Etihad Airways
Reviews and Complaints

Purchased flights from Glasgow to Bangkok using Opodo as Etihad were the cheapest provider. Once the booking was confirmed they then chose to move me to a different flight for the Glasgow to Dublin leg as time was tight for making the onward connection to Abu Dhabi - a fact known by them when I first booked. So a sharp practice to take my money then not honour the contract. They subsequently moved my flight twice more so that I now have to fly via Amsterdam and take a day off work to leave earlier. Opodo are useless and their advice on each occasion is that I must accept the changes as they won't refund me. For several weeks Opodo & Etihad blamed each other as with-holding any refund until Etihad eventually admitted responsibility but still no offer. Each complaint to them has ended with some platitude to "fly with them again". I usually fly this route (often) with Emirates, this will be my preferred option in future.

1)My son, Amit Koppalkar had booked on Etihad from Chennai ( India) to Amsterdam

2)The Chennai Amsterdam Ethad flight on 1st Apr got delayed and which resulted in missing of Abu dhabi - Amsterdam flight

3) He was then booked for next day ( 2nd Apr ) after 24 Hours.

4)However for the 24 hours time Abu Dhabi, no service was given, no hotel was booked, and the ground staff was too rude to even listen.

5) It was a miserable experience to pass 24 hours of time on Airport.

6) Finally seriously sleep deprived, he had to book a private sleeping pod by paying 100 USD

7) The Ordeal doesn’t end there. On next day’s flight, he reached Amsterdam, only to find that his baggage is missing.

8) The baggage couldn’t be traced during his entire stay of 4 days in Amsterdam.

9) The miserable service and highly inefficient staff of Etihad ensured that his entire holidays are badly screwed up. First they made him loose one full day, then they made him spend entire day in Airport without providing accommodation, then they lost his bag

10) Its 10 days since he lost bag, and till the time of writing this post, Etihad could not locate his bag. Its disgusting. If they cant trace a simple bag, how do you expect them to trace faults with their engines and controls? Very scary to think of the level of inefficiency that Etihad works!

11) Many mails sent to various Etihad customer care ids are replied with a standard reply - we are looking in to it.

12) Any one reading this post has any mail id of top Etihad bosses, please mail me on - [protected]@rediffmail.com, so that I can write to them directly

Thank you

Ravindra Koppalkar

I bought two way tickets for my parents in the month of Feb 2014 for 5 months duration from Hyderabad, India to USA. However they decided to go back early. I called the Etihad customer service in the month of May 2014 to book the tickets and the representative who answered the call said it will cost $80 per ticket to change the date and $10 fee (I believe for processing). After couple of weeks when I checked my bank statements they have charged me ~$920 for each tickets and then the charges $10 each for tickets (2 tickets). Rather than changing the date they have booked new tickets. I have followed up with customer service since May 2014. They do not direct the call to right person and finally they said the representative mentioned the charged price on the call. I asked them to share the voice recording but they would not. It is total scam.

My company book for me a flight for my vacation EY316 17 March 2015 Dep. 0425 Riyadh to Abu Dhabi 0700. Then Abu Dhabi 1015 to Manila 2235. Then I have my connecting flight domestic flight 0525 form Manila to my home town. First i arrived early at Riyadh King Khaled International Airport. When i about to check in and some other passenger we where been screen one of their staff from the counter asking if our flight for manila. Then he took all our printed ticket and said all your baggage set this side we will inform when you will allowed to check in, I notice only us filipino are not allowed to check in while other national has been allowed, One female filipino passenger call his friend in Abu Dhabi Airport . If their is a problem form Abu Dhabi to manila we found that their was no any other issue. So we are trying to get the attention one of their crew but they told us same reason that we are looking for your flight. Last hour they said some of you can go but mostly of you will be re-book due to no set available. We came early not to miss the flight then they told us that. Racist is so perfectly design by their crew.Until must of us did not catch up the flight they return our ticket said just stay we will come back for you to look for hotel. We are waiting for almost 4 hours to came back for us but nothing happened. If we did not inform the Director of the airport and complaint nobody will came and send us to hotel. So must of us has a connecting flight we will pay for 500 srd due their fault. Our domestic flight will not accept due to 24 hours notice prior for re-booking. We need to pay again. The bad thing their crew was so racist because we are Asian and filipino. I am working in medical field us a medical worker we didn't consider race nor religion we save life regardless of what you are. We treat them equally according to their needs. So far i have been in many airlines Etihad is worst airlines i been experience in terms of delayed flight. I hope someday we will meet then in my working place. I will inform my friend not get this airlines. Thank you very much.

