Etihad Airways
Reviews and Complaints

Hi,

I have a booking with etihad to travel from Mumbai - Sao Paulo - Mumbai.. The booking is for 3 guest (2 adults and 1 infant). Initially my return flight was on 13th Nov 2016 which I changed to 8 Dec.. The cost of change in date for all of us was totally surprised for me..

An adult ticket change in date charge was 350 USD where as for an infant it is around 600 USD.. I really don't understand the logic behind..

I raised a complained to etihad customer Care through phone (First complaint was done on 11 Nov) for which I didn't got any response.. I tried calling them multiple times but every time they just send reminder to their investigation team which is not turning back.

I have even dropped a mail to [protected]@etihad.ae on 19th Nov.. And didn't heard anything from them as well

Request you to check this matter on urgent basis or else I need to find a way to make a real complaint against etihad airways to get the answers

Thanks
Hrishi

Dear Mr. Chairman,

We have booked our eleven tickets for our family for round trip from Regina SK. Canada to Lahore, PK & back almost 4months back.

Our Departure was on 15th November 2016 rom Regina to Toronto & travis flight # EY0140.

We got reserved our seat numbers as Seat 31 for all of our family members.

Once we received our boarding passes, we saw all different seat numbers 2 members at one place, 2 at other like this.

We spoke with your representative who said we have to talk to supervisor once she will be their. We waited & once she was their (A lady dressed up with no name plate) she said she can not help as our seat numbers canceled.
(We are the ticket print outs having seat numbers & than & boarding passes having all different seat numbers.)
Than she passed on comments like you people from PAKISTAN always do like this. Sir. this is an abusive language.

We have been treated so pathetically that no one can imagine. We were travelling with our 8 children who along with us were faced mental torture.

Once we reached Pakistan. I called our travelling agent & asked him to cancel our return tickets where he told that Etihad is not ready for cancellation.

Dear Sir, if you will not honour your commitment than we have the right to cancel & use some other airline.

We will defiantly sue against Etihad Airline once we will be back in Canada, because of wrong commitment & unethical behaviour & mental torture given to our kids & family members.

Meanwhile we will request you to please ask your Representative in Toronto to contact our Travelling agent Mr. Khalid & refund our full money fro return tickets so that we can book some other flight for going back to Canada.

Persons travelled are;

1- Mr. Hameed Asghar Chatha
2- Mrs Memoona Rasool
3- Zahra Hameed - Cild
4- Meerab Hameed - Child
5- Muhammad Ghous - Child
6- Muhammad Youzarsif - Infant
7- Mrs Fizza Rasool
8- Fariha Tippu - Child
9- Aun Muhammad Tippu - Child
10- Taha Muhammad Tippu - Child
11- Hadi Muhammad Tippu - Child

Please do the needful.

Thanks
Hameed A. Chatha
Regina SK. Canada

My father Mr. Sharma traveled from ROC (Rochester) to Delhi via Chicago, Abu -Dhabi, to Delhi. He had requested for wheelchair and when he took flight for Chicago, flight got delayed due to fog. When he arrived at Chicago, there was no wheelchair, but he managed somehow and reached Etihad Airways counter. They told him that he missed his flight and will need to contact American Airlines for next flight to Delhi. He walked back to American Airlines and after making requests, he was told to check with British Airways. He walked to British Airways and he was told that he can travel, but the flight is after 6 hours. He waited at the airport and finally reached London. He was told that he missed his connecting flight and he will go on next flight after 5 hours. Anyway, he took the flight and when he reached Delhi, he came to know that he lost his luggage. He contacted Etihad and he filled up the form for lost baggage. Finally, he took taxi and reached home. I was so disappointed that seeing that there is a handicap person who cannot walk that much had to go thru all this pain. He was so unhappy that he does not want to come back to USA. I did not expect this from Etihad Airways as he should have been treated differently since he could not walk and nobody helped him. Don't know how long he will need to wait for his luggage and how he will forget his travel. Hope Etihad can compensate him and assure that this would not happen to especially handicapped people. He reached home on Nov 17th at 10 a.m. Below are the details of his travel.

