still attractive but among the worst pricewise. Even M & M 's are double of what they should be. Like the country itself DXB airport has become a scam and a rip off.
This travel experience was the worst ever. Arrogant and impolite Emirate personell did a real disservice to their once grest reputation. You can't make this up even if you tried. I have traveled to and from Dubai from the States for many years .Needless to say this is the end. In future I will go back to transiting thru Europe instead of lousy Dubai.
T.Boehm
Chicago, USA

To whom it may concern,

We have travel with our two small kids (1 and 3 year) and spend few hours into the Dubai airport.
I m very negative suprise how your land stuff don t care about kids in trolley, and don t give us advantage like everywhere in a world we have.
Travel with kids isn t always easy, expecally when they scream, and your staff don t care about it, just put us and the end row to wait with the rest of the passingers.
You have very good kids service with mclaren trolley on the airport, kids play room, but it will be much nicer that you land staff treat family with kids much better, and give us advantage like everywhere in a world, not to wait in a long line with others passingers.

Hope that you will improve this...

Just a couple of hours back, I went to LV Store at Mall of the Emirates branch in Dubai to collect my ladies bag's strap that I returned on 4th Nov due to its poor quality (sides of the strap was sticky and have melted).

The first staff (a lady) that I approached when I entered the store approximately between 7:15pm-7:20pm was attending some customers. I understand that she cannot attend to me that moment for obvious reason. I just like her to know that I came just yo collect my strap. She told me, she's busy and just wait for someone else. I said that's fine, so I just stayed and browsed around and after sometime, she called someone to assist me although she was still attending her customer.

I told the 2nd staff (a lady) that I came to collect my strap. She told me to have a seat and she will send someone else to assist me. I sat for just a moment then I stood up and again browsed around so I don't feel bored until I reached the other side of the store.

I saw another staff (the 3rd lady) arranging stocks (no customer around her) so, I approached her and told her that I came to collect my strap. She immediately replied saying she's busy and she has customer so I need to look for someone else to assist me. She then left and walked away from me. She approached some customers on the other side of the store pretending to be the customer that she told me she was assisting. She knew I was observing, she then eventually assisted me.

Unfortunately, it was a wrong strap!
She insisted that I should take it as it is also Montaigne style. I told her it's too short and entirely different from the original strap that I returned. She then called her supervisor who then told me that there's nothing he can do, it's after sales department and he told me just to come back.

I left your store and went home tired and frustrated. I looked at all the LV items that I bought and all I felt was anger. I'm not anymore happy with LV brand. I suddenly felt that LV is no longer a distinct brand, not anymore to longed for, not anymore to wished for!

Regards,
Rebecca Gonzales

I wish to complain about the problems we encountered after attempting to board our return flight EK448 for Auckland New Zealand departing 10.15am after I had lost my passports.
The whole experience was made bitter by the unhelpfull, rude, impolite, disdainful and impatient attitude of most of the airport customer service attendants. Are all Dubai people like this?
While returning back home after a 6 week holiday with my son and his family in London. We deplaned into Dubai airport at 8.31am
I became aware that our passports were missing as we were about to board our flight home to Auckland, New Zealand at 9.05am. Boarding gates closed 9.45am, scheduled departure 10.15am.
In the first instance, I advised one of the attendants who was not directly involved with the boarding process at gates B7 of my situation. (He occupied his own kiosk a seat to the right of the 3 attendants who were checking passports and boarding cards.)
This gentleman was neither helpful or sympathetic, nor did he seem interested in our predicament. In fact he seemed annoyed that we had even bothered him. As I was uncertain where I had lost the passports which were last used to board our flight at Heathrow. Our boarding gate closed at 9.45. He said he had called lost and found and advised them and there was little else he could do. At no point did he suggest or advise me to go directly back to down stairs to lost and found, to report the incident or to check. I am a transit visitor, I had no idea where lost and found were or where to even start the process of looking for my passport as I had no idea where I had lost them. I subsequently located them at 11.00am with the lost and found department at the security checkpoint on terminal 3. When I queried the Police they said they were found by/ handed in by the people at the security check point.
If I had been directed down to lost and found immediately, (even to report the matter ) I would have been able to board my flight.
I have no idea as to how the passports came out of my shoulder bag, as they were not required at that point. maybe they fell out of my bag from the pocket when I uplifted the bag from the tray as I removed my belongings, as we were rushing to get to our gate.
It is not a pleasant situation to be in, immediately on discovery of the missing passports stress levels rise, panic and fear of the problems, consequential costs, waiting family, availability of reconnecting flights, seats and possibly days of delays as well as accommodation problems and the ability to PAY for all associated expenses. This was also compounded by the fact that without travel documents we could not leave the air port or even consider alternative travel arrangements until replacement documents arrived.
My wife is a diabetic, has a weak bladder and also suffers from chronic menopause problems, namely anxiety (all of which can be verified by medical report). She did not handle the situation well also placing me under stress and creating tension between us as I was in charge of looking after the documents.
As we wandered around asking various airport staff for help, no one seemed to care or wanted to be bothered. The standard response was that they did not know, go downstairs or go that way?

