Etihad Airways
Reviews and Complaints

My daughter Devadharshini palani vailmuthu had travelled in etihad airways on 19th september 2023 from cochin airport to edinburgh airport in a connecting flight. Her baggage had been lost and we had already complained about this in the Edinburgh airport but there are no responses from them.The baggage tag number is 131836. Please do give a response regarding this and help us with getting the baggage as soon as possible

I submitted an application for a 30-day, single-entry visa for myself and a relative on September 21. We are both from Sudan, and although I indicated in my application that I was planning on departing the country from Ethiopia and Egypt for the applications, when I submitted the two applications, the departure was actually from Sudan. I tried contacting the company via phone and email, but I didn't receive a response.

While travelling to cinncinati, I was stopped at the destination abu dhabi without any solid reason and was made sit for 7-8 hours, my board pass was torned without any solid reason and all my money into this procedure went to waste.

I was lied by the airways of my visa getting some issues due to what they turned down my boarding pass. If this doesnt take any action against etihad service, i'm gonna take a big step once again. And without telling me any reason they sent me off back to my country in the money cancelling my ticket to us. This is insane. If I dont get any solid reason or my money back. I'm going to file a case on this.

I made a booking on your website for two passengers but was only issued one ticket with PNR number RXZCAK.

The booking was for both me and my wife and upon checking the ticket only one was issued for my wife and not me.Etihad refunded the money for my ticket back to my Credit card without informing me.

My PNR number is S3PPN4.

Now the price for the same ticket has increased significantly and I do not wish to pay this and need to have the original price agreed and paid.

My Visa was returned for modification, but when I was about to do the modification the website was showing error "There is no Visa matching the search information entered". This visa has already been paid! and there was no way I can modify my case?! I have been trying endlessly to call the number and emailed [protected]@etihad.ae and [protected]@etihad.ae but no response has been received both on calls and emails! How is one of the biggest company in the region are this worst in customer service and have an extremely poor website service! The visa is already paid and if it cannot even be modified then this transaction is just purely a SCAM!

I booked my flight on 24th August 2023 from BLR to CWL by paying 67,464 through UPI in Etihad Airways. The page showed error after my payment was made. But the amount was debited and I have the proof for the same.

I have not received any confirmation on my payment/booking. Later when I texted the agent, explaining my situation, they retrieved my booking reference number(Q6EKOY and Q9KPQE) and asked me to wait for the confirmation. But I did not received any mails or SMS regarding my booking. I could not access my booking till now and it is only them who can do so.

Later when I checked they told me that my booking was not confirmed, hence it was cancelled and also they mentioned that the amount was not reflected in their page, and will be back to my account in 7-15 days, when I asked for a proof, they refused to share me an mail or a SMS. Whenever I query, they say that they have initiated the refund but later they say they have not received the amount, conclude it as a soft charge. They have been giving me different answers and ask me to wait for 15-30 days, if not dispute with the bank. As they said, I checked with my bank and they made it clear that the amount has been debited from my account and has been received by the airline, the refund can only be initiated by the airline, only then it can be processed.

Now its been more than 15 days, I have not received any proof for the refund nor my cancelled booking, also they are not responding properly and blindly they ask me to wait for days.

I had booked a flexi ticket for a trip made on 1 August 2023. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to change the date of the ticket which was made possible after I paired the fare difference. I was told by the Etihad agent on the chat that I could get a certain amount as refund but what followed has been a harrowing experience.

I tried cancelling the ticket online only to be told of the dozen cancellation charges. Not only that they kept insisting that I needed to pay additional an additional fee to have an agent cancel the ticket.

When I asked for information on the refund amount, I kept getting the response that they could not provide me with this information.

They kept insisting rather that I made changes to my destination during my onward journey which is absolutely false.

Frustrated, I just told them to cancel it which they did but sent me no email even after promising me. I see that the flight has been cancelled on Manage Booking but I received no email information on this via email or information on when and how much the refund will be.

If Etihad cannot provide information on refunds who can?

I gonna breakdown the negative side of Etihad when it comes to processing refund.

Note that according to them the refund will take 7 to 45 days to appear to your bank but did not elaborate the conditions.

