Etihad Airways
reviews and complaints

1) ISSUE OF CANCELLATION: About the orders of DGCA, please refer to key points from my two calls/discussion with Etihad customer service in India

a. First executive tells me, that DGCA orders were up to the end of March 2021 only. On my question of when did the orders for cancellation of my flight came, I got reply “5th April”

b. Second Executive confirms my ticket was canceled on the 4th of April itself, which contradicts the statement of the first executive and at least one person is lying. These are recorded calls so you can verify with your Bangalore customer service team. This confirms the contradictory statements from your staff.

c. I have contacted DGCA Delhi and found no such orders were issued for the April flight.

d. To clarify this point, kindly share the copy of DGCA orders with Etihad.

2) ISSUE OF COMMUNICATION:

a. Your Bangalore customer care Employee and your ground staff at Delhi airport confirmed to me that they did not send any email to email. This proves the authenticity of your statements and possible lies by Etihad. You can check call recordings and I have video recordings of my communication with your ground staff. Also, any email sent to my Gmail address can be confirmed by google by the order of the court as well. Show me the proof.

b. Etihad customer care team claims they tried to contact me about the cancellation on 6th April at my USA number while I was in India, of course, it did not come through.

c. Your Bangalore team claims, they called IndianEagle (As the second number while booking ticket at IndianEagle is of Indian Eagle) but it was unreachable. How come a 24X7 available number can be unreachable? Their availability is fairly good. However, I got no communication from Indian Eagle either. This needs to be sorted between Indian Eagle and Etihad that who is at fault.

3) Continuous Issues:

a. On contacting Customer Relations team of Etihad Abu Dhabi on 9th April by me via IndianEagle staff, I was promised a call back on my Indian number to resolve this issue but no callback.

b. No tickets till May 1st week as a replacement ticket for going back to the USA. And as expected it is a lockdown. To avoid it I had to buy a one-way ticket on Air France, and I had no problems during the flight. Of course, due to last-minute purchase ticket was expensive and so far, I am bearing the cost difference.

4) Loss and Damages:

a. So far, I am only being offered to get a full refund of $573 but that does not cover my financial and time losses due to this incident and terrible service of Etihad customer service and customer relations. Details are shared in point 4(b) below.

b. Please take a note of claim, I am seeking from Etihad:

i. $915 single way new air ticket on Air France due to cancellation and no availability of flight before May 5 on Etihad.

ii. $35 Train Ticket from Chicago to Toledo on 8th April got wasted due to flight cancellation.

iii. $75 Multiple to and fro from Delhi airport to my home.

iv. $5000 for frustration, agony, inconvenience, waste of my time, contradicting statements on reason/date of cancellation, and bodily injuries (Images will be shared with the right people) to my health condition I caused to myself due to lack of communication from Etihad and IndianEagle resulting in this incident.

v. Total of USD 6030.

I wanted to file a very serious complain regarding my recent trip which require your attention,

There are numbers of bad experiences I had in my recent trip from Ahmedabad (India) to Atlanta (USA) on 5th of Feb. 2022., I wanted to file a serious complaint against Etihad Staff for treating me very badly and for delivering most disagreeable experience.

Note that I am USA legal resident even though I have been treated so badly by Etihad staff.

1) At Ahmedabad (India) Airport we have to stand in queue for Two and half hour to get our boarding pass (you can verify CC footages)

When I went to submit my check in luggage and to get my boarding pass – Officer on duty asked me to see my passport which was fine but he asked my legal documents and proof of residency in US, photo ID of US as well as my residence address in detail (He was not authorized to ask my personal information and it was illegal – That is duty of immigration officer not airline employee)

I asked him that why are you asking such detail which are not required?

To show his authority he issued me boarding pass with special marking for Security surveillance for harassing me throughout my trip. (Please find attached my boarding pass)

Because of that special code SSSS I have been treated so badly during my entire trip by Etihad staff,

2) At Abu Dhabi Airport during security check – I have been separated by Etihad staff and they told me that I need to go through special security check procedure, They asked me to wait in another room and someone will give me further instructions, they have treated me like a criminal, They kept me waiting for 45 minutes in anxiety, I have been searched thoroughly and I have been through extreme level of offensive experience without any reason,

To be noted: this was done by Etihad staff not from any US officers.

“I have been discriminated and harassed by Etihad Staff without any reason or any clue”

3) Abu Dhabi to JFK : I have been informed by flight attendant that they don’t have my VEG meal request in system and they may not provide me Veg. Meal _ I informed them that I called Etihad directly to book my trip and clearly mentioned about my special request of Veg. Meal & finally they gave me veg meal by obliging behaviour, which was ridicules.

