Etihad Airways
Reviews and Complaints

Hi,
We are writing to lodge a complaint against Etihad Airways for changing our confirmed booking all of a sudden on the day we were flying back from Ahmedabad (India) to Sydney (Australia) after New year Holidays on the 15th of January 2019.

We had booked four tickets online ( round trip) from Sydney to Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad to Sydney through the BYOJET WEBSITE three months prior to our trip.

Later when we received my mothers tourist Visa, we booked another round trip ticket from the ETIHAD WEBSITE- with same flights so that she can travel with us. As she cannot travel alone we made sure that all the five of us board on same flights.

Moreover, Etihad didn't even inform us 48 hours ago. On the contrary they had sent us the regular reminder email a day earlier on 14th January 2019 - that the flight is ON TIME.
Please note we are 5 passengers - among them is my youngest daughter who is just 11 yrs, one is a Diabetic child who is on insulin shots and one is my mother who is senior citizen of 61 years old - who has back problems and cannot even stand or walk for long time.

When we reached airport on the 15th January, around 6:30 and stood in the queue for 1 hour for baggage check. At 8 pm I requested the staff to check in us quickly as my son was having low blood glucose and my mother was unable to stand. They provided me the wheel chair for my mom and asked us to check in from another counter of Business Class.

We stood there for a while and the CSA - gave us the boarding pass for Ahmedabad to Mumbai - saying we will get the remaining boarding pass from Mumbai. Soon, another senior CSA from Jet Airways, interrupted and tore the boarding pass provided and thew them into the bin. When we asked what was happening- he said that our tickets are Void and the system was showing two bookings on same.
We assured that we haven't changed our booking and showed them the reminder emails we received a day earlier about our flight on Time. He said as the authorities are with Etihad we cannot control anything.
We were so stressed and upon lot of discussion- he told we need to call Etihad to send us the new email about the edited booking.
We called Etihad Australia number so many times the call got cancelled- finally we were assisted by Etihad- customer service person named (SAFWAN) who sent us the new booking for all five of us through SINGAPORE- which was flying next day 6:25 am.
The hassel was where do we spend whole night? On the airport or should be go back home which was far from airport. Atleast one hour drive.
Also how do we carry so much luggage back home to and from- as we need to reach airport again next morning before 4:30 am to board 6:25 am flight.

All this stress and mental harassment was enough for me to get dehydrated- i started having loose motions and vomiting on the airport itself. Somehow we agreed to fly next day as per the new booking - but my question is what is the compensation for all this unnecessary pain?

Last but not least- after agreeing to the new booking- we couldn't travel as a family. We were provided all five seats in different directions. It was real hassel for me to repeatedly run here and there on the flight to take care of my young daughter and diabetic son and old mother.

All the customer service told us only the crew can help us to get seats near by. They said as the flights are full we cant do anything and when we requested the crew on board they didn't even help us.

Me my family had the lifes most unbearable experience with ETIHAD- and I need answers to my questions-
1. How did Etihad change our confirmed booking without our notice? The flight was not canceled- it was flying on time. Why our tickets got changed? We were suppose to fly as per routine.
2. The CSA- Etihad (SAFWAN) said the booking was changed on the 15th morning- who did that? Etihad said Jet Airways did it. And the CSA Jet airways (Himanshu) said only ETIHAD has the control. Now the question is who is saying the truth? ETIHAD OR JET?
3. If Etihad changed the booking- why didn't they inform us in advance. (We didn't receive any email or text message on 15th January.
4. Both our Australian numbers was working- we just received one miss call on our Australian number in the afternoon around 2:30 pm. So we called back Etihad and spoke for 2 minutes. They still didn't tell us that our booking was changed.
5. But both our emails were also working.. why didn't they email us?
6. We have provided all the screenshots of the calls and text messages and emails with the timestamp on it.
7. So that you can check and compensate us.
8. I want the full refund of my all my five tickets fare from Ahmedabad to Sydney.
9. If you do not compensate asap. I will apply in consumer court against Etihad and will take it further. I am the permanent resident of Australia and my husband is the citizen of Australia. So we have the right to fight - against the unfair and biased treatment.
10. We will apply in Fair trading NSW if this doesn't get sorted.