Booking Code: VZVAHA
Passenger: Vishwa Nath Sharma

Date Departs Arrives Flt # Route Passengers Seat Terminal
Tue, Nov 15 08:05 09:09 EY 3410
Operated By
ENVOY AIR AS AMERICAN EAGLE ROC To ORD
Tue, Nov 15 12:10 11:40 (+1 Day) EY 150 ORD To AUH
Wed, Nov 16 14:40 19:30 EY 224 AUH To DEL

Dear etihad airways,

My flight from abu dhabi to berlin, number ab7495 has been canceled. For this reason I did not get on the next flight from berlin to malaga (Ryanair, flight number fr2590). I had to buy new ticket if I wanted back to spain where I live now (Eurowings, flight number ew1003 and ew1538). I expect reimbursement of the ticket and compensation for loss of flight for which I paid much earlier. My e-mail adress: kowalska. [protected]@gmail.com

Anna kowalska

I would like to register my complaint about the refusal to issue Boarding pass by staff members of Etihad Airways who were present at the counter of Etihad Airways which was not yet closed when I arrived at 3.23PM at Kuwait International airport on 10th November 2016.

I purchased a Returned ticket Delhi-Abudhabi-Kuwait-Delhi vide E-Ticket No.[protected] & travelled from Delhi to Abudhabi on 7th November & further travelled to Kuwait on 9th November. While returning back from Kuwait to board the flight, I got stuck at the Fahaheel Expressway No.30 as the road was fully blocked because of the Major Road accident due to which I reached Kuwait International airport by 3.23PM. I was behind a person who also faced the same problem & was fighting to get the boarding pass from Etihad staff. Etihad staff was so reluctant to issue the boarding pass even after our several times request as were not having any boarding luggage even though they didn't listen us & refused to issue the boarding pass however the flight time was 4.20PM.

After leaving the counter of Etihad airways, I checked the next flight along with the connection to reach my final destination i.e. Delhi, I was asked to pay a charge for change the flight of 27000/- Indian Rupees without having any of my fault.

It was very urgent to reach Delhi on 11th November Morning as I am having an important meeting with my Foreign Delegates due to which I purchased a new ticket from Kuwait airways to travel to my destination because on the attitude of the Etihad Staff & Money asked by Etihad Airways.

Now hereby it is my demand to compensate either my new purchased or to refund the amount belongs to the unutilised ticket without deducting any charges.

Thanks/ Best Rgds.
Naveen Agarwal
Mobile - +[protected]
India

[protected] I was supposed to be on the plane from Frankfurt to Seoul, business/pleasure mixed trip. Attendant by the airport refused to issue my boarding pass because they claimed I wouldn't be granted for visa on arrival when I land in Korea.

Therefore, I missed my plane, had to re-book tickets to fly back to my country.

When I'm back home, I gathered all the info that proves I would have been allowed to get the visa on arrival from authority. But Etihad refused to refund my loss of plane ticket, let alone all the pre-paid reservations in Korea. Instead, I was told to make sure to purchase insurance for future travels. But this is solely the mistake of the company!

Etihad leaders, when you read this, please get in touch with me.[RQID:495333]

This is about Etihad Airline Scamming by the Etihad company itself. I purchased a ticket worth about $1700 and asked for a refund for the return ticket. The ticket was indeed refundable with a cancellation penalty of about $160. The company refunded me only less than $20 for the ticket worth $1700. I tried so many times contacting the customer care and no respond. This is indeed scamming and DO NOT FLY ON ETIHAD if you are willing to cancel your ticket.

The flight gets delayed by 5 hrs, no one calls and you are in the airport 7.5 hrs before the flight *** and you get humuliated by the staff.

Flight details - ey 170

Booking reference # - awbnfb

Gold membership - [protected]

This is a very loyal business class passenger, currently pissed off and writing this to make sure someone senior enough looks at this feedback and takes action as apparently 3 layers of the staff at the airport couldn't do anything. So this is what has happened