4) JFK to ATL : our flight was supposed to leave at 6: 30 pm but due to internal problem with Jet Blue our flight took off at 8:30 Pm delayed by two hours and due to that we have to cancelled our further plans with some financial losses.

I am frequent flyer and using services from different airlines including Etihad – I am member of Etihad from 2017.

I hope you will take this complaint very seriously and take all necessary action required to maintain your brand reputation.

Anticipating your prompt response.

Booking reference: JOGRSF

Booking date: 5th Oct 2021

Travelling from: Sydney to Abu Dhabi to Dubai

Booking reference: XVGNBE

Booking date: 21st Oct 2021

Travelling from: Abu Dhabi to Karachi

I recently booked flights for myself and my family with Etihad traveling from Sydney to Dubai.

Initially, I had booked my flights from Sydney to Dubai.

However, my plans changed  where my wife and kids were required to go to Karachi and not Dubai.

Since we were flying from Sydney to Abu Dhabi and then catching a bus to Dubai, I proceeded with buying tickets from Abu Dhabi to Karachi hoping to avoid the bus service from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and instead checking in all the way from Sydney to Karachi. So I proceeded to book 3 tickets from Abu Dhabi to Karachi.

Since I had two tickets, I was unsure that I may not be able to check-in my wife and kids from Sydney all the way to Karachi to ensure their luggage would safely arrive in Karachi without having to checkout in Abu Dhabi. 

I called Etihad call centre on 18th November 2021 @ 12.49pm (Sydney time).

I spoke to someone at Etihad call centre and explained to them the situation that I had two booking reference numbers and that I wanted to ensure we would get the boarding passes all the way to Karachi from Sydney without requiring us to check out at Abu Dhabi.

The person on the phone assured me that my wife and kids would get the boarding passes for both the tickets in Sydney itself, ensuring that luggage would go all the way to Karachi and the team at the check-in counter will be able to link the two tickets. She confirmed that my wife did not have to go to Dubai or check-out at the Abu Dhabi airport.

On the day of travel, when we arrived at the airport, after waiting for several hours to check in, we were denied from boarding the flight.

The guys at the check-in counter said that they cannot issue my wife and kids boarding passes for Karachi and luggage will not be sent to Karachi.

My wife and kids would have to check out with their luggage at Abu Dhabi airport and check-in again with the luggage for the Karachi flight.

This was completely different from what I was informed over the phone when I called Etihad on 18th November.

Checking out at Abu Dhabi airport required that all passengers had the required visa. My wife was travelling on a Pakistani passport while my kids and I were travelling on Australian passports.

Australian passport holders get visa on arrival, so that was not an issue. However, my wife’s passport required a visit/transit visa.

Since I was assured that checking-out at the Abu Dhabi airport will not be required, we did not organise a visa for my wife.

Had I been informed correctly that this would be required, I would have organised the visa before hand.

Please review the call logs from Etihad to confirm the accuracy on my statements.

I strongly believe this debacle could have been avoided if I was provided with correct information over the phone.

I have spoken to Etihad customer service, and I have been provided with an option of a Etihad travel bank voucher where I can use the funds for a future Etihad flight.

However, given the issue stemmed from incorrect information provided by Etihad personnel, I am kindly requesting that I am refunded in full instead of a voucher/Etihad bank option as I am not planning on using Etihad ever again. Customer service was not providing me with a refund. I have asked to speak to someone senior to discuss this further. They said that someone will call me, but no one has reached me as yet. 

I must say, we were traveling after a period of 2 years. 2 years since we last saw our parents, and siblings. 2 years since our parents and siblings had seen us.

The emotional distress of being denied and being sent back home caused single handedly by a communication error from Etihad personnel was excruciating.

My wife and kids were in tears at the airport after being denied. We had to contemplate, if we should still go ahead leaving my wife behind in Sydney while the 3 of us travel ahead.

Not only did we have to find our way back home with all the luggage from the airport (a 40 minute journey), I had to scramble and stay up till 3am to find another flight to get us to our respective destinations.

There was a possibility that the airfares would have been too high for us to travel at all. 

The anxiety, angst, distress and pain, all of which could have been avoided by providing us accurate information, especially in the current times where the travel landscape is changing on a daily basis.

I am merely requesting that I am refunded in full at the earliest convenience please.

I am not interested in Etihad travel bank voucher, as I am not willing to travel via Etihad again, based on our last experience.

