[aldrint22]

Etihad responded by profusely apologising and eventually like any normal airline does taking refuge in 'terms of carriage'.

However, what etihad missed is that in a competitive environment they need to walk the extra mile to ensure a comprehensive experience to maintain the edge.
Especially when it's proximate competition I.e emirates is a step ahead.
After this experience and with no tickets in the morning to travel, we were exploring other airlines including emirates. When we called emirates call center, the agent without us prompting, asked which passport we are holding and informed us that all their flights go through Australia and we will need transit visa. Similarly, in their webpage where the intermediate stop is mentioned as Sydney or Melbourne, provides a link which says that citizens of some countries need transit visa.

I am not saying emirates is the best but they are at least ahead in experience provided to guests and not taking cover under 'terms of carriage'.

I had only asked Etihad after going through this traumatic experience, at least don't make me force travel by just keeping the tickets open. We wanted them to atleast re-credit our booking as we had already travelled by an alternate airline and this act of theirs (seemingly fair according to me) would have helped to reduce our dislike for etihad airline. Ideally, they should not have put us in this situation in first place by alerting us.

But in response, they quote us standard conditions and 'terms of carriage'. Hence the complete experience with etihad continues to be a mishap.