1. From the time of cancellation, 7 to 45 days to process the refund (this

probably to compute the amount refundable)

2. When they finally process the refund you have to wait again 7 to 45 days for

God knows what!

3. They will not contact you for any questions such as Bank Information, they will wait for you to contact them.

4. When you finally give them the Bank information, you will wait again 7 to 45

days.

So when you decided to book Etihad make sure that you are 101% sure that you can make it to the flight and cancellation will not be your option.

Etihad cancelled my family of 4 flights in 2020 due to travel restrictions with Covid. Received notification that my flight money was put into a travel bank account. Travel Bank A/C No [protected] to expire July 2022.

Booked another flight in June 2022 that was fully flexible/cancellable as I needed to use this credit by July 2022. We were not in a position to travel but chose this option so I could change ticket closer to the date if needed. I had booked a flight to travel in March 2023. This flight was then cancelled in July 2022.

My options in the email was to call the Call Centre to: Rebook a different flight or Request a Refund.

I called the Call Centre requesting a refund in July 2022. They advised I was unable to get a money refund as the form of payment for this flight was from a travel bank credit account.

The Call Centre advised they could only transfer this money back into the travel bank credit account as this was the method of payment or a ticket that was valid for 3 months. I pointed out that the Travel Bank account was expiring in July 2022 and a ticket being offered to me in July 2022 valid for 3 months when my flight was not until March 2023 was not a suitable resolution. (In later correspondence they said I declined this ticket which I did not, I was going on advice from the call centre that they were escalating my case as I was seeking a refund).

After months of calls to the Call Centre in Bangladesh trying to get assistance or a resolution and getting the same answer each time that my case was being ecalated. Finally, on the 10 December 2022 a call centre person advised I could try emailing “Feedback” to explain my case. While I was preparing my case for “Feedback” Etihad automatically transferred my flight money into the travel bank account on the 15/12/22.

The email states the amount credited was $3467.76AUD but when I open my account it is showing $0 as the account has expired.

I contacted the travel bank department and they advised for me to go back to the call centre.

Call centre advised for me to write another email to “Feedback”. Their response was:

"We regret to inform you that your ticket cannot be used as an open ticket since it has already been reimbursed on the initial form of payment".

After many calls to the Call Centre not once was I advised that there was a time frame that my ticket would be transferred back into the travel bank credit account.

I was advised in the last correspondence that there are recordings of conversations so if it is possible to hear these then it would prove that I was trying to seek a resolution.

If Etihad can at least provide me with an open ticket valid for 12 months which I should be entitled to when they have cancelled flights. Please note I did not decline an open ticket I was clearly trying to seek a refund or a ticket that was at least valid for 12 months.

I am a doctor and had to travel to Uk for work and the staff made me wait for 4 hours for the connecting flight and didn’t give me seat in the flight booked for 1045 am on 28th august to London Heathrow..

Very disappointed with the way staff spoke and also very disappointed with the compensation..

I had to literally beg them to get me into the flight but all efforts were wasted ..

I am under sever financial loss due to this ..

I would request you to compensate me for this or else I have to go the legal way ..

The supervising officer was saad Ahmed ..

I booked a return ticket from Manchester to Ahmedabad for 12th June 2022 and a part of payment was through the travelbank voucher . But then Etihad cancelled the flight from Ahmedabad and rebooked another time. So I had the option to cancel for free so I called customer care. He clearly mentioned I will get an entire refund and the money paid through the travel bank will be refunded back in the travelbank. I have still not received that refund to the travelbank, please look into it and process my refund.I know travelbank is now Etihad credit and that also does not show the refund. This my 10th time contacting Eithad, email to the Etihad credit team, phone calls everything I tried still no refund from you guys

Reference number

FGLQRX

Case Number

[protected]

Bank account Number

FAB bank debt card

[protected]

On 10th January 2023 a soft payment was made to Etihad for flight to Barcelona. I have been unsuccessful in receiving the refund, despite many phone calls and emails.

Over the last eight months I have not received an acceptable standard of customer service in seeking my refund. Communication has been poor and I am still the one needing to follow up and no refund has been received.

