[FreqFly]

Hello,

Frequent flyer for 20+ years and I have never seen an airline with such abysmal customer service. It has prompted me for first time in my life to join these forums to warn other travellers TO AVOID #ETIHAD AIRWAYS as if anything goes wrong, getting resolution will be nigh IMPOSSIBLE.

There have been several issues experienced by myself & my spouse during our TWO travels with EA ranging from inability to check-in online (twice and phone check-in seat reservations ignored by ground staff), promised an upgrade to switch connecting flight (then "nothing on system" at connecting airport) and many of the other usual traveling issues (that you might expect over 20+ trips).

Over 10+ calls (yes for two travels!) to customer service, I have learnt that reps cannot do anything other than charge fees & change flights, if you have ANY OTHER ISSUE, you have to deal with Etihad Guest Affairs or hope that a CS email is read by ground staff (they NEVER are).

Here's the unreal part though for an airline that calls itself the "World's Best":
- Etihad Guest Affairs CANNOT be called. Not even 'supposedly' by Etihad Customer Service. You can ONLY EMAIL them.
- Etihad GA staff all use the same "feedback@etihad.ae" email address so there is no way to respond directly, you have to wait until your email is processed and forwarded (currently I am on DAY SIX awaiting a response to my last email).
- Etihad GA staff will always look for an easy excuse to discharge responsibility quickly and when they are actually in the wrong, you need to send two or three responses before someone takes the effort to call.
- IF Etihad GA does agree to a call, it is a random time of their choosing (customer has no choice - which means giving a mobile/cell number) and if you have the bad luck of the mobile network dropping the call, they use the opportunity to send you an email rather than calling back.
- So to continue the conversation, as you cannot call them, you have to send ANOTHER EMAIL and again that response will take a minimum of 3 working days.
- Etihad Guest Affairs is in the UAE (where Friday is a day off) but if you are in a country where Saturday and/or Sunday are days off, then the Guest Affairs 'officer' will claim ALL OF THEM in justifying their late reply.
- Requests to speak to a supervisor or ANYONE ELSE are met with flat-out refusals or you are promised a call in a few days but then they decide behind the scenes to not call back. I kid you not, they told me over the phone that the supervisor decided he would not call me (even though the GA 'officer' had assured me he would) and neither took the tiny effort to tell me this (whether by email or voice).
- Conclusion I can't help to make: THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT HOW THEY TREAT THEIR CUSTOMERS.


This issue I am in the middle of has been going on for weeks and it's apparent that the goal of the Guest Affairs 'officer' is for me to give up by ignoring me or purposefully delaying responses. I have called Customer Service for past 3 days asking when will GA respond and they keep saying they will get Guest Affairs to call/respond to me that day and it never happens. I am regretting the day I decided to give them a try and will be staying with airlines (such as Emirates, Qantas and BA) which have responsive & helpful customer care departments and who actually seem to care about customer retention.


I will not let this issue go though as I was charged an exhorbitant fee to modify my flight booking when at booking time I had taken steps to verify that the higher fare class I purchased would not have any such fare conditions. This fee was not listed on my e-Ticket (nor in online booking on Etihad's own website) but magically appeared when a medical issue forced me to push back my return.

I disputed this fee with several Etihad CS staff members would refused to show me the Fare Conditions document indicating the fee (I had to trust it was there) and that I HAD to select an alternative flight date. I didn't want to do so due to the medical issue but under the proverbial 'gun' I selected a new date some weeks away.

The issue still not resolved at new return date, I called up again and this time there was no mention of a fee to be a no-show on the day and I was informed to simply call to rebook later. I asked if this was a new policy (and I was told the change had happened many months before I even took my outbound) and why I couldn't do this several weeks before. I was told to speak to Etihad Guest Affairs and that's when I got to experience all the above.


Etihad CS NEVER told me I could do a no-show on my first call and they charged me an exhorbitant fee to change the flight to some random date (or I would lose the return). Then when their error was revealed (which was at my expense), they pass me off to Guest Affairs who will not refund the fee.

I have since had to make other plans with other airlines but I would like to use my return before it expires but having paid the fee once when it shouldn't have been charged, it is unreal that they are holding my return ticket ransom to another fee (the two together would likely exceed the cost of the leg itself).


Anyway, if you have read this far, any advice on how to get them to respond and what legal recourse I have would be VERY MUCH appreciated. I have already the details of my country's Airline regulator and I also found that this not-communicated fare condition is in violation of an EU Directive.

[Etihad Representative]

Dear Guest,

We are sorry to hear about the experience you have encountered. We would certainly like to look into this for you and would kindly ask you to send us a direct message with your reference number and email address in order to look into this for you.

Kind regards
*GW