Please find below my booking reference numbers: 

XVGNBE & JOGRSF

Booking ref XVGNBE has been refunded. However, JOGRSF has not been refunded.

Please note that I had sent this email to [protected]@etihadguest.com on 10th Jan 2022. They responded saying that they do not manage refunds. 

I have also sent an email to [protected]@etihad.ae on 14th Jan 2022, however, I am yet to receive a response.

Your website and your Mobile app is not going thru well. It does not come back with the result.

I am chasing for my FREE EXPO tickets and when i put the PNR number and last name correctly, it is saying not found.

I tried thru mobile app too, your Web designer needs to sort this out.

I would say very poorly designed website this is.

Company like Etihad cannot have such error creating websites.

There is definitely some glitch in the system especially in the backend scripting.

i lost all the impressions using your website.

Returning flight from Abu Dhabi to Glasgow via Schipol. I hadn't checked our two suitcases in online but did so at airport. I was charged 4680.00 dirhams for two normal cases both under 23kg. This is a ridiculous charge and as it took so long for staff to charge me I didn't have time to argue as my husband and I had to run to get through security an to the gate.

I logged a complaint on 4th January and received reply with case no [protected] and that someone would be back to me within 28 days which has now passed and no word.

I bought two tickets -for my girlfriend and I- for a flight and when I see my account I noticed that Etihad charged me twice, in two different days -29th and 30th- and cities -Abu Dabi and Sydney-.

My bank said it is the fault of the airline and they can't do anything. I tried to contact the Airline by their call center, sadly without any answer.

Flight Booking Reference No: ZBZOKV

CRM: [protected]

1. I had booked Etihad Airways ticket : ZBZOKV on Etihad Airways Website using my Credit Card on 24/11/21 (ANNEXURE 1)

2. On 9th Dec 2021 I received an email from Etihad Airways that my flight had been cancelled (ANNEXURE 2)

3. As I had to travel urgently to the USA, I booked a fresh Ticket by American Airlines for the same route (ANNEXURE 3)

4. I sent a request to Etihad Airways requesting a full refund as cancellation of ticket was done by Etihad Airways and not me (ANNEXURE 4)

5. I received an email from Etihad on 15th Dec 2021 that a case had been created

6. I sent another request for refund to Etihad on 26th Dec 2021 requesting refund.

Till Date Etihad Airways has not refunded my money. I have sent numerous feedback requests on Etihad Website requesting the same and till date I have not received a satisfactory reply. This approach from your side amounts to harassment and I have to spend unnecessary time and effort to connect with you.

I request you to please look into the case and arrange for refund of money immediately.

14/01/2022. Unable to board FlightEY431 at Phuket Airport due to my PCR test 72 hour time limit having over - run. Offered no help or advice merely a telephone number:[protected]. Many attempts to contact the number failed and a visit to the Etihad office in the Phuket terminal, which was closed, only provided the above phone number taped to the office window, Further attempts to contact the number were equally futile.
Had no alternative but to book and pay for new flights to the UK on 16 Ja.. Feelings of frustration and stress were generated, to say nothing of the cost of phoning and additional expenses of hotel and PCR testing.
Etihad prides itself on its customer care and service - not on this occasion!
I have flown with Etihad, regularly since 2007 and been a Silver Guest for years. I feel thoroughly disappointed and let down

REFUND
- Refund due to covid flight cancellation available since 28/7/2020. I only discovered on 31/10/2021 I could get refunded, 15 months after being eligible., but your services never advised me, I randoly discovered it.
I only got given the option in May 2020 to get a travel bank account.

- 30.10.2021: refund requested and advised to wait 45 days and that my request was approved,
- 15.12.2021: Called back Etihad to get update for refund from travel bank account and was advised it hadn't been started

Called once a week every week until today and was told that refund wasn't done yet, that I would be called by a supervisor within a day. But still nothing.

In parallel, I booked another flight ticket to France or July this year and it was changed by your services. With thenew change, you were expecting me to wait close to 30hrs between 2 flights whereas originally the same wait was 2 hrs. I had to call you back to change entirely the ticket, with the officer not being considerate and not willing to help, complying at the end after insisting. No one offered a hotel room nor to wait in a lounge... very poor service.

50% of the staff I talked to on customer service line was actually rude and not helpful at all.

