etihad - worst airline experience ever.

[km580118]

Etihad airlines system was the worst possible.

We have booked tickets from March 10-April 2nd to travel from Slat Lake City, UT to Hyderabad, India. Etihad's customer representative has contacted us informing the connection flight from Chicago(port of entry) to SLC was not available on April 2nd & hence requested us to travel back to USA on April 1st instead of 2nd. We agreed to that & they have sent us the confirmed itenary regarding the same.
When we reached the airport on 1st of April, we were given boarding passes till our final destination i.e. Salt lake City, USA. However, right before boarding the flight, they stopped us & offloaded our luggage. They said that our tickets are not re-issued for the 1st of April. when we contacted our travel agent, he said that the re-issue was to be done by Etihad airlines customer service agent as the change was initiated by Etihad airlines but the etihad airlines representative did not re-issue the ticket.

After the change was done, We even spoke to airlines representative to confirm that the ticket has been changed to April 1st and same was sent in an email to us by them.

Now we are following with airlines representatives for last two days and there is no update yet and every time we call them they say that they are still working on it. When we asked them for the reimbursement of expenses for
these two days, they said it is not possible and in addition they want us to pay for the fare change for new booking.

How should we proceed legally against the airline for screwing up our trip?

Thanks
Sri

[jimworcs]

You should file a complaint with the DOT. There is alink on this website. Etihad has a reperesentative who monitors this board and is very helpful. However, there have been some very disturbing examples of poor service recently. Yours, in which you are stranded entirely because of the incompetence of Etihad staff, and they are now seeking to exploit you and charge extra fees to get you out of the situation is particularly outrageous. There was another case recently in which a passengers credit card was changed, and Etihad sought to keep all the money the passenger had paid and charge them again for the same ticket. In both cases, it sounds like the airline has no moral compass. It may be better in future to switch to another carrier, perhaps Emirates, for such journeys, as it sounds like Etihad has lost its way.

[Etihad Representative]

Hello There,

I am sorry that your journey has not gone smoothly.

If you would like to DM me your Name/Booking Reference/Contact Number? I shall look into this for you.

Kind Regards

Cazzi

[km580118]

Etihad Representative,

I have sent a DM to you with information that you needed.
Please let us know if you need more information.

jimworcs,
Thanks for the info. will log a compliant once I am back in US.

Thanks,
Sri

[km580118]

Hello Etihad Representative,

We have been protected with a flight on Apr 4th and I am currently in US. However, I did not get any compensation for any hotel, cabs and loss of pay for the 3 days of work for us. Please let me know if you will be of any help. I have already sent you all the details through DM but did not get any reply from you.
Please let me know if you need more information.

Thanks
Sri