I have sort further information from Perla regarding her email stating a refund had been issued. My bank has no record of this refund and funds are not in my account. I have asked for further information eg date of refund and SWIFT code of this transaction so it can be investigated from the banks end and have had no further information or contact from Perl.

I think from the lack of information and clarity from Etihad the money still sits with them and I will need to seek further help to ensure I am refunded the money.

Had a return flight booked in April ‘22 from Melbourne to Dublin, business class with Etihad whom I have flown with for many years,

I had to change the return date twice due to health problems.

On the second occasion, I was advised by Etihad Customer Service that I could have $1700 of the ticket price of $10,000 refunded or pay an additional amount of $2050 to purchase an ‘open ticket’ which was unrestricted.

This seemed like a sensible and good economic option and I paid the extra $2050.

When I tried to use the ‘open ticket’ for my return flight, I was told different stories.

1/ that the ticket was valid to October ‘23 but he was having problems completing the booking on their system and to call back

2/ When I called back, I was told that the same ticket was only valid to June ‘23 and I therefore couldn’t use it at all but they would try to compromise as I had not been told of a limited timeframe. The customer service agent would call me back. She didn’t!

3/ I contacted Etihad through their, very cumbersome, feedback forum as advised. They do not have an email address for complaints.

I received a reply by email from Jovana, with the complaint number: Feedback CRM:[protected], who said that the open ticket I had purchased with the additional $2050, was only valid for one year from the date of the original flight in April. She tells me this on 25th July 2023.

Jovana apologised rather insincerely and ‘looked forward to welcoming me back on board’. It was a rather patronising email.

In summary, I paid $12,000 for a flight from Melbourne to Dublin.

I responded on 26th July and explained yet again that, when I paid the additional amount for an ‘open ticket, I was not advised of any time limit and felt the least Etihad could offer was a compromise in the form of an additional small amount to allow me to complete my return flight.

To date, I have received no response.

I have tried to use the ‘feedback forum’ to contact Etihad but it will not accept the complaint number I was given and states it is invalid.

I have a complaint to lodge against your check in staff.

I can't file the complaint using "https://www.etihad.com/en-ae/help/feedback/share-feedback", boring, provocative, unresponsive, time-consuming!

my wife and son were flying from abu dhabi to cairo on 14 August 2023 at 10.05 AM. There are some mistakes in names, i called the agent when i discovered the mistakes, but he said it is not a problem as long as there is no substantial difference in names and are pronounced the same. based on that, my wife and son arrived from cairo airport despite the mistakes, no problems, no charge for changing the name, no hassle, no stress, no tension, no troubles at all! (ticket name: Hayam aboshehin / Passport Name: Hiam Aboushahin)! No big difference for 1st graders! but for your Asian staff, I wish i hadn't seen them for even a second! different world, different mindset!

But here at abu dhabi airport, your check in staff, indians as my wife told me, forced my wife to pay AED 520 and change the names

Even more, she didnt have extra luggage and she had to take some luggage with her onboard and spoil the gift she had bought!

Booking Ref : N98FYG for wife and son

Ticket Nos:

EY 607-[protected] (wife - Hayam Aboshihen)

EY 607-[protected] (son - Heban Zeyada)

Flight No. EY 653

actually i ve bn flying Etihad for over 15 yrs now, and never have i seen this shameful experience or met such a stubborn mentality staff!

Please look into this complaint and reimburse me the amount paid for correcting the name mistakes I am not accountable for!

I ve bn trying to send the complaint via etihad help link, but the process stops everytime I click "Continue"!

THAT'S ALL in details!

Waiting for an action from your side!

Regards

Maged zeyada

+[protected] (whatsapp No)

[protected]@gmail.com

I received the approved refund request below from Eithad Airways guest servies in Abu Dhabi below...

--------------------------------------------------------

Please let me know if your able to assist and I have copied in the credit note your team provided below as an fyi?On Tue, Dec 20, 2022 at 12:15 AM Payment Solutions wrote:

Dear OD,

kindly note the refund will take 10-15 working days , please request the customer to follow up with the bank . in case the bank can't find the transaction please request the customer to dispute with their bank .

regards,

__________________________________________________________________________

Requester : Sean Lee Heung

Category : Finance

Description :

This email comes from an EXTERNAL source.

Good evening all.