I require a respond, my refund and an additional compensation

Etihad ticket(s): [protected]): Aljasser, Maan and Hailah
Etihad Record Locator: CFQOGV
mytickets.ae Record Locator: HJJAHI

Original Departure:
EY316 RUH on 23 March, 2020; EY 101 AE to JFK (economy Z)
Original Return:
EY 100 on 06 April, 2020 JFK to AE; EY 2357 AE to RUH

Flights cancelled due to Pandemic. Further travel restricted indefinitely.
Requested refund through mytickets.ae
Refund Application # 8649234 approved on17 Nov, 2021 and money transferred to mytickets.ae via GBSS on 21 Nov, 2021

27 Nov, 2021 email from mytickets.ae: " we have not received any response from airline"

04 Dec. 2021: Field request (YAEQWB) initiated by Etihad Airways

09/10 Dec. mytickets.ae communication: "the response from airline has not yet been received. A response from airline regarding the return is still pending"

20 Dec, 2021: Etihad (Salman) requests field team again to look into the matter

04 January, 2022 Another request

09 January, 2022, Another request

Etihad Airways Consistently confirms that refund money was transferred to mytickets.ae and my tickets.ae consistently claims that they have had no response from the airline.

Many hours have been expended waiting on hold and corresponding with both the airline and the agency (mytckets.ae) through which the tickets were purchased. Thus far, there has been no resolution or receipt of refund and it's been close to two years!

Booking Reference: QABOYH
Never experienced or heard of such poor service from any of the carriers in my life. Noone would believe a Senior citizen traveling alone in a wheelchair had to go through this kind of worst experience just because of your people at the airport and customer service? Etihad made the journey miserable (Before and during the travel).

Writing this email to let you know the troubles including financial losses, we have been through after ending the trip on January 12, 2022.

1. Customer support agents misguided us throughout the journey. The airline to the final destination did not take the complaint as told by Eithad agents. Even my mom who is aged, taking medicines regularly and tired of 3 days of continuous travel, waited in the airport and begged for the baggage missing report but they did not give. Even when she called Etihad, your people also did not respond or guide properly except asking us to register missing baggage complaints online.

2. Called Etihad customer service and raised a baggage claim on January 12, 2022, again spoke to customer service, received an email response on my claim on January 14, I provided the clarification on the same day. Since then we sent many follow ups, called and spoke to customer service many times, each time they say, escalated and will get the luggage in 2 days. After that no update.

3. Last night, we were awake until 4am EST (US), calling and talking to different departments, and finally got in contact with the Etihad COK airport baggage handling department. Don't know why we need such people who cannot offer any help, keep telling us we can't help, we will not help, not ready to check on the issue even after messing up the complete journey. Sorry to tell you that these kinds of people will ruin everything for you..

Still we don't know where the baggage is and when we will receive it? Lot of stuff in the baggage is very important to my mom and she actually has had some of the items for so many years taking care of it with utmost care and love. The mental pressure and pain caused by your people during her journey had already made her so weak, now waiting for her most valuable items in her life is making her tired and sick day by day. Please help us at the earliest and have the baggage delivered to her at the earliest.

I cannot put all the issues we have gone through in the email because I might need at least 50 pages to complete the story.

Kevin Becker started talking to me on Facebook dating apps in June of 2020 he started off as seeming like a nice kind person but as time went on he was using the fact that he is an Ethiad Airways pilot and guys like him are the best out there. The bribes started that he needed me to pay for his ticket to Fly out and making up stories that he was robbed to pull at my heartstrings. He was using his uniform and his position of power and bribing me while he was supposed to be preparing for a flight. I think this pilot is doing a real injustice to the airline and misrepresenting the airline and the airlines' morals and values. I will attach further documentation of the situation this has happened three times with him trying to bribe me. This would also fall under as fraud. He flies flights from Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt and other parts of Europe. He is in the UAE part of Ethiad. Make and example of him to make sure this does not happen to anyone else.

Hi

This refers to my flight booking reference EXSPHB of Etihad Airways for business class travel on 25th Jan 2022.

I have been calling airlines office every day from the start of 2022 with a request for the cancellation of my ticket, and neither the ticket is getting cancelled, nor is anybody able to give me reason of the problem.

At first, I was told that action will be taken by the concerned department in 24 hours or I can check after 24 hours. Years that 24 hours became 24-48 hours and today it changed to 24-72 hours.

My biggest worry is that the airline should not call it no-show as the flight date is after five days, and the airline should not say "no refund"

Nobody at the customer care is giving any email ID and that is a big issue for me

Can somebody help me please.

many thanks

Anish Goyal

I have booked ticket to my daughter traveling from Singapore to Qatar via Abudhabi. During booking they charged but didn't issue the ticket. I called call center and they said it will be refunded in 48 hrs and call center did the booking again and issued ticket and deducted the money again.