Passenger details: Afnan Punjani
Flight Details: EY8868 - 9W330
Ahmedabad to Sydney Via Abudhabi from Mumbai.
Scheduled to fly at: 9:30 PM On 15th January 2019
+[protected]
[protected]@yahoo.com.au

Instead - we travelled on 16th January 2019 at 6:25 AM
Flight details: 9W738
Ahmedabad to Sydney Via Singapore from Mumbai

On 14 december 2018 I booked a flight tp 6917 / ey 83 for 09h15 and was suposed to arrive in rome 13h05 and take another connection to lisbon 14h25 and arrive there 16h30. But was a delay abu dhbi/rome of 2 hours so this flight just arrived in rome 3pm and nobody was there to inform me what should I do or go, and I lost the flight.. The next one would be 4h30 later which means that I arrived in lisbon after 12am. So was a total delay of more than 7 hours..
Where can I complain about this situation?
Best regards,
Sara fonseca

Hi,

I'm SenthilMurugan Govindarajan and I travelled from New York To chennai via Abu dbahi My confirmation number was NLBQYD. I started on Friday, Jan 11 at 10PM and reached chennai around 3.45am on Jan 13th.
I noticed my new baggage which was bought in 2018 was torn. I'm a frequent flyer with etihad and I have never had issues with etihad. This is the first time i'm facing this issue. I would like to request for a refund for my checked in baggage damage.
I'm also attaching photos of the same. My email id is [protected]@gmail.com

I travelled from US (Chicago) to India (Bangalore) via Abu dhabi with Etihad Airlines on 8thDec2018 (boarding) and 10th Dec2018(Landed at bangalore). When I reached home I observed with sleepy eyes (morning 3 AM) that one of my Check-in bag is torn and the Chassis was damaged. So I called their baggage service center at Bangalore, I dont know after how many attempts I got the person to answer the call.

Complaint#1: They say they are available 24 Hrs but no, call them after 11AM and before 3PM to receive a response.

Then, She asked me to email blrkkey@etihad.ae with necessary proofs. I sent my booking ref#, date and time of the travel and pictures of the torn bag.

Complaint#2: Found no response even after waiting for a week and then Sent many mails but couldn't get them to respond to not even one. Its been a month, but still None of the Etihad staff had contacted me.

This is the worst ever service I can Imagine.

If company provides a shuttle to dubai and advertises flights from dubai there should be a zero chance of having bureaucratic rigamarole which would prevent me from using this service. If one has purchased a ticket, which is current, whether a booking agent failed to arrange an additional transfer from the airport to dubai or not, a passenger must be provided with transportation. I will advise all my collegues and friends not to use Etihad. This is outrageous that someone buys a 450 euro ticket under a pretext that there is a link between the AD airport and Dubai. If it is not close to fraud it is definately a wrongful service.

Hi

I travelled from Melbourne, Australia to London on 31 December 2018. My flight number was EY 461 leaving Tullamarin Airport to Abu Dhabi at 2230. My seat number was 22A, a window seat. I was very uncomfortable and my feet started tingling. I had to stand up and walked to get some comfort.

I asked the flight attendants for an aisle seat so I can walk frequently. I explained to them that I was so uncomfortable and that my feet were tingling (there were three of them) and I spoke with all of them. One said to sit in a seat where there was only one window seat occupied. After five minutes another flight attendant came and asked me to move because the person seating in the window seat was mentally disable and that his Dad was coming to see him regularly from first class. I asked the attendant if he has paid for three seats. Obviously not. The reason was because the Dad was coming to keep an eye on him and because of his mental disability.

I asked if I can sit in the row with extra legroom as all those seats were empty. I was denied. Two flight attendants told me i have to pay US$150 to sit there. They were not interested with me be uncomfortable and that my feet were tingling. I also told them I could develop deep vein thrombosis. The fact that those seats were empty they still refused to honour me a seat unless I pay $150.

One of the attendants told me to walk around and see if any seats available in the economy class. One guy was sitting in a window seat with his leg sprawled on the other two seats. He told me he has bad leg and he cannot let me sit in the aisle seat. So one of the flight attendant asked him and he refused saying yet again he has bad leg. Did he pay for three seats I asked. The attendant said to me "don't be judgemental"

Further down towards the rear of the plane there were few more seats available in the middle row of the plane with only one person occupying each row of three seats. Each of them were lying down taking up the three seats. I asked the attendant to ask one of them to move and vacate a seat for me, the attendant refused saying they are not allowed to wake them up. So they also had paid for three seats each! What,
the attendants would not wake them up in case of turbulence or emergency to put on their seat belts?