My complaint is that this, the situation could have been handled better by trained, caring sympathetic and airport and airline staff who take pride in their country, its image and impression of the people, and most importantly people who love meeting, serving and helping the public.
If airport/airline staff or attendants had directed us immediately and urgently to the lost and found or organised assistance in that regard, we could have still boarded my flight on time!

The Airport could reduce the stress and assist travellers in a similar predicament by:
(Dubai airport is huge and it very easy to get disorientated, when it is busy, and worse when you are feeling stressed.)
a) Putting in place, systems to either page, announce or have available lost and found information kiosks or register for a list of the possession of the nationalities of the documents held or the names of lost passport holders. These kiosks or databases should be available to boarding personnel.
b) Police/ some authority should have access to check what flights the holders are on to give urgency to locating the holders.
c) This information could be relayed to the appropriate boarding crew or terminal gate.
I realise Dubai is one the most busiest airports in the world but I think it could lift its image and reputation considerably if staff were more friendly, sympathetic, showed concern and a willingness to help instead of making one feel like an idiot or nuisance. Dubai is the gateway to the country and its people. A lot of people make judgements from their first and immediate experiences and Dubai Airport is at the forefront of this impression.
The other problem we encountered, that there is lack of dining options for visitors with special dietary requirements at Dubai Airport. Being Hindu vegetarians we were restricted to chips, pizza or fruit and nuts (not good for diabetics). I am sure there are many other visitors with dietary requirements who experience similar problems. Consequently, as we were on standby flights our special meals were not available to us on our Emirates flights.
Thank you Emirates. Thank you Dubai.
Incidentally, while there we saw another passenger from New Zealand travelling with his two children (aged, I am guessing 9 & 7 years old?) who also had lost their passports. He located them from Lost and found under his own initiative. He had arrived at the airport 4 hours before check in and missed his flight. He also complained about the lack of help. He also had spent time going from one person to another seeking help. The man was in tears and pleaded in vain several times to be reinstated on another flight free of charges. I think that he may also have had financial problems. I do not know what his outcome was. Fortunately for my wife and I we had a credit card, or we would have been in a similar position. Unable to get home.
The other aspect of this incident was while New Zealand immigration did grant us dispensation to travel without documents, prior to the boarding gates closing. (We had photo copies of our passports on our mobile phones as well as our New Zealand drivers licenses in our possession.) Unfortunately, by the time the attendant (Lionel) helping us got off the phone the boarding gate had closed. I cannot understand why Lionel did not allow us to board the flight once New Zealand Immigration had confirmed we could travel without documentation.
this is our second unpleasant experience with Emirates and at Dubai Airport last year (2016) when we travelled with Emirates for the first time. Our flight out of Auckland departed 2 hours late.( Mechanical problems, cabin air conditioning not working.) We were served with only a light snack the entire 17 hour flight (we had requested special meals weeks in advance, confirmed on our itinerary). We were also unable to board our connecting flight to London, when we arrived at the boarding gate (before it had closed) we were told that because there was insufficient time for ground crew to transfer our checked in luggage we had been rebooked onto another flight, 2 hours later. When we requested a meal voucher we were told as the delay was less than 4 hours we were not eligible. ( 2hour departure delay in Auckland + 2 hour wait in Dubai = 4 hour delay to me?) When we eventually boarded our flight to London, there were no special meals or lunch for us as we were not booked onto that flight! We received one meal, the entire journey from Auckland to London. Our special meals were on the original flight which we had missed through no fault of ours!) Our pre arranged booked pick up taxi driver at the Heathrow also charged us double due to the additional waiting time and parking charges.
Thank you Emirates.
We are nearing retirement and looking ahead to further international holidays. Prior to commencement of this journey, we had contemplated a Dubai stop over but because of time restrictions we were unable to fit the stopover in.(In hindsight and $1500.00 poorer, we should have made the stopover.) Unfortunately my wife has become a little embittered by these two experiences including the delayed flight problems last year, that she no longer wishes to travel with Emirates via Dubai, preferring instead our original carrier of choice until 3 years ago, Singapore Airlines.

