Indian cricket team is presently in Cape Town, South Africa, where they will be playing three test matches, three one day international matches and three T20s starting January 5. All was well with the visitors only until Shikhar Dhawan’s family was stopped by Emirates airline from taking their connecting flight from Dubai to Cape Town.
Shikhar Dhawan. TheHindu
Emirates airline stopped Shikhar’s wife and children from travelling since they did not have the birth certificate of his children and some other identity proofs at that moment. As a result, his family had to wait at the Dubai airport for the documents while Dhawan had to board the flight with his teammates.
Shikhar Dhawan with family. YouTube
This made the cricketer feel that the airline is unprofessional and should have notified about the want of birth certificate when they were boarding the flight from Mumbai.
Furious over the entire situation, Dhawan expressed his anger on Twitter. Take a look at what he tweeted:
1/2.Absolutely unprofessional from @emirates. Was on my way 2 SA with my fam & was told tht my wife and kids can’t board the flight from Dubai to SA. Was asked to produce birth certificates & other documents fr my kids at the airport which we obviously didn’t have at that moment.
— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) December 29, 2017
2/2.They are now at Dubai airport waiting for the documents to arrive. Why didn’t @emirates notify about such a situation when we were boarding the plane from Mumbai? One of the emirates’ employee was being rude for no reason at all.
Advertisement— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) December 29, 2017
His fans and followers were obviously disappointed by Emirates airline’s conduct. Here are some of the responses on Shikhar Dhawan’s tweet:
This is ideotic. Why is birth certificate required when passport has all the details?!
— mukesh chaturvedi (@MukeshVigadvice) December 29, 2017
they had done the same thing with my family members as well. They have the habit of making us fall into trouble unnecessarily.
— Prajakta Bhawsar (@ViratsFangirl18) December 29, 2017
We experienced similar lausy service last time we flew on @emirates . Must say their fleet is top class but customer service sucks big time
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Emirates should have stopped at Mumbai. This is ridiculous. They should apologise and I think Sue emirates.
— Gautam Dugar (@ggautamdugar) December 29, 2017
However, one of the Twitter user informed Dhawan about the rule followed in South Africa as per which child’s original birth certificate must be carried while travelling to the country in view of the high child trafficking cases taking place there. Check out the tweet below:
This has nothing to do with emirates by the way, but a law enforced by South African government with effect from 1st June 2016 to carry your child’s original un abridged birth certificate when both parents fly. They are only following the regulations of South Africa government.
— Abhinav Joshi (@IceCubeEnix) December 29, 2017
Emirates also replied to Dhawan’s tweet requesting him to connect in private message. Have a look at the tweet:
We’re sorry to hear this, Shikhar. We’d like to find out more on a private message. Please include your booking reference or e-ticket numbers starting in 176. https://t.co/67ooSY3Pnf
— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) December 29, 2017
Later, Emirates airline issued a clarification statement saying:
Since 1 June 2015, according to South African regulations, anyone travelling to the country with a minor under 18 needs to prove parenthood or guardianship – while adults travelling alone with their children need to show that they have the consent of their non-travelling partner.
Like all airlines, we must comply with the laws of every country in which we operate and this is a shared responsibility with passengers, who are required to hold valid travel documents for all countries on their itinerary.
