[aldrint22]

Very bad experience with Etihad (preflight)

I and my family, which includes a 10 year old child, had an itinerary on 27th Nov from Kuwait to Auckland.

When we reached the airport early in the morning and ready for this long 25 hours flight, the checkin agent is informing us that we need a transit visa for Australia, having Indian passport and he can’t allow us to take the flight. The key things that needs to be noted and for which we are completely dissatisfied with Etihad is

1) When I was doing the online booking, it never notified or alterted me that if I hold certain passport, I will require transit visa. Kindly check the Emirates webpage, which alerts passenger on this kind of itinerary that ‘certain nationalities may require transit visa’. There should be an alert or pop us on this.
2) Secondly, the same itinerary was changed for dates from original booking and we had gone to your Etihad office in Kuwait. We paid handsomely for the change and still the agent / employee of Etihad did not find it important after seeing us or our passports to inform us that we may need transit visa. We are asking them to be scholars of emigration process, but know or be aware of these small things for booking purpose especially in long haul flights.

Once we were not allowed to board the flight, the ground crew at Kuwait airport was clueless on how to handle this kind of situation at 3.00 am in the morning and they kept saying that we only check in passengers. This entire trauma is undergone by my wife and child at 3.00 am in the morning.

Eventually, they told me that the only recourse is to call Abu Dhabi call center as they can’t do anything. I ended up a long call with your call center, only to find that I will be charged KD 176 per ticket, if I cancel them. Or otherwise it will go as ‘no show’. They were not very willing to help in that early morning.

So here I am struck at Kuwait airport in the morning and I had a deadline to meet in NZ. So I request them to please do something as this is a special and urgent case. They informed me that all Etihad flights go through Australia. And for me to get Australian visa it will take atleast 4-5 days as we were on Thursday night and it was a weekend that followed.

I pleaded them to return the amount to credit card instead of making the tickets open as it would be of no use to me and this being a special case. As my travel requirement was to go to NZ and your flight does not fly without going to Australia. This credit would have helped me book a flight with other airline as you could not provide what I wanted. I badly wanted the credit into my credit card as these are expensive tickets and I needed to do them immediately. But all they did was keep the ticket open which ended up me being struck in Kuwait.

So in conclusion, here I am with a extremely bad experience with my wife and child included and struck at airport in the early morning, with credit card fully utilized and inability to book a another ticket to meet my deadline and an unresponsive staff. The experience was horrific to say the least and no help came from any Etihad.

Now also sadly, here I am struck with an open ticket which is of no use to me. These are special circumstances and unfortunately it was completely mishandled by Etihad.

Traumatized guest,

Aldirn Thayalakal

[Etihad Representative]

Hi Aldirn,

Thank you for your email.

We are really sorry for your frustration. Please send us your feedback with booking reference to **********************. Our Guest Relations team will look into your case and investigate further.

Thank you and Best Regards. *JS

[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.

[Etihad Representative]

Dear Aldirn,

We apologieze for the inconvenience. Please kindly provide us your RQID number in order for us to retrieve your case and assist you.

We look forward to heaing from you. *ZD

[aldrint22]

Hi

The rqid number is 289263

Thx aldrin

[Etihad Representative]

Dear Aldirn,

Sorry for the delayed response.

With regards to your case, our Guest Relations officer has replied to you via email. If you need any further assistance. Kindly continually correspond with the officer who was handling your case.

Thank you and Best Regards. *JS

[aldrint22]

Hello,

I did correspond and they didnt respond after that. I didnt expect much to happen though as it has been 3 days now.

Anyway, not much did change

Regards
Aldrin

[stonecold_1981]

OP - I'm sure the airlines can improve their booking systems (and provide the appropriate flags as you suggest), but eventually, it's the passenger's responsibility to ensure they have right travel documents.

I say this from many years of travel experience. In fact, even if an airline booking system says you don't need a visa, I'd be sure to double check with the appropriate consulate....particularly for an important trip

[aldrint22]

@stonecold_1981

Yes. We don't want an airline to replace immigration, however as mentioned earlier we expect standards of information dismienation to enhance, considering the fact that immediate competition is doing so and etihad is taking a lot of pride in customer service quality.

In similar analogy, nobody forces a airline to give good inflight service. However, the inflight service between airlines is what distinguishes them.

Even if this info or alerts could help 25% of passengers who get informed and take corrective action, then you will face less disgruntled guests at check in

Or they can forget passenger loyalty and hide under 'terms of carriage' and say we don't have any liability.

[aldrint22]

Hi

I have written to them on 30 nov and still waiting a response

Regards
Aldrin

Originally Posted by Etihad Representative

Dear Aldirn,

Sorry for the delayed response.

With regards to your case, our Guest Relations officer has replied to you via email. If you need any further assistance. Kindly continually correspond with the officer who was handling your case.

Thank you and Best Regards. *JS

[stonecold_1981]

Originally Posted by aldrint22

@stonecold_1981

Yes. We don't want an airline to replace immigration, however as mentioned earlier we expect standards of information dismienation to enhance, considering the fact that immediate competition is doing so and etihad is taking a lot of pride in customer service quality.

