Over the years, EgyptAir have faced a great deal of criticism for how they treat customers and manage their services, but yesterday the internet exploded with news of a fresh tragedy at their hands. After an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo, this gorgeous dog, pictured above, was returned to its owner in its cage, dead.
The family of the dog’s owner, immediately took to social media to publicly shame Egypt Air and StarAlliance (of which EgyptAir is a member) for allowing this to happen. According to both the owner’s brother, Kareem Kazem and sister-in-law, Rana El Shafey, the 4 year old dog was taken to the Vets just 48 hours prior to the flight and declared in a perfect condition to travel and therefore the death is very unlikely to be linked to the dog’s health.
EgyptAir in some cases allow for pets to travel in the passanger cabin, however in most circumstances, as in this case, pets travel in the luggage hold. When asked about the cause of the dog’s death, Rana claimed that it was due to the compartment temperature being incorrectly maintained, leading to the dog dying from the cold.
Although EgyptAir are yet to put out an official statement about this issue, they have now replied to some of the various posts issued by the family of the dog-owner, asking them to issue complaint to their customer services. However as Facebook-users have been quick to point out, sending in a complaint, or even receiving compensation is not going to bring back the beloved pet.
Unfortunately for the family, it is very possible that EgyptAir will be able to get away with this incompetence, with it being included in their Terms and Conditions that they do not hold any liability for the death of animals under their care. It is likely that these terms will allow them to brush aside any legal responsibility and only offer compensation to avoid further public shaming.
The shock and outrage towards this incident is mainly focused on the fact that companies like EgyptAir seem to have lost all care and value for the lives and wellbeing of customers. It appears that they have become obsessed with profit at any cost allowing for incompetence and mediocrity of service to become commonplace, but in cases like this, the cost is far too high. It is time that, especially when lives are involved, companies take some responsibility and act with integrity to ensure safety or it is likely we will be seeing more tragedies. Until then, we should definitely think twice about flying with companies that aren’t willing to put us first.
