[Oscarlime11]

Dear Etihad Rep

I write to complain about one of your staff member today. This incident happened on Jan 19 at 1301, at London Heathrow Terminal 4, Zone C. My flight number was EY20 from London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi then transit to Kuala Lumpur. The departure time was 1350 but expected delay due to weather condition.

I have always regarded Etihad an excellent airline company. I have every faith that you will do what you can to rectify this situation. However, after today's incident which involved my un-refundable tickets and extremely poor customer service, it has spurred me to file a formal complaint and request a ticket refund.

Background
We were supposed to get on a flight EY20 at 1350 at terminal 4, heathrow airport to Abu Dhabi then Kuala Lumpur. But now, I am waiting at terminal 3 to get on Emirate airline to Dubai then Kuala Lumpur. This has ended up a very expensive holiday but one thing we learn today is never ever fly with Etihad airline. I will strongly advise my family, friend, colleague, clients including very very high profile clients of mine to not fly with Etihad ever again.

Due to the weather condition, train interuption and delay, we were running late. No piccadilly line between piccadilly station and heathrow. Instead we were asked to take central line to ealing broadway then change to district line then piccaddilly line to terminal 4. Our flight was 1350 today. The gate closed at 12.50. We made it to zone c at 1302. There was a women still at the check-in counter so we quickly asked her to help us. She was very rude and said "the plane is closed". She then pointed us to the ticket office. I then asked " do you mean the flight is cancelled?". She said " no, you guys are late by 7 mins and the gate is now closed. Go to the ticket counter". She has the worst attitude ever. I thought ok, may be the ticket office people can help me so I went there. Had she been courtesy towards us at the beginning we wouldnt have had to file this complaint.

She clearly did not value or treat us as customer. She made us very furious. She was never intended to help the minute she asked us to go to the ticket office. We ARE your customer. You should at least inform us our options, instead she was tremendously rude and unhelpful.

The ticket office women helped me to check the flight booking and found out i can get on tomorrow's flight but extra fees will be charged. She later found out our tickets were booked through a travel agency so they couldnt do anything about it now. I was asked to contact my travel agent and i did. They checked their online system and knew the ticket office women went on to book the next day flight for us but it has now been cancelled. My travel agent said they can go ahead and help me to rebook the ticket. I told the ticket office women but she said she can't because its their property so she can't do anything.Fine. My travel agent had no choice but to ask them to off load me before they can do anything. The ticket office women questioned why I didn't tell her that we have checked in online already. This was raised at 1335.

As an experienced airline staff member, is it not the first thing you will be able to ask us or find out when you checked on your system? The checked-in women could have checked in our luggage and let us go on board. Great?! Unfortunately my travel agent could not re-schedule the flight only the airline can do it but they refused to do so. We ended up buying new tickets. Of course not with Etihad but with Emirate.

I have 3 questions:

Firstly- I know that we are late today by 7 mins, you, as an airline company, cannot do anything to assist your customer. I understand that we still have to go through security check but since we have checked in online already, can't you just quickly check in our luggage and proceed to the gate. Please note the gate is still open. Ive checked your live departure status and it stated that our flight will be departured at 1400. So technically we have 40 mins to go to the gate after loading off our luggage.

Secondly, why we were treated badly today- her attitude was rude, grumpy and unprofessional. its okay that you're not feeling sympathetic that your customer running late and miss their flight due to the weather condition, but at least you should uphold your so-called best customer service to help and retain us as your customer.

Thirdly, as a matter of fact, why can't the ticket office reschedule my flight especially, they did find and book me the next day flight but cancel it after found out my ticket was booked through a travel agency. I feel really disappointed as there's a family of four also missed the same flight but they were able to re-schedule only with extra admin fees of £60 per person.I am a frequent flier and this is the worst flight experience to date.

Look forward to receiving your reply and you'll be honoured my request.