I was told by the attendants that I should go back to my seat 22A. Etihad professes to be a 5 star flight and 5 star comfort. I was disgusted that I was not offered a seat when there were some vacant specially the ones with extra leg room or still the others were allowed to occupy three seats for the price of one. I was so uncomfortable all the way on 14 hours flight . The treatment I received form your people is deplorable and despicable. They refused to acknowledge how uncomfortable I was and because of that my feet was tingling. I paid almost $1500 one way fare to endure such harsh treatment. Obviously your staff are not trained to look after the comfort of passengers.

I would like an immediate response. you may write to me at [protected]@hotmail.com or call me on +44 [protected].

Kind Regards

Rafick Azmutally

Myself and my partner were due to fly Melbourne -London 28th Nov 2018, Ticket no:
[protected] + [protected]
Unfortunately due to a family bereavement we had to book an alternative flight prior to this date. Our flight initial Ethiad flight was booked through Fly Far, we were unable to get through to them to cancel the flight (numerous call attempts were made).

Our next best option was to ring ethiad to give them the curtiosy of letting them know we would not be on our outbound flight on the 28th Nov 2018 and they could resell the tickets (x 2 economy)
We were not even looking for a refund or date change due to having booked another flight and extremely stressed with our family bereavement.

The customer service representative from Ethiad were grateful at the time and informed us it would not affect our return flight.
Today is Friday 04-Jan 2018, Our return flight is on Sunday 06 Jan 2019----2 DAYS TIME, from Dublin to Melbourne. We tried to book in today and were unsuccessful.
We phoned fly far who again did not answer, we phoned ethiad who informed us our return flight was cancelled due to missing our outbound flight.
Ethiad then informed me i would need to book another ticket as fee's for missing the flight and flight changed would be more than a new flight.

Our flight is on Sunday 06-Jan-2019 and We have now purchased 4 tickets for the same flight. Two of which are now null/void due to the airlines for-fit policy for missed outbound flight even though we informed them.

Dear complaints officer
Etihad airways

Ref pnr zizrxf, etkt [protected], etkt [protected]

I am ahmed bucheery, gold member card holder [protected] and my wife fatema bucheery, silver member card holder [protected]. both of us are very loyal to etihad for many years but we both hardly benefited from the loyalty program

We were returning from london to bahrain on 24th dec 2018 on ey 18. between both of us we were entitled to 105 kg but we had 110 kg and to our surprise we were charged 99 sterling pounds! that was very strange and I asked if I could redeem some points but we not allowed.

Unfortunately, despite surprisingly being charged a big sum for a very small over weight, one of suitcases was not delivered until today 27th dec 2018 after many follow ups.

I have been frequently travelling on etihad business class, and the same for my other members of the family, but unfortunately I was never given a courtesy upgrade like what I get with gulf air and emirates from time to time!

Please justify

Best regards
Ahmed a. rahim bucheery
Email: [protected]@ithmaarbank.com
Mobile: +973 [protected]

i am a frequent passenger of ethihad for the past few years. Being a gold class
member i have been reciving my baggage terribly late. Most of the time i recive my
baggage at the end after eveyrone else recve theirs. I had informed this matter to the authorised ethihad staff also to the station manager but no action had been taken about it.Its been happening to me quite some time and recently 2 days back.Its really sad no action is taken hope you can find a solution for my problem

Dear,

While trying to check-in passenger Beatrijs Schoutteten on-line for the Etihad flight from DMM to Brussels on Thursday evening 13/12 (booking ref. W64YWO ) was our credit credit card charged 3 times?

At 13:25 on 12/12/18, the credit card was charged a first time for 170 SAR for selecting a seat.
At 13:27 on 12/12/18, the credit card was charged a second time for an amount of 226 SAR?
At 13:29 on 12/12/18, the credit card was charged a third time for an amount of 170 SAR?
The attached picture shows those charges.

Problems were experienced while trying to check-in on-line as the website.
May I kindly request you to cancel the second and third credit card transaction which are clearly incorrect.