I come to the airport trying to checking for my 4.50 pm flight, only to realize that the flight is now departing at 9.30 pm. I started to ask the ticketing agent, if i can get moved to a business class and if there is an opportunity. First she mentioned it was a full flight and there are no seats in business class (Which is a lie), i started asking her what is that they do for a gold member, regular etihad traveller when their flight gets delayed by 5 hrs and makes the entire trip planning for a toss, she replies that it's not their problem it's the flight problem and they have nothing to do with it. Then i ask what do you do to the customers, she said we don't do anything sir, they will have to wait for the flight. Then i mentioned if there is a possibility to upgrade through my miles, she mentioned yes that can be done but has to be handled by a different manager - the new manager comes in and says it is possible and will get me upgraded and then says i have 5k miles less to get upgraded, it required 101k miles and i had 96k miles. Then i had to spend a lot of time with her trying to explain her that initially i was lied that there were no seats, now with miles they have seats - she mentioned we have a lot of seats sir but it is not possible to upgrade, obviously i was not happy - 30 mins into the conversation i have asked is there anyone that can help as i was clearly not satisfied with the service and probably very unhappy with the treatment, i have even mentioned to her that i used to be a regular customer of emirates and now have switched to etihad and not changed it back, a frequent traveller and my last 4 trips were all "business class", i said i used to get complimentary upgrades from emirates in my europe trips and the answer was "we don't do that sir" - my question was "how can then etihad become a 5 star airline" when being in services industry you cannot even service a customer that is requesting one leg upgrade when you have the seats and when your flight is delayed and has nothing wrong with me. She finally calls a 3rd manager - jennifer @lax, and the disaster starts really from here - not only she couldn't help, she was rude and has humiliated me enough and i have even mentioned to her that i'm totally unhappy and she couldn't resolve my issue just for 5k less miles that i have, told her that this would be my last trip on eithad as i'm humiliated - because she almost said she didn't care if i was a frequent traveler or loyal traveler or even if i ranked etihad as one of the best airline in every single survey that i have received.

She was ok me going disgruntled - even when i have mentioned airlines is a services industry and there is no way etihad can be 5 star rated service airline if they cannot address thier "gold" member issue - btw, i'm only gold because in the last 1.5 years is only when i have started using etihad and already made 4 business class trips. She wanted to see me go pissed off baffled me - i said i'll provide strong feedback across all channels and she didn't care a less.

I'm not at all threatening but given the "humiliation" i had after being a loyal business customer for etihad all this while, i'm very much decided to take on the humiliation i got - get everything to be done on my social channels and some strong voice and very creative video done on the things that have happened to me and how the services industry is not services oriented anymore. I have lakhs of fb fans and 10 and 1000s of twitter followers, run india's #1 coupon website called grabon - so we know something about digital marketing.

This is very bad that there is not a good service managers in line that can take care of customer service - hope you have got some good crisis management team because this is going to be huge, i have already alerted my team at midnight - this is bad how etihad humiliates their customers. Jennifer and etihad should no the power of humiliation and the kind of retaliation that they get.

I feel embarrassed to even write this long after all the treatment that i got but i wanted to make sure i keep my hunger for humiliation live - so every word i write makes me more determined to take this campaign on - big time

This should be a less - never humiliate your own customer, doesn't matter if you are the #1 airline in the world and don't care about 1 passenger that you will be losing for life.

Good bye etihad

On the flight from Tokyo to Minsk via Abu Dhabi on the 6th of September I had one baggage 23 kg and a bag with golf clubs 6.5 kg. In order to check whether any fee for the sport bag is applicable I have called to Tokyo office of Etihad Airways in advance, and I was informed that any second bag, whether sport inventory or not, is charged by 150 euro and I was required to give my credit card details for the fee to be withdrawn 24 hours before the flight as at the check-in, I was told, it would cost more. During check-in procedure airport employees told me that the second bag with sport inventory is free of charge. But somehow check-in at Narita airport, Tokyo, was done not by Etihad Airways employees but by another airline employees and they said that they cannot give me my money back. During my presence in Belarus I tried to contact Etihad Airways by phone at the local office, but whichever service I was choosing by phone I only could reach automatic message referring me to Etihad Airways homepage.
I am wondering what should be my next step to receive reimbursement.
To be fair, I need to admit that cabin crews in all my flights to Minsk, Tokyo, Abu Dhabi and Sao Paulo were always helpful and professional. That is why I am so surprised and dissatisfied with service in Tokyo office.

I'm writing to share an incident that occurred at the O'Hare International Terminal 5 on Wednesday September 7, 2016. My elderly in-laws were traveling back to Mumbai after their 2.5 months stay in the USA. I accompanied them to the airport to help check-in and say our farewells. They had 4 large luggage bags that were intended for check-in and 2 carry-on luggage bags. As we approached the check-in line, an Etihad staff told every passenger to make sure each carry-on bag fits into the metal rectangle dimensions that was set up in front of her. She had to actually observe each bag being placed into the metal box to make sure it truely fits the standard dimensions. This was the "requirement" before she gave the okay and handed over a carry-on tag in order to proceed to the check-in counter.