Could someone please provide the following updates...

* A confirmation when the refund will be processed back to my AMEX Credit Card

* And that the amount will match what my colleague Evangelos paid to cover the re-issued tickets... copy of the receipt attached

Regards,

Sean Lee Heung

On Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 12:45 AM Aisha Morilla Astejada wrote:

Dear All,

Guest has been charged for PCC Override because of the CCNV edit and was unable to present the original or copy of the CC used purchasing the ticket. Kindly do the necessary to refund the amount charged from guest CC account.

Regards,

Aisha Morilla Astejada

Reservation and Ticketing Agent, Hub and Midfield Operations

Etihad Airport Services – (Ground)

PO Box 35566, Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

M: +[protected]

E: [protected]@etihad.ae

etihad.com

CELEBRATING THE UAE’S

REMARKABLE JOURNEY

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http://www.etihad.com/

CONFIDENTIALITY / DISCLAIMER NOTICE:

This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorised and may be illegal. Etihad Aviation Group or its employees are not responsible for any auto-generated spurious messages that you may receive from Etihad email addresses.

http://www.etihad.com/

----------------------------------------------------

It has been...

** 257 Days from the Etihad Airways email (1st attachment) confirming a refund was approved back on November 23, 2022 regarding booking reference TMEGWZ!

***** 390 Days (2nd attachment) since the original tickets were purchased on July 12, 2022!

I am looking for someone at Eithad Airways to help me with processing my refund?

Regards,

Sean Lee Heung

John Welstandkeryk PNR RY37DN

Dear Etihad Airlines, I would like to make a formal complaint about my recent flight to Japan with you. On the return journey my flight was first delayed by four hours, then cancelled. I was offered another flight that would require a 17 hour layover in Abu Dhabi and I had to negotiate a flight with a much shorter layover that would mean arriving in the UK 24 hours late.

I was informed by Etihad that any expenses such as hotel rooms, meals and refreshments, taxi to the airport would be refunded to me provided I kept receipts. Later that day I discovered that my new flight was delayed by 4 hours, this meant that we would miss our connecting flight to the UK and with that my son would miss his graduation. I then spent hours trying to get Etihad to arrange for us to get back on a different route or on a different airline. This failed and to be quite frank I was told lies after lies that it beggars belief.

I contacted my travel agents and they told me that they could not help because on your website it showed the flight as being on time, even though when you check the individual flight it showed it was delayed. (is that intentional to stop travel agents from booking us onto other airlines at your cost).

When I returned to the UK I left feedback on your website and was expecting a phone call to discuss the matter, as it says on your website. About three weeks later I received an e-mail from you offering $800 in compensation as a gesture of goodwill. It wasn’t clear if this was for me or the four of us who flew together on the booking. I replied asking why nobody contacted me to ask what expenses we had occurred so compensation could be worked out.

I rang again and was told that the $800 was indeed for the group making it $200 each, making it a far cry from the $700 each for a cancelled flight. I also asked why nobody asked about our expenses and there was no answer. I was advised to click on the no button asking if I was happy with to take the $800 and after pressing no I spent a long time formulating my response, after I pressed the send button and error code 404 came up and I did not know if you got the e-mail.

I didn’t have time to write it again so I sent a quick message asking if my e-mail was received and got this response below. I believe that maybe the e-mail did not get through and that this was a response to my original feedback.

From: Etihad Airways

Date: 10 August 2023 at 05:17:45 GMT+1

To: [protected]@hotmail.com

Subject: Compensation Consent CRM:[protected]

Etihad Airways reference: [protected] 

Date: 8/10/2023 8:15 AM 

Dear John Welstandkeryk,

Thank you for your response.

My team and I have looked into the facts and assessed everything thoroughly.

As such we are unable to consider further compensation and our position remains unchanged.

Please allow me to assure you that your feedback has been gratefully noted and shared with the Guest Experience Department for internal review.

On behalf of Etihad Airways, we would like to thank you for writing and for allowing us the opportunity to review your concerns.

 

Please respond to this offer by 8/24/2023 8:15 AM (Gulf Standard Time): Click here to proceed.

