Etihad Airways review: Compensation

Etihad number [protected]

My flight from Tokyo to Abu Dhabi on July 16 was delayed by four hours on the day we were due to leave. We checked the website to see if our original seats reservations were the same seats. They were not so we decided to do them again but the system would not let us without paying again.

I rang the airline and spoke with an operator who said that it was difficult to do as we were still registered on the previous flight and it would take time to sort out. 20 minutes later it was resolved but later we were told that that flight was cancelled too and were offered another flight. When I looked at the connecting flight time it showed a stopover of 17 hours so I asked if we would be provided with a hotel when we arrived. The man said not and asked if we could hang on as he looked at alternative fights.

He then confessed that there was no guarantee of any flights leaving that day as there was no information of what was really going on. He said he would know later what time flights were departing. I asked how much later on and he told me around 5 hours. I asked him to e-mail me when he knew so we would have it in writing.

Five hours later I got a phone call saying there would be no flight that day but we were booked onto the same plane same time next day. I then had to call again to ask for the e-mail confirmation and request that our seats be reserved.

The problem I had is that my son was graduating the next day from University and being delayed 24 hours was going to make it tight as we were flying into London then travelling to Liverpool (me my wife and my son). so when we heard that the flight was delayed by four hours we knew we would miss our connecting flight and the Graduation Ceremony.

We called Etihad and explained this and they said that there were no other flights that would make that connection. They offered us a later flight but we said that we wanted to get back on time and that Etihad should put us on another flight with a different airline. We were told that was not possible.

We contacted our travel agents in London and explained the situation and they said that they would investigate options for us. They then informed us that they could not book us new flights because Etihad were still showing that the flight was not delayed, it only showed that if you went onrtro the individual flight.

We rang back and spoke with a woman who said she would do her best to get us back in time. She rang back 2 hours later offering us the same flight that would miss our conecction. We explained that to her again and she said she would try again and ring us back in 2 or three hours, which would be 1am be we said that would be fine.

She did not ring back so we had to ring Etihad again and were told by the people in the call centre in India that they did not have the authority to book other airlines and offered us the flight that would miss our connection.

I asked to speak with the manager of the call centre and once we had explained our situation she asked us what we wanted her to do. We told her that we needed to be on another airline that would get us back in time for the graduation. She said no and that if we wanted that we would have to pay for it ourselves and if we did that we would lose our right to compensation if we did. I pointed out that it was the law and the airlines duty to get us back by any means. She said that she did not know about that and that anyway there were no other flight that would get us back in time.

Unless she had psychic powers she did not even look as her response was instant. Realising that we had hit a brick wall we then asked her to book us onto the flight and she agreed.

Several hours later when we went to check in we realised that she had not put put us onto that flight so we had to ring again only to be told that there only 3 seats and there were four of us. so we had to take the flight after that which meant a layover of 9 hours!

when we arrived at the airport we had on more try to get back via another airline, the man at the desk apologised for our delay but told us that he could not help as there was no duty manager that day. I asked him who was in charge when the duty manager was not in and got no reply. We asked him to call the duty manager and he did and spoke with her. We asked if she was coming to the desk and he said that he did not know. We told him to ring her again and find out, he informed us that she would be coming to the desk 45 minutes before the flight departed.

When she arrived she was very apologetic and said that she could not get us onto another airline but would get us onto the earlier flight in Abu Dhabi, we asked if the flight had the capacity because it was the same flight we were offered that only had 3 seats. She looked at her paperwork and said yes there are seat and we should go to the transit desk and get new boarding passes.

We did that and there were no boarding passes and no seats on the plane for us, she had sent the e-mail asking for us to be put on that fllight but the staff there queried why as the plane full before the e-mail was sent as we knew.

As you can see there has been a litany of lies and deceit to the point where all Etihad staff were only offering Etihad flights to get us back and preventing travel agents from booking other airlines. We know that there were flights that could get us back in time because when we were leaving our friend in Tokyo messaged us to say there was a flight from Haneda that would get us back in time and she was prepared to pay for his flight back. We declined the offewr as we did not want our friend to pay.

Part two.

Once back in the UK i tried to look on your website for a form to fill in for compensation for our 32 hour delay, there were lots of adverts from companies offering to do it for us for 35% but none to do it ourselves. I noticed the feedback form and wrote my experience. I then rang Etihad to find out how I could make my claim. I was told that i had to use the feedback form so apparently i had already done it.

On the for it said that somebody would call me to discuss my claim and then it would be processed. However two weeks later i got an e-mail offering me 800 US dollars in Etihad credits. I again rang Etihad and asked why I was being made an offer when nobody had spoken to me. I explained that I had 700 US dollars of receipts that need to be refunded and I asked if the offer was for me or for our group. He was a little unsure but then said it was for the four of us, which meant 200 dollars each in credits. I asked him how could be when it states on your website that we are entitled to 600 Euros each for a cancelled flight. That was the same website that says Etihad are responsible for getting us back as near to the original time as possible on other airlines.

I rejected the offer and asked for an explanation and let him know that I was not interested in credits and was told the airline had looked into my case thoroughly and that it was a fair offer. I still rejected the offer.

I then asked how I would get my expenses back and duly sent off my receipts. I was then asked to put my bank details into the form and that I would get my money with in 30 days.

Your system did not work and after several attempts I wrote to Rihzlan and explained that it did not work and attached screenshot of the problem and asked him to sort it out for me. I also asked him to explain why he had taken the 35 dollar request of a refund for all the phone calls i had to make.

I got no reply and went online only to find that my case had been closed because he did nothing. I reopened my case and tried again to enter my bank details but the data was missing, i even tried to just accept the offer but that did not work.

So here we are three months later and I have got nothing but grief and silence from Etihad Airlines, reputedly the third best airline in the world. I have tried to find a way where i can just talk to a human being and sort this out but have been stuck in telephone loops that lead to a dead end or online chats that cut you off if you take more than two minutes or staff refusing to explain anything just making derisory offers.

My experience with Etihad has been horrendous and I am no nearer to resolution that i was on the day I flew. the fact that my son, whom we had taken to Japan for a holiday after he got a first class honours degree, seemed to be of no importance to the airline and I am shocked at the lack of humanity and decency show by Etihad. For me personally your reputation is in tatters.

I would like to know what happens next and how we are going to reslove this issue promptly and fairly.