This felt unreasonable for many reasons. The travel bags that many people own have wheels. It was very obvious that the reason many bags don’t fit into the metal dimension was because the wheels do not fit (it didn’t take into account the wheels). The Etihad staff watched as I struggled to jam one duffle bag into the fitting. I felt ridiculous to be made to do this when it was obvious the bag was not big at all and it was just the wheels that were in the way. When I finally was able to stuff the bag into the metal measurement, I did get her approval. However, after this so called approval, the bag was stuck inside the metal rectangle due to again the wheels that were jammed in there. Eventually I was able to remove it with some struggle so we can test the second bag and so as not to hold the line for other passengers. The second bag was the standard typical carry-on luggage with wheels (suitcase style). This was slightly more obvious that the bag wouldn’t fit vertically again due to the wheels and that it was maybe 1 inch taller than the metal box due to the interior plastic frame construction. The Etihad staff told us the 2nd bag can’t be used as a carry-on as it didn’t fit what they felt was the standard. She said we would have to check it in and she didn’t mention how much it would be.

Once we were able to approach check-in counter, the process was fairly smooth and professional as the 4 check-in bags weighted below the acceptable 23 kilograms. When we asked about checking in the 1 carry-on bag, the staff mentioned they were just following rules set by some authorities by O’hare or Etihad regarding the dimensions and that they could not do anything about this. Additionally, we learned that to check in the carry-on luggage would deem my in-laws to be over the “2 bag per person” limit and the cost to check in the carry-on was $300. They were not sympathetic to the situation they just caused.

I had to doubt Etihad’s credibility as this whole practice was absurd and ridiculous on many levels.
1) The travel carry-on bags are standard sizes accepted by all airlines and sold at many stores as well including the airport.
2) My in-laws flew by Etihad on their initial flight from Mumbai into the USA with the same carry bags and they had no issues imposed on them. They even flew domestically from O’Hare to Los Angeles during their visit with the same carry-on bag with no issues.
3) This was the 1st time I have ever seen such a practice. I have traveled plenty, internationally and domestically, and have never been required to measure a carry-on bag into the metal box. We all use the approved carry-on bags sold widely and it has always been accepted on any airline.
4) To impose a $300 charge for a 5th bag is ridiculous as this situation was only brought upon by Etihad for imposing a carry-on baggage dimension that was obviously approved leaving one country but not another. It also seemed like a biased practice to increase more sales. Perhaps a reasonable charge would have at least benefited the airline’s sales and maybe even the passengers.
5) This actual check of the carry-on bags was not operationally sound as many passengers started another line for this check. Passengers were complaining as most of the bags didn’t pass this eligibility test while the Etihad staff was not at all sympathetic to the situations. Airport travel isn’t usually smooth and I’m not sure how operationally necessary was this check as it just disrupted the system. The check-in line was growing longer as well as passengers had to figure out if/how to get their luggage to their destinations.
6) If my elderly in-laws approached this situation alone, they would have been helpless. I was the one placing the carry-on bags in the said metal rectangle box which I don’t think the staff would have actually been helpful with them.
7) This “rule” clearly could not have been set by the airport. Going through security, other non-Etihad passengers were carrying the usual standard bags without any issues (as it should be).

Given this experience, I regret to say that Etihad Airlines failed to provide an acceptable level of service to its passengers. Imposing such a “rule” disrupted their operations and trust of their customers.

Boarding from Abe Dhabi international airport on the 19 th of September at 10.15 pm to Melbourne Australia
Waiting for the plane to take off at 10.15 pm but it did not happened and was never given a reason why .
The plane left 50 min later which we missed the connection for 7.35 pm from Melbourne to Adelaide .
A person waited for us had our names on the list and she said that we have to stay at the quest hotel in Melbourne, waited in a cold with 2 little kids for the shuttle .
I said to the lady that waited for us this is not good enough we need to get to Adelaide That night after a 14 hour of struggle and she said nothing she can do about .
Basically we were late for 12 hour and the inconvenience that this airline created .
We had family members waiting at the airport in Adelaide and there was no way they could get the message that we are not comming home that night
I would like get a refund or a recompence for the inconvenience to me and my family .
Regards Georgeta

