[Dioraddiqt]

We were refused to board a flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila on March 11, 2015. It was a connection we had "missed" due to a delay from our first leg flying from JFK to Abu Dhabi.

We were screened by UAE security checkpoint, ready to board, and tickets scanned at the gate when the gate agent took us off the line. The agent then announced that all other passengers were permitted to board while we and about a dozen passengers from the JFK flight waited. None of us were given information as to why everyone else was able board but we could not. Finally, the gate agent told us to follow him to another gate, walking back through the security, and causing mayhem with the security guards who were not happy with the situation. The gate agent simply walked us to the rebooking desk, left us, and offered no explanation.

It was not until after another 30 minutes on the queue, reaching the rebooking agent that she finally informed us that we were "late" for the original flight and therefore needed to be rebooked on the next flight out which was 12 hours later!!! And not even on an Etihad flight, but a Philippines Airlines flight.

Why were we not let onto the flight if we were already at the gate on time and ticketed?!

This has now created a rift in our entire vacation as it sets as back a full day. The rebooked flight was now due to Manila at 10:15am on March 12th, instead of at 10:30pm on March 11th. Therefore causing us to miss a night's hotel stay in Manila, and a chartered flight reserved for 10am.

We are very disappointed in the way things were handled. There was no attempt to rectify the situation. Our entire vacation itinerary was now off course and at no one's fault but Etihad Airways. At that point we thought nothing more can go wrong but we were mistaken. We would find out just 12 hrs later that rebooking us on Philippines Air Lines made the problem even worse.

PAL offers no in flight entertainment, significantly less leg space, and limited overhead storage. Under the aisle seats in which we were both assigned, there is a metal bar that restricts storage of bags and personal items. We were forced to pay a $100 fee for moving to empty seats in the first row of the economy cabin in order to get the same quality we had expected from Etihad.

When we inquired about seating arrangements, the rebooking agent told us it was a "completely full flight" and was not able to seat us together. However, the entire Premiere Economy section was empty and that was when we realized Etihad could have upgraded us to those seats but chose not to and also lied about the load. That is the least an airline can offer after messing up our vacation and causing so much inconvenience to their customers!

The irony of it all is that this PAL flight was then delayed 45 minutes for the arrival of passengers from a connecting flight. Why was this courtesy not extended to us for our Etihad flight earlier in the day?

Please advise on what our next step should be in order to receive reimbursement for the non refundable hotel night, non refundable chartered flight, new chartered flight reservation, as well as this nightmare of an experience on a subpar airline such as PAL.

[Etihad Representative]

Dear Dioraddiqt,

We are sorry to learn about this experience you have encountered and would like to further investigate this for you. Kindly send, if not already this feedback to our team; ********************** and we will ask our team to create a case and look into this for you.
Once again please accept our apologies and we hope to hear form you soon

Kind regards *GW