Unhappy traveller and Dubai transit visitors.

I am Egyptian but my daughter is Italian, i entered dubai in 21 October i asked about visa they told me that i need to make previous visa but for my daughter she will take in the airport. I made c/out in 5 January and i was planning to enter again after 2 week . They told me it is okay as long as u go outside u can enter again. I made c/in again 21 January and i was having long term visa again, I entered and no one advised me for anything. When i was leaving from Dubai 26 February they stop me in the visa check and told me go to office number 4 even didn't tell why . When I entered they told me that i have pay 2600 for mu daughter as violation i get choked as I wasn't having this money and even I don't know why . The person was v rude with me keep telling it is rules u have to pay . My baby is just 8 months and no one was trying to help me and i was going to lost my flight . They didn't try to help until my husband came and pay for them the money. The most bad treatment i have ever get in my life and it was not my fault, it was the fault of the person who let baby enter with old visa which was going to finish after few days without advising and i was thinking that they give her new visa as staff told me I can't imagine that they charge just a baby with all of this money .

Invoice # [protected] for order # pmrneten-[protected]

Since more than month paid online for this order and till now I have not received anything and no follow up to my emails, and no body is answering that phones numbers all the time busy, so could you explain why the item is not delivered? And why no one is answering the calls? Is it a fake company and you are scaming people with legal trade license or what?

On 20 of September 2014 I had a flight from Dubai to Poland (Warsaw) through the Vienna (Austrian Airlines) I was at the airport near passport control two hours earlier. The flight I had at 1:40 am because of the large crowd, a large queue and very slow service I was at the gate before 1:40 am but They closed it before my nose. They said that the plane is still standing and They didnt let me go to the plane.

In the queue at passport control I reported that I have just my flight (the airport is large and I have to reach to my gate) and they should pass me before another passengers or divided queue for passengers who have a faster and later flight. They didnt listen me and they told me that I should stand in line and wait. By this I had to buy a new second ticket for $ 500 Ukraine Airlines at 3:20 am. Ticket number [protected].

Also I reported this situation to the airlines, but they indicated to me that this is not the fault of the airlines but airport fault, and I should contact with the airport in Dubai about this compensation. At the airport there was a large queue, everything went very slowly, I reported it, but the service passport did not care about it. If I passed in front of the other passengers, who had later flight for sure I could catch my plane on time. I am Polish and I fly to Dubai but it is a first time I have a situation like that. First time I have seen the lack of incompetence on the part of service Dubai International Airport. I thought that dubai airport is the best and know how to treat permanent passnegers and customers and I don't want to change my mind about it.

I write my complain on this email because I got it on the website of Dubai International Airport (chat).

I would like to ask about a compensation and reimbursement of my expenses associated with buying a new ticket - (500 dollars).

I had an electronic ticket and all my data is in your computer.

I look forward to hearing from you asap.

Justyna Kornaszewska - email : justyna.[protected]@gmail.com - please answer on my email.