[Vector-SS]

Caution: Extremely long

I left Saudi Arabia to go Paris for a small vacation for the Eid Holidays.

Some information:

1) I booked through cheaptickets.com
2) I booked economy class
3) Flight Itinerary:
a) Departure: Dammam-Abu Dhabi-Paris
b) Return: Paris-Abu Dhabi-Bahrain
4) Initial booking October 25 – October 29
5) I was fully aware of the ticket restrictions, rules, changes, etc prior to purchase…
6) Original ticket purchase price $902

A few weeks after booking my ticket, I decided to extend my trip (return date) until the 2nd of November. After calling Cheaptickets.com and spending nearly 30 minutes on the phone, the lady informs me that in order to change my return date, I would need to pay $1,2xx USD. When I asked her why the huge hike in the penalty she quickly dismissed me informing me that the price of the ticket (fare difference) was now roughly around $2,000 USD and this was the amount Etihad Airways was supposedly requesting - which is not true and is an attempt by Cheaptickets to con people who don’t know better. I knew I was not going to get any results and I wasn’t prepared to pay that amount so I politely thanked her, closed the phone and decided to call Etihad directly.

I called Etihad, and after the 4th phone call I was able to change my ticket’s return date (to November 2nd) for USD $293. Oddly enough, I was ecstatic to pay that amount considering what I was previously quoted. I gave them my CC number and moments later I receive a text message from my bank informing me of an authorization of $293 USD from my account, and I also receive an email from Cheaptickets informing me of a change to my itinerary and to check my updated itinerary on their website. The email also stated that if I was OK with the changes “nothing else needs to be done.”

Everything was going great as I was on my way to see my hopefully soon to be wife who I haven’t seen in more than 1 year and to make things better, I was coming back on the same flight as my closest friend who I personally convinced to take Etihad Airways when he had an easy option of flying out from Bahrain on a direct flight to Paris. We agreed it would be fun and much more enjoyable to fly back together and we were both booked and ready to go. Now, fast forward until November 1st, 24 hours prior to check in…

I visit Etihad’s website and I try checking in online (with my friend) to book my “preferred seat” (this needs to change as it’s not entirely true and it’s misleading) 24hrs in advance and I was shown a message saying something along the lines that I can’t check in online due to my booking type, etc, etc… I didn’t put much consideration into this as I thought it was one more hassle I have to tolerate by using 3rd party websites. No big deal, we will choose our seats at the counter we said.

We proceed the next day (November 2nd) to the airport and to the Etihad check in counter check in so we can obviously sit together as we had planned weeks before. As soon as I gave them my passport they told me to go see the ticketing office, and here begins the story…

Time and location:

Airport: Charles des Gaulle
Terminal: 2A
Check-in Counter: #5
Approximate time: 9:10 AM
Flight departure time: 11:00 AM


I approach a lady (I don’t know her name) and she takes a look at my passport and right away tells me” Sir, I see you changed your return date, and because of that, you would need to pay the €232 penalty for a date change”

I kindly respond and inform her that I’ve already paid the penalty of $293 USD before I departed from my origin location which is equivalent (more or less) to what she’s asking for now so it’s going to be a duplicate charge. We go back and forth and I inform her again that it’s unreasonable to expect me to pay again, especially when I had received a confirmation from my bank via text message confirming the charge. I immediately tell her if she’d like to see a proof of the payment and she says of course that would help.

I then take out my phone and call my father back in Saudi Arabia (using my personal phone, roaming charges) to get him to forward me the text message showing the payment proof that was stored on my other phone back home. My father does just that and moments later I show the lady the text message which indicates the following:

“Your Visa XXX700 was authorized USD 293.00 from ETIHAD AIRWAYS MOTO – at 22/10:11:44. Your available limit is SAR XXXXXXXXXXXXX”

She takes a quick glance at it and then tells me “Sorry Sir, but this just shows an “authorization”) – at this point I started becoming agitated because obviously I know more than her how my bank works and she’s making baseless assumptions -when I make a CC payment I get an “authorization” text message simple as that. I explained that to her and she simply ignored it. I then told her if she can’t help me then someone in Abu Dhabi might able to and I asked her to call the Abu Dhabi main office and to figure something out because I already paid and I needed to get on the plane which was boarding very soon. Of course, I was confident the charge would eventually show up after the call and I would be checking in the flight as soon as possible with my friend who was on the side of the counter waiting for me.

The Etihad rep. is now on the phone with Abu Dhabi (I believe), she is put on hold, and she informs me the check-in counter will close in 10 minutes - as if I was expected to pay and ask no further questions so I can board the plane. There I was, standing absolutely furious (inside), but still calm, composed, and above all very polite.

As she is still on hold, I decided to take this even further. I rush back to my luggage, took out my tablet, tethered my phone to it and I accessed my personal bank account (and I incurred massive roaming charges again, just to give more proof).

I log into my bank account and show her my personal bank statement with the charge clearly showing with all the necessary details. At this point, any respectable company would gladly decide to deal with this on their own time (with my cooperation of course) as I clearly showed them proof as payment, as requested. Instead, this slowly gets much worse.

She goes on and then informs the person she was speaking with that “the guest claims to have made a payment” Wait a minute, now I’m lying and what I just showed her was fabricated by me?

