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Etihad Airways
User Review(s)
.Business Travelers be cautioned
Depart from: Melbourne, Australia To: Frankfurt - On date: 05/Feb/2012 - Flight Type: Economy
Business travelers be cautioned:
It has never been my style to diarize experiences however my recent with Etihad experience defies belief. They un-remorsefully plumbed new depths in bad. But read on for the punchline on the story.
Picture this:
3 1/2 day business trip to a trade fair in Cologne, Germany traveling from Melbourne.
Airline ticket purchased on Webjet (online travel agency)
Etihad Website offers upgrades to business class at special rates, but I find out (after calling their 300 number for a cumulative 40+ minutes on hold across 3 calls) that because i booked via Webjet this is not available to me (no one told me that when I booked) but in truth economy is fine.
Melbourne – Frankfurt:
Departure - fine, no issue Melbourne staff fine and reasonably efficient
Arrive Abu Dhabi - no notification that connecting flight has been delayed by 8 hours. I arrive at the gate – no one there, i look at the board to realize the problem. No announcements no nothing!! The best part is when you go to the only customer service desk available there is a 30 minute wait and the staff are looking at each other like they have all started a new job that very morning. Finally I get to the front and it is confirmed flight has been delayed. They put us in a car to a hotel ( airport Raddison which was nice) and we return 8 hours later for our plane.
Ok I appreciate that things can, and do, go wrong and I can deal with that but as a business traveler they just cost me 8 working hours of my 3 1/2 day (now three day) trip.
Frankfurt - Melbourne:
Check in no problems
Turn up to the gate well within time, but 20 minutes before take off a 3+ hour delay announced.
Now I am going to miss my Australian bound connecting flight (in Abu Dhabi) and potentially my wife's 40th birthday.
After some mucking around I get rebooked onto Qatar airlines. No directions to other terminal, no vouchers, no upgrade ( follow the signs, you'll be fine!!!) nothing just a couple of perfunctory apologies from polite staff ( a brief note that their duty manager, Thomas did “listen” but was clearly powerless to impact my situation. Once on board with Qatar, things got better – they seemed to know how to operate.
The Punch Line: You guessed it my bags didn’t arrive in Melbourne – I am told that Etihad failed to transfer my luggage to Qatar – despite the 3+ hour window in order to do so, and the numerous promises 'it would be fine' in Frankfurt.
Pretty much, single handedly, Etihad made an already short and taxing trip, one of the most unpleasant travel experiences of my life (and i have done a lot!).
Given the impact on my trip one staffer in Germany suggested I write a letter!!!! Oh my god this is bad customer service from the 1980’s, how about ‘we are terribly sorry Mr Mahlab, we will have a customer service representative contact you’
For business travel don't risk it- never again for this frequent flyer. For travelers generally, only with the utmost of caution would Etihad every become an option.
PS: I did send a note to their online complaints department who responded in a reasonable amount of time. The usual apologies and a re-stating of the litany of mistakes. Oh and 20K of miles on their frequent flyer program!!!! Not sure why i would want so few miles on an airline that i don't trust. |
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Horrible flights
Depart from: MELBOURNE To: MUNICH - On date: 29/Dec/2011 - Flight Type: Economy
I'm only 167cm tall and the legroom was too small, seats were small, lack of toilets (especially cleanliness). Food quality was poor with little selection, and I was no offered water (except during meal times) for 22hrs of flights.