Best regards,
Beatrijs Schoutteten

[protected]@yahoo.com
mario.[protected]@mattex.com
00966 / [protected]

Hello sir,
Most of the people are spoiling their lifes from this [censored]y company please take actikn and save the lives. As you can see the most of the complaints.. The company make fools the people, they don, t know shat they are doing [censored]y things. Please strickly take the action to those fraud team. That is your responsibilty to aware the other innocent people who are next target of this fraud company. Please please let do the action.
Thanks

Can someone please help.
I have flown twice this year with Etihad from SA to NZ. And both times my luggage did not arrive with me.
I arrived on 30 Nov and my baggage is still not found. I also struggle to get hold of someone on progress. The website just say tracing. Check later. We are 3 people who travelled together and none off our luggage arrived.
I also had a very bad check-in experience at OR Thambo. Check-in took more than two and a half hour. Did they not do something wrong. I really need some answers!
This is not the service I expected from Etihad and I am greatly dissapointed.

Dear Tony Douglas, CEO Etihad Airways

Re: PPQIED

I am writing for your kind urgent attention regarding today's incident on Abu Dhabi Airport at 1st class checkin counter.

I am a Gold Etihad Guest. My flight EY 151 departure time was 9:25 am from Abu Dhabi to Chicago (Business class ticket) on 23/11/2018. I reported 2 hours earlier on the 1st class checkin desk as all other counters were busy.

First, I was told that the flight is closed. On my request, when the staff tried to check me in they said that ESTA visa is on the attached previous passport which should be on the new passport although the previous passport was not expired and the new pass passport was issued due to additional pages. I requested that please check me and let immigration decide as I have travelled before several times when both passports are attached together and my ESTA visa is valid until 2019.

Unfortunately lot of time was wasted during that conversation. During this time I made an other application for ESTA and received immediate approval. Unfortunately, the staff still did not check me in.
My flight departed while I was still sitting at checkin desk and then they asked me to pay penalty/ airfare difference for next available flight in Business class on 24/11/2018.

I wait for your early response.

Best regards

Muhammad Tahir

Hi this is Syed Ali travelling from Chennai to Kuwait.
If I wont allow Hand baggage and check in baggage then u should have to clearly mention while we r booking ticket to our destination. Suddenly when we came with both baggage to drop in check in counter y should u not allow at once and irritating customers wat if uneducated n senior citizens will do that will the check in will not allow, if u r not allowing excess baggage then its k, we brought exact baggage also if u would not allow then do BUSINESS on footpath dont keep good n great names like Etihad n do such irritating n nasty things with customers...

I paid and booked a round trip in Etihad airways from New york to bangalore and travelled in December. After that I paid a change fee and then converted to a open ticket for my return journey as ticketing team convinced me that this ticket is valid for 1 year and I just have to pay the fare difference. I have been trying to book the ticket the last 3 months and every time they refuse to book the economy ticket and say that reissue tickets are only available from business class and it will cost be $4000. Everyone can see that Etihad economy tickets are available from $500 on all websites. I tried to escalate the issue many times by email and phone but I only get standard response. This policy is a complete scam - they are not allowing the customer to book a return journey even though I paid for the round trip. Instead they are asking to pay $4000 when the new ticket price itself is only $500 (this ticket price comes up in every website). I need a refund of my return portion and I never want to fly in Etihad again. If they cannot refund then I need them to book me an economy ticket, which is available on all days. My ticket expires in December and Etihad is making sure they do not resolve this issue before that.

I am writing to complain about inappropriate and unethical behaviour by etihad staff. I was travelling with my wife and son to Bangladesh on 8th April 2018 (eticket [protected]/337/338). We met Mr Madan Sapkota at the check out counter. As my wife was Nepali hence Mr Madan wanted to help us since he was from Nepal as well. During the conversation, he requested for mine and my wife's number so he could inform us when its time for boarding.
At first, it seemed as a kind gesture from Etihad employee. Unfortunately, he has started sending inappropriate messages on watsapp and IMO. He even pestering my wife to meet him while in Nepal.
I am highly disappointed by the unethical behaviour by an employee from such a reputed organization like Etihad. Employees as such are jeopardising the image of Etihad. I am requesting Etihad to look into this matter on priority and make sure customers are not harassed by staff in future.
If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me on [protected].

Regards,
Sharif Ahmed

Dear Team,
I have booked my tickets on 09/11/2018 . The booking was done onlilne using my Axis Bank Debit Card. The total amount Rs. 75051 for 3 tickets from delhi to athens, was taken on 9/11/2018. However there were 2 debits of Rs.25017 on 15/11/2018 again quoting the transaction of 09/11/18. Thus there is a debit of Rs.50, 000/- extra in my account for a transaction that i have not done.