Complaint,

Concerning our travel via your company, we reserved a flight from Bangkok towards Brussels via Abu Dhabi with Etihad EY 401 then EY 057 our flyght booking references EY / QWPOZQ

We are frequent flyers Mr Kunthong Kritsana N on [protected] and Mr Rolot Francis N [protected], this concerns the flight on February 11th, 2015 start Bangkok at 7:50 pm allocates and final arrival to Brussels on February 12th at 07:05 am in reality our final hour of arrival in Brussels was February 12th, 2015 at 17, 40 thus more than ten hours of delay.

We choose your company since your arrival times are particularly interesting for us, it allowing us the day of our arrival to already schedule some professional meetings, this time unfortunately we had to face this long delay and were forced to cancel some of our professional meetings what naturally harms us. We would like to know what are your proposals of compensations for this very long delay.

I know that your company is not submitted to the European law where in this case of figure Cies are forced to pay a consequent financial compensation which can go for a similar case up to 650 euros by passenger.But there are also some concurence Emirate Qatar Airways then We dare to believe that you have the interest of your faithful customers in mind (such as us both) and that you will make for us a strong commercial gesture.

Looking forward to hearing from you, please receive, Sirs our best regards.

Francis Rolot
Kritsana Kunthong

I booked ticket for my cousin in etihad airways on jan 21st from MAA, I send email request to etihad airways to update ok to board message, they replied they can't do as surname is appearing first on visa, after that I was trying several times to contact airlines visa department, but they never reply for me. Finally we approach qatar airways with same visa they make it ok to board message and my cousin reached safely doha without any difficulties in immigration at doha and chennai. The problem is with etihad airlines only they are giving very very poor services and responses to their customer, i suggest not to choose this flight. we lost time and money by booking in this airlines, really they are not having any concern of passenger.

We were not able to board for our honeymoon due to an error Etihad staff has made. Even with admitting fault, they have done nothing to remedy their mistake. They basically produced a ticket for me with my old invalid passport. We asked multiple times if that was okay and we won't run into any issues later on. The staff double checked with her supervisor and confirmed no it would not be a problem. We waited 3 hours to board along with a 20minute delay. As we are about to board, one of the other staff of Etihad denies us to board due to the ticket using my old invalid passport. Why did Etihad produce a ticket with an invalid passport? Did they follow protocol? So we had to pay extra fee to change the ticket for a new flight, which they were unwilling to waive. They did not provide any accommodations for lodging since we have to wait another day to fly out, nor did they upgrade our seats. They could have done so many things to help rectify their error. Instead they gave us an empty and reluctant apology with snarky remarks, all from their airport duty manager. Etihad needs to spend their resources on training their staff to be competent in their jobs and how to better service their travelers. Contacting headquarters did nothing because they too are passing their employees errors to sow owns else- basically giving us a run around. Unacceptable behavior from a supposed professional business. Definitely not flying Etihad ever again.

i had a flight from Riyadh to Denpasar thru Abu-Dhabi then kuala, i was planning to spend my new year eve with my wife there in Bali, but the flight has been delayed due to some weather circumstances, we have lost 2 nights in the hotel (approximately 530 USD), then when we arrive to Bali we didn't find our luggage in the airport, we lost it for a complete 5 nights, and when we got it back we found a lot of electronic items has been stolen such as a gear watch, go pro cam, portable speakers and so.
Etihad airways has turned my trip to be miserable, all of that was not fine but here is the worst thing, when i contacted them for a compensation, i found a stupid reply from the claim baggage customer support in a very unprofessional way informing me to contact Malaysia airlines as it is the last airline carried me from Kuala-Lampour to Bali.
i have been traveled on many airline companies, and i have lost my baggage 2 years earlier on emirates airways where i really found a supportive and professional customer care. they sent a representative from Emirates who paid for every single item i bought in my trip for completely 7 nights except the food.
ETIHAD AIRWAYS is the worst ever, the DON't DESERVE their reputation.

Was flying from Bangalore to Cairo via Abu Dhabi on the 28th Dec 13. The flight went late by 3 hrs due to fog and my connecting flight too was delayed and hence I went to the assigned gate, after waiting in line for 45 min I was told I am offloaded from the flight for the reason of delayed incoming flight! There was no communication on this whatsoever when I landed. Then I was made to stand in a que for exactly 2 hrs 40 minutes (the que had around 25 guests when I joined). After repeated request they managed to put me in a later flight making me miss the whole days work scheduled at Cairo. I was retuning back on the 31st morning on the same route. Everything was fine till Abu Dhabi. The connecting flight was delayed by more than 2.30 minutes. I was made to wait in a dep hall which had no seats for passengers to sit. After standing there for 2.30 minutes and when I was about to board I was told am offloaded! When I asked for the reason the rude and ugly officer tells me I have cancelled my ticket and taken back money! I asked him how is it possible when am on a single ticket and I have already done one sector from Cairo - Abu Dhabi, he said thats not my problem go to Etihad and talk to them because I am from Jet Airways. I expected the same situation of Q at the Etihad service desks and I requested a senior officer to somehow help me and put me on the same flight. She showed me her computer and told me that it is 100% full and no seats are available. After standing there for 20 minutes someone shouts 'hey we have issues 2 boarding pass to a passenger and we have to cancel one! They promptly issued a new boarding pass to me and sent me to the aircraft. I was thanking the lady officer and went to see that the aircraft was not full and the seat next to me itself was empty! Etihad takes passengers for a cool ride since the tickets are sold in advance and passengers are at its mercy they think they can treat the passenger the way they want. I have never seen an unprofessional airline or the rude staff like this one. I wish to take this complaint to the authorities who can penalise this airline. No one should use this airline ever.

