[avakramer]

Below is my mail to Etihad......their response was, an automatic we'll contact you in 72 hours.........no more responses.


Dear Etihad Customer Service,

I have just completed my first round-trip flight with your airline and I'm pretty sure it will be my last. I have flown with 15+ airlines both international and domestic flights using the same carry-on luggage with no problem. My flights with Etihad began in Hyderabad, India to Abu Dhabi on to Chicago and finally ending up in Tulsa, Ok. The return was just the mirror image. The initial flight was everything I could have asked for.

Bringing the same carry-on bag that I had brought on the initial flight, I was stopped in the Chicago airport (the second leg) on the return flight and told that the bag must fit in the baggage measuring frame. It did not fit! I spoke with the manager as did many other customers about the same problem....

We were all told that if our carry-on bags did not fit, we would need to check them at the cost of an extra piece of checked luggage and at our own expense!!!!! I simply refused! I pulled everything out of the bag, and stuffed the things into the computer bag that had been in the carry-on bag and the rest of the things went into my purse! I left the bag with your manager. I asked your manager if he had a plastic bag to put my things in and he said that he did not. I was fortunate enough to come across a helpful and generous small liquor shop retailer just on the other side of security, who offered me 2 plastic bags in which to put my things.

I was also given my boarding passes for all of the legs of my flight by American Airlines in Tulsa, but was told by the security personnel in Chicago that Etihad was the only airlines that made their customers go back through and get boarding passes from Etihad! With all of this very frustrating and time consuming unnecessary checking and rechecking combined with the fact that Etihad from Tulsa to Chicago was late in leaving, I almost missed the international leg of my flight.

International flights are costly and stressful enough without the added burden of what I believe is uncalled for and unnecessary exploitation of your customers! Unnecessary, by asking for "Etihad" boarding passes when the customer has already gotten boarding passes from your so-called partner. Exploitation because you know that the middle leg of a many legged route, the customer is already committed to the bags they are carrying!!!!! They have little choice but to cow-tow to your insistence that they pay for extra luggage.

I believe that Etihad needs to either purchase and mail me a bag that meets their standards of size or compensate me for my carry-on bag that I was not allowed to "carry on" a middle leg of my many legged flight after having no problems with it on the first have of the flight nor when I boarded the first leg of the return flight in Tulsa, where I could have exchanged it for a smaller bag or shifted the contents to one of my checked bags that were under the regulation weight of 23Kgs!!!!!

On yet another note, the entertainment systems were a nightmare for me and the passengers in my row. Every time I tried to do anything on my console, the systems would all short out in that row! After much frustration and embarrassment, I asked to be moved to another seat. My request was kindly and courteously answered. That next seat too had a problem with the console and I had to hold the headphone plug in place to be able to clear audio.....otherwise, it garbled the audio to unrecognizable sounds.

I'm thoroughly disappointed with my first Etihad flying experience!

Sincerely,
Ava Kramer
(detailed contact info included in my mail to them)