I have been asking for refund since they took 2 times the flight charges since 23rd October 2020. I had made 100's of calls and every time they are asking same documents. They are conforming that they received but after 2 days when I call again they are asking the same documents. It's been more than 3 months now without any refund.

I would like to bring to your notice regarding my travel with Etihad.
I had a very terrible and stressful experience at the etihad counter travelling from Hyderabad to Abu dhabi on 14th January 2022 by EY275.
I had old ticket for me and my wife for 2020 which was cancelled due to covid and I was informed that this can be used later when the situation improves.
I had rebooked via etihad booking call centre online for me and my wife in name DR. Syed Basharathullah Hussaini and Dr. Syeda Humaira Soofia for 14 January 2022 Hyderabad to Abu dhabi EY275 the tickets were confirmed copy of which I am attaching.
When we went to the checkin counter we were informed that system is showing only one ticket in my name Dr Syed Basharathullah Hussaini and there is no other ticket for my wife. Despite having confirmed tickets I was given one boarding pass which I informed them to cancel as I cannot leave my wife alone and go. Both of us are doctors working in Abu dhabi for 27 years and I am holding golden visa. We went through too much stress at airport and had to book tickets with Emirates to reach UAE as we had to join duty inspite of having tickets with etihad.
I want the management to make enquiry where and who was responsible for this mistake. I want etihad to refund all my pending 3 tickets booking reference GMBMNC or refund me money of the extra ticket I bought from emirate. I hope and expect the management of the reputed airline to take this seriously and comply to my request.
Regards
Dr. Syed Basharathullah Hussaini
[protected]

My wife and our one year daughter travelled to pakistan from london on 23th september 2021 and their return ticket was on 10th feb 2022.
I received an email from etihad airways that the flight has been changed and now it will fly on 9th feb 2022 from lahore to london via abu dhabi.
Initially when the ticket was booked the stopover time at abu dhabi airport was only 2 hours.. but now in the new flight the stopover time is 10 hrs at abu dhabi airport.
I have already told etihad customer service that my wife is carrying a baby and it's almost impossible to spend the whole night at abu dhabi airport with a toddler who is hardly one and half year old.
I humbly would like to request if you could please arrange a hotel room or a place where night can be spent easily, it would be highly appreciated.

On 6th and 7th January, Etihad took 2 separate 'false charges' from my bank account, almost totaling 4000aed. Over the past week we have used our own money to constantly ring etihad, who admitted it was a false charge and a soft charge. They then said we would be refunded within 48-72 hours, which never happened. Endlessly told we would have a call back, not one of those has been followed up, there is no way to formally complain. This is unacceptable leaving a family without money for over a week and it looks like no hope of getting our money back any time soon.

Azad AMARSHI (Mr) and Indira AMARSHI (Mrs) - Our flights EY 289 connecting to EY 25 were cancelled on 16/5/2020 due to covid
Etihad promised us to rebook us on the same sector with a compensation of 400$ and 5000 airmiles
Since April 2021 we are trying to reschedule our flights. Etihad call center do not pick the phone up or if they do, they pretend not to find our booking and asks us to call back later
This saga was going on for the last 4 months. We emailed the airline several time and wrote to them in frustation

Dear
I am frequent flyer from Pakistan Saudi Arab /Dubai

it was first and last experience to travel from Etihad airline I was booked ticket [protected] Karachi to Abu Dhabi every thing was fine butt airport staff told us that you are offload with out any reason we contact with Etihad air supervisor but this refused to give us any reason to refuse to travel almost 40 person are the victims on that dat you can check your record all people are requesting to plz give us reason to refuse to travel

front off me he issued almost 40 boarding pass to some people are not on counter and take all these boarding pass to inside its same that they volunteer refuse us and sell these boarding others passenger
I just record my incident that the representor of Etihad airline is a creating problem for passenger

these are the people that make trouble for passengers its also devalue Etihad air line

MR Jarry
Mr Khali Ameen
MR XYZ

Hello Eithad,

Iam sricharan chilukuri travelled from Hyderabad to Washington D.C on Jan 7th, 2022. As soon as I arrived Washington D.C(IAD AIRPORT), I had a delay when collecting my luggage. I had a flight at 6.04 pm to Charlotte from Washington D.C. As it was getting late, I didn't collect my luggage at Washington D.C. I want the luggage to be delivered to my residential address. Please kindly help me getting my luggage. I will attach all my credentials like address, flight ticket to this mail.

Thanking you