Flight: ey-653 date 03jan / departure at 10:05am to cairo
I had very bad experience with etihad onground staff. because of the ignorance & unprofessional attitude I got from them, I got stuck with my wife and two little kids in the airport for 14 hours and lost our baggage for two days, as listed below:

·not been notified “in advance” on the delayed departure, knowing that the runways were closed since the very early morning hours. flight original departure time was 10:05am.in fact I got a confirmation email on the original departure time the day before
·etihad personnel didn't inform us of the rescheduled departure 13:25 (first delay - 5 and half hours) before checking-in our baggage and when complaining to mr. ali omar “baggage check-in supervisor”, he responded with “nothing can be done!”
·getting confirmation that the rescheduled departure 17:30 (2nd delay - 2 more hours) is final and we were asked to proceed to the passport control and to the departure gate. after getting stuck at the overstuffed departure gates. this confirmation turned up to be false!
·etihad personnel at the departure gate was totally unable to assist us or provide clarification / confirmation on the rescheduled departures 23:00 (3rd delay - 5 and half more hours) & 01:00 “next day” (4th delay - 3 more hours)
·our baggage went missing for about 48 hours.

We I contacted them on their feedback email asking for a full refund and compensation, as listed in their own terms and condition (clause 10.2 involuntary refunds), they rejected my demand and offered to through in some air miles which aren't equivalent to my ticket fare.

Can you guys direct me how to escalate this issue? third party or authority to file my complaint at?
Thanks,

The airlines is famous for its incompetence to serve the passengers. The same thing happened in my case also. There was a delay from the origin, the transit time was reduced to 1 hour. no proper planning with regards to movement of luggage to destination. hence no luggage in destination. asked to file a missing report and the luggage was promised to be delivered at door step. more than 48 hours with repeated follow up the luggage arrives. the luggage is in a very bad state with broken handle and is torn and ransacked. The airways does not seem to take any notice of the same and the helplines are so busy and no one receives them and its been a entire day trying to call them.

I am supposed to fly on 1/4/15 at 8.30 am pt from sfo - auh – maa but my flight cancelled due to auh fog, the etihad e-mail communication said flight delay and supposed to depart on 1/4/15 10.18 pm pt, I was in sfo airport from 6 pm – 9 pm pt on 1/4 but there is no etihad staffs in counter, after too many tries to customer service number I got hold of them and they said the flight got cancelled and were not able to confirm me for next day flight so I asked them to cancel my ticket, customer service said they cannot cancel but asked me to contact my ticket agent to cancel the ticket, I called my ticket agent webjet.com to cancel and refund my ticket money, they replied me saying that they are unable to refund the ticket because etihad taken control and reissued it for the new travel dates and asked me to contact etihad for refund, I called and e-mailed etihad but etihad keep asking me to contact agent, past 1 week I am going forth & back between both etihad and webjet.com but no resolution on my refund.

Me and my wife senior citizen 69 and 67 years old and was travelling from JFK to LHE. Flight Left 45 mins late from JFK. In middle of the flight something happened and flight landed at Cairo (Egypt) Airport. after waiting for 5 hours inside the plane plane took off again(Cairo airport staff didn't let anyone off the plane--dunno why) Finally Plane landed around 11 PM UAE Time at Abu dhabi...i already missed my connecting flight. Now asked the staff what to do...they said next flight is at 2 PM UAE time and wait in airport somewhere. asked for hotel and staff laughed and said old man ...have old lady sit on chair before someone else will take that chair and you will sit on floor.
Old, confused, language challenge with arab staff...took that advice sat on chair for another 18 hour since 2 PM flight was delayed again due to Fog...I just want for folks to imagine who old parents with disability and from one airport (JFK) to Abu Dhabi 40 Hours with no sleep. No idea what to do with the food, bought food and asked if can sleep somewhere. Finally old asian lady had a pity and showed us the sleeping POD...and said please pay money and at least you can lay down...sure enough ..PODS were full and about 60 people in waiting for line. Believe or not desperation has cause us running around and no help from staff
Finally time came and got home and sick with back pain for few days now heel somewhat to write this.
No wonder These UAE airlines are loosing their ratings. All i can suggest try Qatar or Saudi Airline...I heard at least they are better.

