[ob1]

Recently, I booked an economy return flight to Sydney, having learned that Etihad had recently changed their rules, that mean economy passengers can now use their "guest miles" to upgrade to business. I planned to book my upgrade in the first week of October. However, I was told by an Etihad customer service agent, that I should wait until after October 9th, as the number of airmiles required to upgrade were likely to be more favourable after that date. At the same time, I received an e-mail from Etihad stating that, "The mileage values for upgrading from Coral Economy to Pearl Business Class and from Pearl Business to Diamond First class will be amended effective 09 October 2011. In most cases, you will be able to upgrade the class of your travel using fewer Etihad Guest Miles from then on". As a consequence of both the conversation and the e-mail, I waited until 10th October to request my upgrade. However, on calling the service centre, I learned that precisely because I had waited until after 9th October, the same upgrade was going to cost me many more miles than it would have done the week before. The result is I no longer have enough miles to upgrade the 3 segements I had planned to upgrade, and I feel rather cheated and misled by Etihad.

To make matters worse, when I tried to complain to the customer service advisor and her supervisor, both said they had no power to do anything. I complainted by e-mail, and was given an 0800 number to call, which no longer exists. I was also given an Etihad e-mail address which just bounced back as it no longer exists. On finally getting a response from Guest Services, they just restated that I should go online to check the mileage calculator - which just confirms what I already know. Having made another complaint 5 days ago by e-mail - I've received no response. I then tried to sumbit feedback via their website tool - but there is a fault with it, and it doesn't let you actually send the feedback. I've tried so many channels - this is my last hope!

Thanks.