I traveled from Mumbai to JFK New York on Jan 8th 2018 on Etihad Airways. I had purchased a bottle of Glenfiddich in the flight on my Mumbai-Abu Dhabi sector flight. There appears to be a rule that passengers transiting to USA are not allowed to purchase or carry any alcoholic beverages. I was not aware of this rule. However, at the time of purchase, I had clearly indicated to the steward that I was flying to New York and had provided all the documentation. However, he did not raise any objection to my purchase and even provided me the bottle in a sealed bag to avoid issues in my next leg.
However, this was not acceptable to the immigration officer at the Abu Dhabi clearance. When I discussed this with the Etihad personnel at the airport, they were surprised that the Etihad steward had sold me the goods knowing my continuation to New York. The lady discussed it with her manager and took a copy of my boarding passes and the receipt as proof and asked me to email
dutyfree@etihad.ae as well to request for a refund of the charges for the bottle which was discarded by the immigration officer.
I sent an email to the said address on Jan 11th and have since not received even an acknowledgement of the email. I had provided copies of my boarding passes and the credit card receipt for claiming the refund as instructed by the Etihad lady.
I also tried using the feedback form on Etihad.com multiple times only to get an error "Our systems are down, please check back later" - and this has happened over the past two weeks consistently.
So now after getting frustrated, I am reporting this incident in the forum, Hoping to get some resolution from Etihad - Would not expect such poor client relations and customer service from an airline competing with the likes of Emirates to be the leader of the pack.