Disgusting experience and I won't be booking them again. |
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Painful experience - 18/11/2011
Depart from: Melbourne To: Paris - On date: 19/Dec/2011 - Flight Type: Economy
The 14 hour flight from Melbourne to Abu-Dhabi for the stopover was one of the worst experiences I have had on a flight. My monitor/entertainment system was not working from the start of the flight, and after asking several different stewards I was told that they were unable to fix the problem. This meant that for 14 (!!!!!) hours I was left with absolutely nothing to do but sit there, and was offered absolutely no compensation for the problem. To make matters worse, during the flight from Abu-Dhabi to Paris, my entertainment system froze. I alerted a steward to the problem, and was told that she would reset the system shortly and to wait minutes for the problem to be resolved. I waited 5 minutes - nothing changed. So I decided to wait another 15 before asking again. After a total of 20 minutes I asked the steward again, and was made to feel that I was inconveniencing her by requesting that she try to fix the problem like she said she would the first time. Typical of my luck with Etihad airlines, the problem still wasn't resolved an hour later (I can only assume that the steward didn't actually try to reset the system because not only was the problem not resolved, but she never approached me to check if it was working). I decided to ask another steward and she was good enough to reset the system straight away and get it to work again. Definitely not looking forward to my return flight!! |
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Review
Depart from: Heathrow London To: Bangkok - On date: 02/Nov/2011 - Flight Type: Economy
Travelled from London Heathrow to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi. My first time with Etihad and was disappointed.
First impression at check in not good. Barely acknowlodged by the member of staff at check in desk. Then directed to exit at the point of entry where fellow passengers were waiting to check in.
On the flight to Abu Dhabi, after the main meal it was some considerable time before the cabin crew collected the finished meal trays. In fact several people took them back themselves (terrible service). Going from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok it was fine though.
Upon arrival at Bangkok airport, my case did not show up. After enquiring with an information desk some very helpful Thai airport staff discovered that it was still at London due to the flight sticky tag that they wrap around your case, being damaged somehow. Poor excuse. (To be fair this may have been the fault of airport staff at Heathrows's rather than the airline.) Took two days to recieve my case.
The flight back from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow was half an hour late due to repairs to the aeroplane cockpit window which we could view from the very cramped departure lounge. Finished nicely with some grey insulation or duct tape.
On this 2nd leg of the flight we did not receive the snack we were supposed to receive before landing due to us being given our meal late. Why do people with special dietary requirements receive their meal an hour before the rest of the passengers. Ridiculous.
Mr disappointed - England |
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Unprofessional service - full of arrogance
Depart from: Manila To: Abu Dhabi - On date: 09/Oct/2011 - Flight Type: Economy
would not recommend this airline, ground staff very unprofessional, very chaotic, very disorganized and yet full of arrogance. Emirates airlines heaps better ! |
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Best airline- on a par with Singapore
Depart from: lon To: bkk - On date: 17/Jan/2011 - Flight Type: Economy
Highly recommended. Have flown with them many, many times. Shame these people have had bad experiences and the changing flight ruling is ridiculous, I agree. However, I have never had any problems with them and wanted to put it out there that 99% of customers probably feel the same. |
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changing flights nightmare
Depart from: dublin To: bangkok - On date: 12/Jul/2009 - Flight Type: Economy
Wasted 2 days on the phone and traversing Bangkok trying to change return flight date. To change flights cost €125 ,which I knew would be the case when booking the tckt, however unbelievably this has to be physically paid at the Etihad office, it cannot be charged to your credit card over the phone or internet. I thought this may be just a Bangkok quirk and if I rang the Dublin office they would look after me, but no, this is a worldwide company policy. Therefore at GREAT INCONVENIENCE and some cost I had to locate the BKK office and travel to it to hand over my credit card.
I had to change other flights with Air Asia at the time also. This took 10 mins to do on their website where the additional charges were applied to the credit card I had charged the original flights to. Couldn't be simpler.
Won't be using Etihad ever again and strongly urge anyone who even thinks there might be a possibility of changing their flights once they have booked their tckts to avoid Etihad. In fact if you expect good service from airline booking staff, Etihad is not your airline. |
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Almost 10 hours delayed, but got compensation
Depart from: Abu Dhabi To: Jakarta - On date: 14/Jan/2009 - Flight Type: Economy
I got seat with broken monitor....so I spent my flight without entertainment AT ALL..... |
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