At this point I began to become very angry and I felt downright insulted and I told her “could you please stop saying “the guest claims”… I paid and I’m showing you proof yet you keep trying to dismiss it!)

Now, I’m extremely agitated and to make things even worse I receive a text message from my telecom service provider informing me of a $23 USD charge (roaming) has just been incurred to my bill due to Etihad’s incompetence. I spent my time and my money trying to show them a confirmation as requested and they don’t even acknowledge it? Why waste my time, money, and anger the client if you are not going to accept what you’ve initially asked for?

I then ask to the speak to the person on the other end of the phone, but obviously no one seems to want to take the burden of the problem and I DO NOT get passed on to the person. At this moment I knew I was not going to get any sort of assistance as it was quite obvious now that not one Etihad employee wanted to take charge of this issue, and this becomes even more apparent as the “manager” shows up to the scene around 30-40 minutes after all this started.

She comes out from the back with an extremely hostile tone/appearance. My friend (who speaks French) tries to explain the situation telling her it’s unacceptable as he held my tablet in his hand trying to show her the proof of payment, and what does she do?

1) She doesn’t even have the decency to greet either one of us
2) She doesn’t have the decency to even look at us (or the tablet), as if we don’t exist
3) She doesn’t even the decency to respectfully respond to my friend and she immediately came out with a loud tone and told him to calm down.
4) She doesn’t even have the decency to try and understand the situation
5) She doesn’t even have the decency to apologize once for the situation
6) She doesn’t even have the decency to tell me something along the lines of “Sir we are sorry for this situation, but right now you will have to pay in order to get on the plane and I will provide you with my contact details and I will file a complaint for you on your behalf and we will settle this once you land back in your destination” (more on this later)
7) She has the nerve to immediately give me an “option” – to later find out that I either pay now, or stay in Paris. Very, very professional Etihad, well done.
8) She turns her back, opens the counter door and walks right out while I’m sitting there fuming. Completely abandons her employee, completely abandons the situation, and completely abandons the scene…in front of many flyers.

At this point, I completely lost my mind and I let her know it and any witnesses there would be telling you the same thing, I have no shame in hiding it, because I’m a firm believer in the “treat others the same way you would like to be treated” saying regardless of any circumstances.

Please note that I didn’t get angry simply because I had to pay. Really, it’s simple, if my payment hadn’t gone through before my departure then that’s not a problem, I would have paid at the etihad counter (like I was forced to do, but still had to deal with a hostile manager), and if it did in fact go through then I will call and get a refund either through Etihad or VISA. I lost my mind because of the attitude, lack of professionalism, rudeness, and above all showing no interest whatsoever to attempt to help me. After all, that’s what managers are there for right? Manage situations, manage people, lead, and manage issues. Sadly, the manager possessed none of those attributes.

This is some seriously bad customer service, and this is coming from someone who lives in Saudi Arabia. Below is an example of how companies should treat their clients in similar situations…

We once booked a hotel room in Cannes through Expedia and once we showed up to the hotel, they told us the room had 1 bed as opposed to 2. We show him proof of the reservation and what does the hotel manager do? Right away informs us “no problem I will give you a bigger room (even though it costs more) and WE will deal with Expedia, simple as that. In this case, the hotel manager showed exceptional customer service, and in yesterday’s case Etihad showed “budget airlines” level customer-service, truly pathetic and above all humiliating. What Etihad should have done is deal with VISA directly and not put the client in the middle of it.

Having literally no other option but to pay, I gave the first lady I was dealing with my CC. My credit card is charged and I rush back to the counter to get my boarding ticket. At this point I’m obviously the last person to check in and due to this absolute mess of a situation I don’t even get to sit next to my friend on this 6hr flight that we’ve been planning for weeks because all of the seats are taken.

Due to the manager’s attitude and managing the situation in a completely ill-mannered way, I decided to ask her for her name and I will be filing an official complaint against her. Sure it might be an isolated incident and it can happen with ANY company, but I feel someone in the upper ranks should know what sort of people they have employed outside. This is absolutely not a threat, but if I don’t get a satisfactory response on here I will be contacting Etihad directly and I’ll make sure I will get to the right person.

I would like to:

a) Get my money back refunded ASAP (any sort of credit for the future will not be accepted)
b) File a complaint about the ticketing office Manager in Paris CDG (I have all the details necessary)


I trust that whoever receives this complaint will pass this on to the person responsible for situations like these and will aid in resolving my issue. I also ask not to be given a “phone number“to simply call some random customer relations officer because frankly I hope I don’t have to explain this situation again. I prefer to speak to someone who is already familiar with the situation.

Thank you for reading this long concern and for more private information and ways to contact me, please PM me. Any other questions/concerns can be asked on this thread.

P.S.

After the dust settled and I was getting my boarding ticket, the manager approaches my friend (who was literally brushed off before when there was actually a problem) and informs him that she will “personally file a complaint to the head office and attempt to assist in the situation.”

Amazing isn’t it? When she realizes the problem got “resolved” she THEN wants to help? My friend responds back by informing her that she should have helped before I paid and this situation exploded out of control and now any help she’s trying to offer is of no use to us and from this point on we will be handling the situation and filing a complaint.


Best regards,

A first time Etihad Airways flyer