I was coming from YYZ to KHI on etihad airline when we had a layover at Abu Dabhi on January 1, 2015. The 3.5 hour layover turned into 16 + hours. They put us into plane for 12 hours for take off which was a lie since they never had any intention to take off due to weather (fog). They just wanted us to remain in the plane since the worst airport in the world is no good to accommodate so many passengers! They were keep telling us that we are going to take off soon in 15, minutes, in 2 hours, in 30 minutes etc. after 12 hours siting in the plane they asked us to leave the plane even when the fog was clear The flight was delayed again and they needed new crew to fly.. Etihad treatment to the passengers were worst as the threaten to hand over to security when passengers refuse to leave the plane as they wanted them to take off now as oppose to delaying it further for 3 hours! I will never fly this POS airline again and make sure no one in my circle buy their tickets again. They handled the matter with total ignorance and have no world class plan to handle such situations. Good bye Etihad, never again!

Myself travelling along with my 13 month daughter on 29th december 2014

29 dec 2014 — bom - auh — business class
29 dec 2014 — auh - ord — business class
29 dec 2014 — ord - pit — economy class

1. bom - auh - my daughter gets no baby food,

2. auh - ord - this flight gets delayed by 5 hours.
All during this 15 hour flight, my daughter gets no food,

I paid usd2100 for this flight, and get no food for my daughter for 15 hours!

3. since the flight reached late to chicago, I missed my onward flight to pittsburgh (the flight was etihad code shared flight)

4. etihad give me a sub standard hotel, after 3 hours of wait,

5. I again wait for another 3 hours transport... etihad failed to provide a transport for us after 3 hours of wait outside the airport in minus temprerature!

This is how etihad treats business class passengers, after we miss our flight due to etihads delay and negligence?

Finally, I was forced to get cab and pay for the cab to hotel and return to the airport from my own pocket...

Very unfair and very unethical service from etihad

The ordeal is not over yet

My daughter's pram, etihad loses it, in transit

After paying usd2100 for your tickets, I have not got any compensation for all the losses I have incurred, and I will only say one thing...

I am never going to fly etihad airline ever again'

This is the world's worst Airline. I booked a ticked ISB to IAD for myself, my wife and my 2 year old daughter about a month in Advance and even selected our seats. When I got to boarding, they sold my ticket to someone else and denied me boarding. I asked but no one from Eithad could explain why this has happened. After 5hrs they sent me to a hotel and told me to cool down and get some rest and that they will get me on the next flight tomorrow. So I waited till the next day, no one called... so I called them several times. They finally booked me a flight, but no they now added a 12hr stay in Abu Dhabi. They told me that because of our mistakes we will give you an upgrade to business class and we will be provided with hotel in Abu Dhabi. When I got to Abu Dhabi all I was told in Islamabad was a lie, no upgrade and no hotel. Now I'm here stranded for 12hrs at Abu Dhabi Airport.

On dec 14th purchased a round trip from dfw-maa (dfw-fra-auh-maa) thru ethihad.com for a family emergency. dfw-fra was operated by american airlines (code share with ethihad). unfortunately, aa got delayed for 3 hours and they rebooked me on 15th british, since time is of essence, I booked on a different carrier to leave first flight out on 15th morning and called ethihad for a cancellation and refund. till today (dec 28th) I have not got the refund. first they want the ticket number issued by ba, it was provided, then they want a letter from american that the flight was delayed, which american said it is not their policy to provide them. called and talked to very customer service call centers and every time, supervisor will promise me that some one will call back but that did not happen so far. they do not follow any ethics and respect customers. talked to supervisors, managers but no one is accountable there. it is a nightmare to deal with this poorly structured airlines.

‪etihad_the worst between all airlines, they are obviously cheaters, my nightmare started when I booked a round trip ticket abu dhabi to frankfurt, and since not sure about the return I booked it refundable for higher price, when I requested a refund, they refused and denied that its refundable and when asked them about the extra charge, they simply answered "you lost it" and the reason you accepted terms and conditions that are totally different than booking interface, they simply let you go through the purchase process and pay more for fake product. “beware”

I could not believe it when the etihad airline employees said that I have no seat? And presented to me with 500$ as compensation? I said I have paid already extra 1000$ to have a direct flight and now you want me to use other airline and have to stop over in europe... He said you accept or you will have no flights to travel on...
My trip from toronto to riyadh supposed to take 24 hours? It took me 5 days to get to riyadh and saying in a small dirty hotel for 3 days waiting for flights from london to riyadh.
I am a consultant doctor and that had cost me a loss of 10000$ and a severe back pain.
I do not know what to do and I am very upset and very annoyed...