[Resolved] Etihad Airways — poor service during flight diversion

M M.FAIAZ

Through this letter, We would like to bring to light the suffering of passengers during their 26-hour journey from Chennai to Abu Dhabi in the EY-276 flight on 31/12/2008.
The flight which was scheduled to take off at 15.20 took off at 19.15 hrs. Before reaching Abu Dhabi Airport it was diverted to Al Ain at 22.00 due to bad weather and finally it reached Abu Dhabi only at 10.30 next day. During this time no proper food or accommodation was provided to the passengers. There was total confusion in the airport as the authorities did not know where the flight had been diverted and what time it would reach the scheduled destination. When I approached Mr. Ridhwan, the duty manager-in-charge to know the whereabouts and the condition of my in-laws who were travelling in this flight, he could not answer as he was not informed.
I request you to investigate into the matter and take appropriate action as early as possible. Given below are the details of my in-laws who travelled in the EY-276:
Booking Ref. 5EGH2A Mohammed Hussain N Mr, Hameedunnisa M Mrs.

RESOLVED

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.

Etihad Airways's response · Jun 09, 2016

Dear foo123

Thanks for taking the time to come to our page today. We're sorry to hear of this experience. Please confirm when you arrived and the bags were missing were you given a report with a PIR reference number. (For Etihad this would look similar to AUHEY12345)

We understand this must be very frustrating, the last carrier flown with will need to begin the tracing process.
We hope this gets resolved quickly, we're just sorry we cant help any further at this time. *Gill

Read 13 comments

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Le
leonhd May 02, 2009

I agree 'coz I've experienced it last 24 april 09 during my travel from Manila to abu dhabi EY421 they just served 2 small bread with tuna & bfast oatmeal. In abu dhabi going to jed I waited more than 8 hrs 'coz of flight delay etihad never serve anything. I will never repeat flying etihad my friends and colleagues too. We are group of companies my bad experience already circulated thru email and they reply to me...THEY WOULD NEVER & EVER FLY WITH ETIHAD.


0 Votes

Ar
Ardas Jul 27, 2009

I like the meals.


2 Votes

Li
lilli1976 Aug 01, 2009

me too, love their meals!!!


0 Votes

Ju
julesjerry Apr 05, 2010

I agree with you. i travelled with my two years old and with my husband. we three didnt get good service. I felt like i flyed in a buffalo cart because of my body pain after flying Worst flight service and i my baggage is damagedfor which i didnt get any claim.if u know what to do let me know.


0 Votes

Sa
Sachin tend Oct 08, 2010

i have booked a return ticket when i last travelled from london to india...return ticket is in nov...when i was booking ticket the agent did promise me to change the date if i dont travel back in Nov...so i took the ticket coz he promised me to give flexible outbound date...but now when i called in to change with customer services he goes no cancellations, no date change nor a refund be given...i m stuck now...neither i can travel on flexible dates when i got leave approved from my work nor i have a flight which eithad can change the date on it...its such a shame on eithad...i really got impressed when i first came to this airline...i was regular customer for emirates but changed coz they did mess my dates on flight the same way...Never would travel on eithad n would suggest any of my friends around...u r losing hell lot of customers...


0 Votes

Et
Etihad Disaster Jun 24, 2011

Etihad does not have a customer services department. They do not care at all about the welfare of their customers.

If something goes wrong you will never get any help from them.

So if you value your time and life - Dont fly with etihad.

The staff are ignorant and arrogant.

CEO of etihad James Hogan should be sacked. ABC News likened him to " A Boy in a Lolly shop"

Spending all the sheikhs money but not building a proper business with it.

They have now resorted to cost cutting and offering cheaper fares - They are going down - Avoid them at all costs.


0 Votes

Ke
keloth pradeep May 13, 2012

despite numerous emails the duty free section are not responding about a query regarding an item i bought on board duty free shop.
i urge everyone not to buy any item since you wont get any assistance(including warranty) if something goes wrong.


0 Votes

La
Laowai Sep 21, 2012

Similar experience here: no proper compensation for delayed Not up to the standard they claim

We just took etihad for our last trip from Geneva to Seoul and had a very poor experience. The plane was brend new and the service standard but far from the exceptional they promote. What was howver very bad is the lack of communication and help when our plane back was delayed. We ended up missing our connection in Abu Dhabi ( the last airport in the world where you want to spend time unless you fancy 5 hours in a McDonald type environment). Any other decent airline will offer access to the lounge or hotel if you are delayed by more than 6 hours in your journey.
Definitely the last time we traveled with them


0 Votes

Pa
Passanger_1 May 19, 2013

A unevitable experience which can happen to anyone when you are traveling with Etihad Airways. Bad part is it is at no mistake of passanger. This airlies promisses about good service but when situation comes, ground staff is horrible. Seems they are having disconnect between projecting their image and people executing them at the airpot/fligth.