I am an Etihad Silver Member and I had a travel from Shamshabad Hyd to Dallas DFW, I called up the customer care to check about the baggage allowance for a Silver member, the Representative (Akash), verified and confirmed that I am allowed a 2+1 ( 1 extra checkin baggage of 23kgs . After confirming with him multiple times i carried an additional bag of 23kg . I was at the airport for 3 hrs with my wife and the representatives here at Shamshabad Hyd, Amaranth VG Airport operation officer. Abdul Mujeeb
Duty manager GHA, after a long wait say that I cannot carry that bag . They want me to pay for the bag $300 USD, when I asked them to get the call transcript Mr. Amarnath says that the call cannot be traced because the calls are not recorded .. May be the Etihad crew(Amarnath ) should be informed that whenever any one calls Etihad the first thing we hear is " this call is being recorded " .. When i told him this he was quite.(May be he was thinking he is oversmart or i was naive to believe him). I asked them to get the call transcript or asked them to hear the call by giving my ticket details, call details ( Num from which the call was made, the time of call, the name of representative with whom I spoke ) .. They want me to pay now, send an email, wait for the email respond ..
The behavior of Amaranth VG, Airport operation officer and Abdul Mujeeb, Duty manager GHA was absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous .
The only thing i want is the transcript of the call conversation between me and the customer care representative . I confirmed with him multiple times, i told him i don't want this type of situation and he assured me i can carry an extra 23kg bag.I further asked him if i can get any such confirmation to my email he said he cannot send me to my personal email.(all this has been talked over the call and has been recorded).
Having packed all the important stuff i wanted to carry to US, i had to discard the bag at airport, Thanks to the Etihad staff at Shamshabad Hyd . My flight was at 4:40 am and i was with the Etihad staff till 3:30 am .
This is the worst response and behavior I have ever experienced with any other airline .. Never expected this would happen being a Silver member .. Hoping any one from Etihad looks into this and responds back .. Hoping this to be my final travel with Etihad ever .. After i posted this on Facebook while i was at the airport during my 3 hr wait with your Officers, i was asked to send an email so that any action can be taken.
There was never any apology from the Etihad staff for the delay or miscommunication .Though i didn't expect any of that sort from those learned men !

My review is extremely negative. "Cabin Crew" is horribly bad! None of them never smiles and when she talk she don't even look at me! Last one to bring the food to, my husband first and me the last but we are sitting in one alice. They did not bring hot towel at the end to me but they give all! They never ever come when I call! never! I tried more than 6 times! Never1! men staff touched me twice with is misbehave as I am MUSLIM! Once in the going flight while I was sleeping! second on the going back flight when I was talking to him to ask for something. Plus! they ask if we want the Express Card rather than just offering it to us! Is this what we get as local! is this what we get from our national airline! Or this is because we are purchasing a staff tickets! even if it is staff tickets, you give it to your employees as an allowance and they can give it to anyone not to embrace them or treat their friends and family badly, we know that it doesn't not includes everything and there is some rules, BUT IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CABIN CREW TREATMENT! I am very upset and this is my third bad experience with you! why don't you talk there issue related to passengers treatment seriously! Did the cabin crew will like when the other cabin crew misbehave or mis-treat herhim if they travel as a normal passenger but with Staff ticket! We need you to take action toward your staff! Treat them how to respect the passenger, normal or staff tickets! I really wish that the time pass quickly to get out of the plane! My flight was 14 hr long! And this is what I get! Seriously you need to do something! "NOTE: I NOTICED that Arabic and Cabin Crew are much way better than others"!

We are completely shocked we never expect such poor treatment from such 5 star Airline company .we have been here in UAE since 1998 and we travel regularly but this is the first and The worst experience we went through. At the time we arrived AUH airport we were waiting there in the luggage hall for more than 50 Mins and guess what ! They simply said your luggage not on board, We'll inform you once we receive .I know it might happened but the experience to recover the baggage was really bad.

It started with a file ref and since that time (7 Sept 3:30 PM), I am following up with Etihad and them customer care center and unfortunately those people have nothing related to SLA and customer experience i called three times asking for support and i want to file a complaint they just keep forwarding the call to nowhere ! Waiting for someone to pick up more than 20 mins, but finally call forwarded to the logistic partners who said yes we tried to call you in the evening the same day which never happened, ohh sorry no sir we tried to reach you in the next morning he said that, what a mess !. He told me that i have to call the driver and to arrange with him, i called that mobile and that was the woe, he said you come and collect your baggage am not responsible to deliver to your home.It seemed like a burden for all the staff starting from customer care center to the logistic partners. Till this time 1:00 PM 9 Sept i am suffering just 1 hour back the driver called where are you i am coming with your baggage but if you are not responding i will send to AUH airport again.

We are completely disappointed and i have the rights to ask for reimbursed for everything which i had to buy from clothes to go for work, and university, baby stuff, food, sweets and gifts which definitely spoiled, moreover time wasted for more than 48hrs and calls to follow up with this and that. Respectfully I request you to indemnification for all of this which will never compensate this bad experience that will not be forgotten.