Yours sincerely,

Rhizlan 

Guest Relations Officer 

Etihad Aviation Group

New Airport Road, Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, UAE

etihad.com

I am giving you the benefit of the doubt regarding this reply but even then you have not addressed the issue of expenses, you did not even ask if we incurred any during our 32 hour delay. Why? Also when you look back at previous mails you will see that I do not want Etihad credits.

I have around $1,250 worth of receipts waiting to be reimbursed so I need to know the process of reclaiming that. Also on every website I visit it says that you pay up to 600 euros for delayed or cancelled flights. My flight was delayed by four hours, changed to a flight with a 17 lay over, cancelled and the new flight delayed by four hours totalling 32 hours.

What would have to happen so people for them to get the full compensation for a delayed flight. I worked it out that based on my experience they would have to be delayed by 4 days and 7 hours. As an airline with a reputation of being one of the best you have failed miserably to take any of this seriously. I need this to be dealt with professionally and fairly otherwise I will have to seek recompense in a different way.

Yours Disappointedly

John Welstandkeryk

I wrote again and the error code for any complaint was error 404 but when I wrote asking if the system was working it went through. What i need is a number I can call and speak to someone who will tell me how to claim back expenses accrued whilst being delayed for 32 hours and why you are offering an insulting amount of compensation.

I have a complaint to lodge against your check in staff.

my wife and son were flying from abu dhabi to cairo on 14 August 2023 at 10.05 AM. There are some mistakes in names, i called the agent when i discovered the mistakes, but he said it is not a problem as long as there is no substantial difference in names and are pronounced the same. based on that, my wife and son arrived from cairo airport despite the mistakes, no problems, no charge for changing the name, no hassle, no stress, no tension, no troubles at all!

But here at abu dhabi airport, your check in staff, indians as my wife told me, forced my wife to pay AED 520 and change the names

Even more, she didnt have extra luggage and she had to take some luggage with her onboard and spoil the gift she had bought!

Booking Ref : N98FYG for wife and son

Ticket Nos:

EY 607-[protected] (wife - Hayam Aboshihen)

EY 607-[protected] (son - Heban Zeyada)

Flight No. EY 653

actually i ve bn flying Etihad for over 15 yrs now, and never have i seen this shameful experience or met such a stubborn mentality staff!

Please look into this complaint and reimburse me the amount paid for correcting the name mistakes I am not accountable for!

I ve bn trying to send the complaint via etihad help link, but the process stops everytime I click "Continue"!

THAT'S ALL in details!

Waiting for an action from your side!

Regards

Maged zeyada

+[protected] (whatsapp No)

[protected]@gmail.com

I have cancelled a booking online on 12 May, and still haven't received the refund.

Please find below the ticket number and guest name:

Ms Eliana Bantchev

Ticket number: [protected]

Flight from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta

I called the customer service several times, and wrote also several times to [protected]@etihad.ae. The response was to contact the customer service, which said that the situation would be resolved. No response as of today at all. The representatives failed to even send follow-up emails. Very disappointing, and a great loss of time, without any resolution, for a ticket that was fully refundable, and which has been cancelled online already.

You will find attached the screenshots that I took at the end of the cancellation process online, on 12 May 2023. (for a flight departing on 15 May 2023).

The flight was successfully cancelled online and I expected to receive the amount without any trouble, as I fully trust Etihad and recommend it.

Looking forward to your response, and to receiving the refund.

Thank you and best regards,

Eliana Bantchev

As part of service, they advertised that they will help with Immigrations/Customs. At airport, they did not help saying that they are not allowed in that Area. It's ridiculous that Airlines is taking money from passenger through these services and providing bad service. I hope this helps anyone looking to purchase Meet and greet service from Etihad. I ended up paying money for1 adult and two kids and did not getting full service they advertised. Very disappointed.

Am a passenger on flight number EY15 on the 12th Aug 2023.

It has been the worst ever exeperience i have had so far. The Etihad staff was rude, without manners and simply unacceptable. After showing my passport and boarding pass they would not wven give me thier names nor show me their id’s.

There were 3 men and the one particularly rude was a thin tall man wearing glasses and the other 2 just supported him and would not show thier ids which they were wearing at the time nor their names when i asked them so that i could complain.

Also they would let me take a photo or record the incident.