Below is the situation:
1) I was traveling from Mumbai to New York via Abu Dhabi. My Mumbai to Abu Dhabi flight could not land at Abu dhabi on Mar 16th due to Fog. Totally understable that for safety reasons they landed flight in Muskat but the problem starts here. Flight attendants did not inform us before landing in Muskat what we will be doing in Muskat and how long we will be waiting there. Most of the passangers (including me) had connecting flight which we feared missing. We waited for 1.5 hour in plane then we were deboarded in Muskat. When we got down we were not kept informed what will heppen with our connecting flights. Lunch provided with 50 minutes wait in line. We were flown back to Abu dhabi after 3 hours. When i landed at Abu Dhabi with all the anxity i realized that I missed my New York flight.
2) I was told that I would be helped at airport with all the question/arrangements for next fligth. But what i saw is ground staff is working at very slow pace and handeling each customer care in 15 to 20 minutes. All the passangers were shouting and frusterated as staff was very unorganized and very casual with the sutuation.I had to waited in line for 5 long hours to get boarding pass for my flgith after 18 hours (not to forget it was after noon and I was awake all night).
3) I did not complain much but requested for hotel accomodation to crash and just sleep. No hotel accommodation provided as Abu Dhabi has only 30 to 50 rooms and all were booked. No phone card was provided .
4) I slept on sofa in Launge and some how spent 18 hours. I reached on time but next day again again same story flight got delayed by 3 hours. I feared that my luggage wolld have not been transferred to the flight to New York. I talked to Etihad employees and I was told that my luggage is moved to the plane i was boarding.
5) I reached JFK on Mar 16th just to realize that my luggage was never moved to my New York flight. I was so angry that Etihad Airways gave me false information.
6) I got my luggage after 44 hours from when i landed. On customer service recommendation I sent email to [email protected] to get my luggage. I claimed for compensation for not getting my luggage on time but I got a reply from customer service that I will not get compensated because New York was my country of residence and they don’t pay copensation. Seems they make their own set of rules and apply them for their own benefit.

Booking code is - LTNKOE
E-ticket number is ETKT 607 2108953178


0 Votes

Fe
Fernando Pascua Nov 20, 2014

Date: 20th November 2014

Subject: Missing baggage

To: Etihad Airways

Sir, Madam,

Please search the baggage, On the Name of Pascua/LeaMs with connecting flight number
AUH EY 421, JED EY 311 Last November 17, 2014, with stamp number EY544583.

Please if you found it just forward to King Abdul-Aziz International Airport baggage services as soon as possible, there is very important document inside of bag.

Thank you and more power.

Fernando Pascua Lea Pascua
Husband of Lea Pascua Owner of baggage


0 Votes

An
Anju Thampy May 08, 2015

Etihad for surely has a pathetic customer care service. Because of this I did not even get to travel with Etihad.. their customer care people are worse than recorded messages. They just have little information based on which they misguide the travellers. they are not even ready to check and confirm. I had a flight with a stop over at abu dhabi for 13 hrs. When I called them to check if they can provide me any facilites for long stop over, they told me tthat i need a transit visa to even stay inside the airport. Now which airport will ask for the transit visa if you are staying in the airport. But yes as per Mr Mohammed and Some other guy etihad needs a transit visa for us to stay in the airport during stop over guys. And they do not even help us for that. They asked me to go to UAE embassy in the last minute to get my transit visa.
seriously i am not a constant traveller but i myself felt that this is most foolish thing i even heard of. i finally had to cancel my flight and book with another airways. would never again go back with etihad.


0 Votes

Fo
foo123 Jun 05, 2016

Reference : Missing/Lost Baggage

My family and I travelled On Eithad airways as follows:
> Routing : SFO - AUH - PNQ

Upon reaching PNQ (Pune, India), ****ALL**** the 4 bags were MISSING.

I followed up with PNQ local Jet Airways staff (PNQ handling agent for Etihad Airways).
- No information was provided on possible location of the above bags.

We have also called up Etihad Mumbai "Mishandled Baggage" call center (+91-22-61030140) and Abu Dhabi call center (+9712-5990000).
- No information was provided if the 4 checked-in bags left SFO for AUH and from AUH to PNQ.
- Customer service person estimated a time of 12-24 hrs to determine location of baggage.
- Further verificaition and final delivery of the 4 bags will possible take even longer

In the meantime, we are forced to purchase clothes and other essentials due to the missing bags. Furthermore, we have travel plans ahead from Pune and are in Pune city (PNQ) only till June 9th, 2016.

It just goes to show the following:
1. Failure of Etihad airlines to transport the bags (read all bags) despite a check-in at SFO 3 hours prior to flight departure and a 8.5 hour transit time in Abu Dhabi (AUH).
2. Inability to trace the bar-code of the baggage tags in a swift manner despite all data provided in the PIR report.
3. Inconveniences and hassles -emotional, physical and monetary caused due to the failure of Etihad airlines to deliver all check-in bags on time.


0 Votes

Sa
Sabahat Enam Sep 06, 2017

First time we had etihad airlines very bad experience with food and service.We never expected like that.18 hours journey.New York to Saudi.We were starved.


0 Votes

[Resolved] Etihad Airways — poor service during flight diversion

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