[lebaroude]

On May 19th 2012, I booked, through a Moroccan travel agent, two return business class tickets (for my wife and myself, both of us Moroccan citizens) for a Casablanca -AbuDhabi flight (6TZKOA).

The departure was scheduled for June6th 2012. The total cost of these two tickets was 33.814 Moroccan Dirhams (approx 3.886 USD).

Surprisingly, the UAE authorities refused to deliver a visa for my wife. It was all the more surprising that my Wife and I have never been refused a visa by any country before (USA, UK, France, etc..).

The purpose of this trip was totally leisure and personal (in fact, we were celebrating our 5th marriage anniversary). As one can easily understand, I have no interest in making this trip without my wife.

After the incident with the visa, I asked my travel agent for a refund of the tickets. I was surprised then to learn that the tickets were non-refundable. I was surprised because I assumed all business class tickets were refundable.

My travel agent didn't inform me that the tickets were non-refundalbe and that was not clearly stated on the tickets (Afterward, I noticed an unclear "Non-Ref" mention on the ticket). I find it very dishonest not the disclose clearly this kind of important information.

Despite multiple tries, the only answer I got from the travel agent was : "it's the airline company policy, I can do nothing for you".

Given that this a "force majeure situation" (provoked by an incomprehensible decision from the UAE authorities), I think that the refund of the tickets should in no way be a problem. At least, I would expect to be able to exchange these tickets for avail credit that I can use for later business trips I would do by myself to Abu-dhabi.

I was really surprised by the lack of flexibility, professionalism and understanding of Itihad. Their atttiude is all the more surprising that I am leading a big company operating in tea business and owning a subsidiary company in Dubaï. Our technicians and executives make tens and tens of flights to the UAE and Asia every year. We were using Emirates and Qatar airways for these flights and I decided to give Etihad a try for my personal vacations. The experience was pretty chilling. They won't get our business that soon if they don't settle this issue.

I used the "web feedback service" of Etihad last week to explain my situation but I didn't receive any answer (a new sign of lack of professionalism?)

At the end of the day, My wife and I vacations are ruined and I find myself with almost 4.000 USD of useless plane tickets.

I hope that someone from the staff of Etihad will read this complaint and give it a proper follow-up.

Best regards,

Mohamed