Extra student baggage allowance"
PNR: RLGPDZ
As per my conversation with Mr Tushar Chawla (Goibibo representative) on 30th August, I was assured of extra baggage allowance on student Visa, after he confirmed that with Etihad airlines (Ms Rashmi).
Later, I called up Etihad on the same day to confirm the same and I was again assured that I'm allowed to carry extra baggage on student Visa. 2-3 days later, Etihad denied me of any extra baggage allowance on student Visa.
I don't know where is the miscommunication and I frankly don't care.
I just want the extra piece of baggage as promised to me on 30th August.
Flight is on 16th August and I will need this issue resolved at the earliest within a day.

One month baggage delay. After 1000 mails to Etihad i received the baggage. In between two times i went airport because of their wrong commitment. Now am raising compensation and no body in Etihad is giving any reply to my mails and not receiving the calls. I have all the mails, documents with me. Where i have to go further. I have mailed till CEO for my issue. No reply so far. Complained to all the departments. No steps taken. I need my compensation. How to proceed further?

My baby stroller and car seat was not arrived with other luggage, we had to wait 2 hours for my friend to bring another car seat to LAX, 2 days later they delivered both with lots of scratches and stains, we Can't use it anymore.
never answered the phone never answered the email, worst possible experience ever! never gonna fly with them any more.

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Myself [removed] dob [removed] booked round trip ticket from cleveland oh to hyderabad, due to oversold of tickets your domestic airlines partner american airlines exchanged my departure ticket with british airlines so i travelled to hyd using british airlines and they told me that you can use same etihad arrival ticket when you're returning but at the time of arrival from hyderabad, your etihad airlines officers at the hyderabad airport checking said that your itinerary is no more valid because american airlines were exchanged your round trip ticket and they forgot to activate your arrival ticket, i need to attend my master's classes so i don't have any other option then i purchased new ticket and came back using same flight, i faced many problems at the airport to arrange money for purchasing new ticket, airlines was not at all intimated me about cancellation of ticket, i'm attaching my old and newly purchased tickets so kindly go through it and process my ticket refund

So, my journey started with being charged an additional $300 by a supervisor (Her name tag read Sophielle), at the boarding gate of San Francisco International Airport on Thursday morning, July 21st 2016. Besides my cabin baggage I had a purse and my laptop bag, the said being the number of pieces I have always traveled with in hand, including to U.S.A from India on my outbound journey with your airline, which are allowed for free as per your baggage rules too (http://www.etihad.com/en-us/before-you-fly/baggage-information/baggage-guide/). I also made sure that I pointed the above mentioned pieces in hand to the lady at the check in desk just to reconfirm who said I was good to go and that it was the usual allowance.
Furthermore, I was not stopped by any member of the staff through the process security check either. I also tried my level best to reason with the above mentioned supervisor, Sophielle at the boarding gate, stating that this is allowed by all airlines and was infact what I brought with me to U.S.A too when flying in on Etihad. I also requested her to please reason with me and understand what I was trying to explain as I had recently undergone a surgery and was in extreme pain and discomfort. She asked me if I had a medical certificate to prove that. When I told her that I had a picture of the same on my phone but would take a few moments to find it, I was brashly told that she doesn't have the time and that's my problem not hers, leaving me rather astonished with this reply. Infact, she asked me to the not argue and that she wanted to "cut it short". Much to my surprise, I was also threatened by her that if I did not comply I would not be allowed to board the airline. It was nice to see the racist side of Ms. Sophielle and the senior personnel when they stated that they couldn't do anything if Indians back home din't know/understand how to comply with the policies but at the U.S.A airport that's how it was done. I see this as an absolute money making scheme as well as inefficient training, absolute arrogance and lack of culture and manners. Speaking to the senior personnel too (who's name I unfortunately did not get) was of no use as he simply stood there mute, nodding his said repeating the same words "your responsibility". I reluctantly paid the amount of $300 (the receipt of which is retained by me) and as if the above incident was not enough, I was insulted for holding up the baggage loading whereas it was another staff member of Etihad who was taking a while to issue me a receipt of the same, all this while the senior personnel coolly stood there with folded hands and watched after I had already brought Ms. Sophielle's uncouth behaviour to his notice.
Safe to say this experience was nothing short of absolute humiliation and rather disturbing.
I am thoroughly disgusted at this treatment.