In similar analogy, nobody forces a airline to give good inflight service. However, the inflight service between airlines is what distinguishes them.

Even if this info or alerts could help 25% of passengers who get informed and take corrective action, then you will face less disgruntled guests at check in

Or they can forget passenger loyalty and hide under 'terms of carriage' and say we don't have any liability.

Fair point. I guess here, in the US, there's not much difference between the major airlines on that metric (they do seem, to a limited extent, differentiated on service).

Re: improving.... I have lost all hope on that. I see the industry doomed for irrelevance. Quite similar to the utility companies.

[aldrint22]

Just to intimate you that it has been six days and the guest relations has not found time to respond to my 30 th nov email

QUOTE=Etihad Representative;31191]Dear Aldirn,

Sorry for the delayed response.

With regards to your case, our Guest Relations officer has replied to you via email. If you need any further assistance. Kindly continually correspond with the officer who was handling your case.

Thank you and Best Regards. *JS[/QUOTE]

[Etihad Representative]

Dear Aldrin,

we have sent a follow up to the officer handling you case to look into it *LK

[aldrint22]

Finally Etihad did respond after 6 days.

I am planning to cancel and take a refund with a loss of USD 1800 dollars as I refused to be force travelled with a open ticket.

So Etihad rewards me with a traumatic experience and loss of 1800 dollars.
First time happening in last 15 years of extensive long haul travels.

This will be a comprehensive 'No' to ethiad hence forth in any travel. Time to return to Emirates.

I am happy I have got over it... Phew !!!

[aldrint22]

THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES

As advised by Etihad feedback and determined not to travel Etihad, I contacted the local etihad office in Kuwait. The person told me that now the ticket is non-refundable and only it can be changed to a new date.

However, this is in variation to originally mentioned by the call center when we had called them on the original date of travel. They had clearly mentioned that by paying KD 176 (30% of fare) each for every ticket as cancellation fee, the remaining amount can be refunded. And this is a recorded talk.

So now I am struck again and the nightmare continues. As either the Kuwait office is not aware or not trained on the terms and conditions or the call center people were bluffing. Either way I am the person who had to bear it.

NIGHTMARE CONTINUES !!!!!!

[Etihad Representative]

Hi Aldrin,

We have sent another reminder to our Guest Relations Officer to follow up your case. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience again. *JS

[aldrint22]

ok. Will be waiting for the reply

[aldrint22]

Did not receive any reply for the last 7 days.

[aldrint22]

My advise to all travelers on Etihad is that if you take a ticket to travel in etihad, do ensure that you travel on those dates. Or else you will be left high and dry like me with a good loss of money and sleepless nights interacting with untrained feedback and customer care section who keep changing their stance and advise at their whims and fancy.

Instance 1: When on the date of travel we called the call center, they told us that we can get a refund with a 30% deduction. Now the present stance is that we cannot get a refund since the flight has departed. (the person who earlier interacted with us never told us this or we would have asked for refund then and there itself, even if it was with a 30% loss). All this is recorded talk and etihad can refer back to it.

Instance 2: On the date of travel when we were not allowed to board and called the call center, we were told that the ticket is made open and you can travel provided the origin of travel is same. All we need to pay is the fare difference and 60 dollars per ticket to change. Now the stance is that the origin and destination should be same. They woke up suddenly.

Instance 3: On the date of travel when we called the call center they had informed us that we need to initiate our travel by 2nd july 2015 which is one year after booking. Now the stance is that the journey should be completed by 2nd of july 2015

All these are information provided on call center calls on recorded lines.
This is all after having a traumatic experience of not been able to board the flight on the given date.

Bad bad bad...........has etihad got any answers......i dont expect much.

[johng94582]

Thanks; your advice is spot-on. The other thing we found is that the newer offices for Etihad (like San Francisco) are much more willing to do what is right and get it done. They are likely going to be punished for it (which is why offices like NY are so hard to work with because they have had to learn the hard way from Abu Dhabi beating them up), but while they are new and focused on helping customers it is another way to work with Etihad.

[Etihad Representative]

Hi Aldrin,

We are really sorry for the delayed response.

We have sent another reminder to the relevant team. We will get you a response as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience again. *JS

[johng94582]

If your travel goes into or out of the US there are a couple other avenues to pursue. You can file a complaint via the US Dept of Transportation, which willallow them to look into Etihad's business practices and make sure they comply with US regulation. It also forces Etihad to respond in a timely manner. You also can go to small claims court, but that you need to make sure you satisfy other requirements.

[aldrint22]

hi....still waiting for the reply.

Originally Posted by Etihad Representative

Hi Aldrin,

We are really sorry for the delayed response.

We have sent another reminder to the relevant team. We will get you a response as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience again. *JS

[aldrint22]

Hi still waiting for the response

[Etihad Representative]

Hi Aldrin,

We have sent an urgent reminder to the concerned team to follow up your case.

Thank you for your patience again.

Best Regards. *JS