[farhanm]

TO,
Guest Affair Specialist
Etihad Airways
Abu Dhabi

Dear Sir/Madam,

Here is a recap of what happened in our travel arrangements with Etihad Airways.

Both of us Farhan and Raqib had tickets for flight No: 248 from Lahore to Abu Dhabi and then connecting tickets for EY 141 from Abu Dhabi to Toronto.

Flight EY248 was suppose to depart on the 26th of december 2008 and we were suppose to be in Toronto on 27th of December 2008.


After several delays due to weather we eventually reached Abu Dhabi on the 1st of January 2009 on Flight No: 248. Since we had already missed our 27th December 2008 connection Flight to Toronto,and our 1st January 2009 connection flight to Toronto, we believe that it is airline policy to have a higher priority for the passengers who have suffered considerable delays as in our case. Despite this we were not provided the first available flight from Abu Dhabi to Toronto. We remember the airline sending many passengers on different airlines when we should have been given priority.

The on Duty Air port manager Mr. Fakhar Khan, requested us that if we gave him some time he will put us on the next Etihad Flight to Toronto. But that flight was due to depart after 2 days. We, being as accommodating as possible, agreed to Mr.Fakhar Khan's request.

So we (along with 15 other passengers) were provided hotel accommodation and transportation by the airline alogwith a CONFIRMED SEAT with a valid BORADING PASS on the next EY 141 scheduled for Toronto at 0205 hours 3rd January 2009.

However, due to sheer negligence on the Etihad Airline's part, eight passengers (who had boarded from Lahore on the earlier) were MISTAKENLY OFFLOADED from the flight and their seats were offered to some other passengers. We were not allowed to board the plane and rather hurdled to a side like it was our fault that we were given wrong boarding passes.

The then airport Manager Mr. Jamie requested some onboard passengers to voluntarily disembark from the plane to provide seats to us eight passengers. Unfortunately, the airline was able to adjust only five of the eight offloaded passengers on that flight.

Three of us (who were unfortunately not able to get a seat on that flight) were PROMISED (verbally) a confirmed seat in the next available flight connection via London Heathrow by Airport Manager Mr. Jamie who instructed Mr. Amjad to take our passports and get our boarding passes ready for the London Flight which was scheduled to deaprt at 0800hrs on 3rd January 2009

The airport manager also promised to have a meeting with us (Farhan & Raqib ) and instructed us to wait in the lounge for him. After waiting for 1 and half hours in the lounge and no one showing up or communicating anything about our passport whereabouts or our boarding cards we then had to move to the Etihad counter ourselves.

After explaining our queries to countless members of staff, including the then care unit incharge Miss Maisa , we were still not made aware of any details about our flight.

While we waited there helplessly for a response, the shift changed for the eithad employees and we had to go through the process of explaining our woes to the new crew members.

The new care unit in charge Miss Sandrine was also made aware of our problem but we were still not briefed about our flight details. around this point we had been up for more than 24hours as the whole night had passed and there was no confirmation of our boarding passes.

Finally the new Duty Manager Mr. Niyaz Ibrahim showed us our boarding cards, which to our surprise were for a flight to JFK rather than Heathrow.

We were now all set for the JFK flight and were told that we will be meeting the airport manager and sorting our compensation matters before we depart.

Just about fifteen minutes before the London flight's departure (which itself was delayed) it occurred to us whether we would be allowed to enter the US on a Canadian Student Visa and a Pakistani Passport.

We therefore request the Airline staff to double check the mentioned issue and our doubts were confirmed when they said that we will not be allowed to enter the US.

We could only go to Toronto via London or Manchester.

This new discovery left us with only a few minutes to board the plane and Mr. Niyaz Ibrahim confirmed to us (verbally) that we should email all the relevant details to him and both the Air Port Managers and they will take this matter forward on our behalf. Here is a summary of what Mr. Niyaz agreed (verbally) to provide us for the inconvenience and loss.

1. Complementary Tickets of our respective journeys

2. Full Refund of the purchased Ticket for both of us respectively

3. Monetary compensation for the inconnivance (denied boarding, mental and physical distress, loss of precious registration time for our graduate studies, loss of accommodation in waterloo due to delay caused on the 3rd January flight.


4. Letter to the university explaining why our flight was delayed and apology by the etihad airways


5. Letter for the staff at the transit airport to let us throw immigration issues etc


6. Arrangements for our conveyance from Toronto to Waterloo as we had already cancelled 4 bookings because of the delays.


However once we arrived in Toronto on 3rd Janaury 2009, and cleared customs, we roamed around the airport for more than 2 hours looking for Etihad Ariways
Office, moving from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 and vice versa. The Etihad Airways office was no where to be seen, as most airline offices were closed on account of it being a Saturday and past midnight. No arrangements were made to escort us to our final destination of Waterloo by Etihad Airways

We had to buy an emergency Ticket worth $121 Dollars from Toronto to Waterloo in the middle of the night.


But the Cherry on the Cake was that 3 out of 4 pieces of our Luggage did not arrive in Toronto on the flight we came in.

It was after 8 whole days that we received the final piece of our luggage.


I have emailed all this to the feedback@etihad.ae mailing address also to emails of Airport Manager aswell as Duty Manager Abu Dhabi Airport


So a journey which should have originally taken 1 day took 1 week to finish.


Need to know how to pursue this further.

[Silent Bob]

After several delays due to weather we eventually reached Abu Dhabi on the 1st of January 2009 on Flight No: 248. Since we had already missed our 27th December 2008 connection Flight to Toronto,and our 1st January 2009 connection flight to Toronto, we believe that it is airline policy to have a higher priority for the passengers who have suffered considerable delays as in our case. Despite this we were not provided the first available flight from Abu Dhabi to Toronto. We remember the airline sending many passengers on different airlines when we should have been given priority.

Here is really where the start of ALL YOUR TROUBLES began. You "assumed" that because you were delayed passengers that you would be given some sort of priority because you were delayed passengers. When what you should have done from the very start is confirm all your connections (non-verbally but with a printed itinerary) before going onward thinking that you had some priority over people who also bought their tickets just like you. I'm not sure you're gonna get what you ask on that list of compensations, but I wish you a lot of luck as they really put you guys through somethin.

[farhanm]

heh man I had confirmed boarding pass for the flight but was bumped off it cuz they deleted my name from passenger list accidentally.

[shovern]

Etihad does not have a customer services department. They do not care at all about the welfare of their customers.

If something goes wrong you will never get any help from them.

So if you value your time and life - Dont fly with etihad.

The staff are ignorant and arrogant.

CEO of etihad James Hogan should be sacked. ABC News likened him to " A Boy in a Lolly shop"

Spending all the sheikhs money but not building a proper business with it.

They have now resorted to cost cutting and offering cheaper fares - They are going down - Avoid them at all costs.