Request you to reverse wrong entries done on 15/11/18.

I was traveling from Bahrain-Abu Dhabi-Belgrade on 2nd of November. My flight from Bahrain was supposed to depart at 10:45 pm but it was late and I didnt make it on time for my flight Abu Dhabi-Belgrade at 2:15 am. Instead they gave me a ticket for Athens at 9:15 am and there I had to wait for 4 hours before my flight to Belgrade. I had more then 7 hours to wait at Abu Dhabi airport, I am 5 months pregnant and I had to pay for a hotel at the airport ( I'm sending you a receipt).
I am asking you to recompense my loss by giving me refund in the amount of the return ticket i paid for my flight Belgrade-Abu Dhabi-Bahrain.
If we are not able to make a compromise I will hire a lawyer and try to protect my legal rights on court.
My name is Miona Nikolic, my passport number is [protected], number of my bank account is [protected] at Telenor bank, Serbia.

My wife and I are travelling from Heathrow to New Delhi via Abu Dhabi on Thursday 1/11. I have been trying all afternoon to update my personal details and check in. Your website will not accept any updated details and will not allow me to check in. So far I have tried 15 times! There is no on line helpavailable so I tried calling Etihad Customer Service. On the first occasion I did get an Agent to answer but he abruptly and deliberately hung up on me without bothering to listen to my problem. On the next occasion I went to Option 1 and the automated message told me to manage my booking on line and then terminated the call. I have now been trying for nearly 3.5 hours without getting anywhere and have asked my Travel Agent (Lumle Travel) to look into it.

I am genuinely astounded by the poor service and lack of care from Etihad Airways - an airline which I previously understood to have a good reputation. Can you please help me?

On Monday the 22nd of October 2018 I tried to check-in online as I usually do. Unfortunately, I was not able to do so. Please refer to my screenshot attached. As far as I am aware of checking in online allows me a 20% discount for excess luggage up to 48 hours prior to departure.Due to the amount of excess luggage I wanted to pay with/use my guest miles. I explained the issue to the staff when I arrived at the airport for check-in. I was told by the staff that it's impossible to pay with guest miles at the airport at all. Unfortunately, I was not aware of that at all. I had to pay the full amount AU$1099, - by credit card at the check-in desk. The response I received regarding my email was a random copy of the standard check-in procedure which I can read on the ETIHAD homepage anyways and is not related to my question and inquiry at all. There was also a note about an ongoing investigation.RE: Failure online check-in [INTR:[protected]]. On 30/10/2018 I received another email about the outcome which includes the following: Etihad Guest [ACCT:2458685] "Dear Mr ..., This is to inform you that, since your flight has already been completed, our team will not be able to perform investigation as to why you were unable to check-in online. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.For future reference, if you are unable to check-in online, please provide us with the screenshot of the error received or call our Contact Centre for assistance before your flight.We appreciate your understanding in this regard.If you need any further help, please contact us.Kindest regards, "
Unfortunately, I am absolutely no satisfied with the response and outcome. I understand, that it is not the staff's responsibility and fault for what happened. But I strictly followed the procedure which was established by Etihad. The error message"Sorry, we can't check you in online. Don't worry, all you have to do is show your payment card at the airport check-in.[E3]" which popped up while the system or software failure occurred, was programmed and established by an IT specialist on ETIHAD's behalf. Someone must have given instructions to submit this message in case the system does not work properly.
There is nothing associated with calling/contact Etihad immediately and sending a screenshot as suggested afterwards. Why would I do something differently, if ETIHAD'S policy and the system error message does not require to do so?
At this stage I am pretty upset about the efforts Etihad put into this case.
I consider myself being a loyal ETIHAD frequent gold status member so far. But experiencing difficulties in this extend, I contemplate to return to my previous airline as a frequent member and will stop over in Dubai in the future, hoping there will not be any kind of such reference. It is not about the result, but the way of treatment, like:sorry, we can't do anything about that. I can't see any efforts in any way, which makes me thinking of stepping back from ETIHAD. I can hardly recommend the airline after this incident.It is not my fault when the online system does not work properly, nor am I in charge for the right procedure which is not even supported by the online platform. Regards Holger