Horrendous Flight With Etihad

[Shrek]

Need to share this in case anyone is weighing up their options on flights to BKK.

My self and my wife and 2 small kids came back on EY401 from BKK to Manchester via Abu Dhabi on 15/11/07.

The flight out of BKK was 3 hours late so everyone missed their connection in Abu Dhabi....so check in took me 4 hours and I was 7th in the queue. This was followed by a 8 hour wait in the lounge at AD (were promised a hotel in AD bu BKK staff but when we got to AD they refused one).

We eventually got rerouted to Heathrow and then to Manchester 13 hours late.

Etihad staff were non existent at each airport on the way. Their paperwork was not done so staff at the next airport knew nothing of the problem, causing more delays.

Baggage was lost for 24 hours and then cases damaged.

Bottom line is you can get to AD but you cant get any further...there were only 6 departures scheduled all night, 3 of them cancelled, and none were to western europe.

I have to say also that I find the upper class / businessman person type in UAE the most arrogant and ignorant in the world. 2 years ago they asked my thai wife to leave a restaurant at AD airport as she was female and this time they excelled, from insisting on smoking cigars the size of cucumbers whilst my kids were eating breakfast to ignoring all queues and walking straight to the front. Annoyingly the airport staff and etihad staff just let them.

Do youselves a favour go from either london, franfurt, amsterdam etc to bangkok where regardless of flight delays you can easilly get home; and where the locals at least have a granule of liking and respect for non-arabic visitors.

[Cobalt60]

Oh thats great, I just booked with them and paid to come out in a couple of weeks time.

Thai wanted over 800 GBP for cattle class and I thought for the first time ever, I will tell em to shove it and try something else. 'sigh'

[game4shame]

I'm flying etihad for the first time next month - I've only heard good things about them up to now.

possibly just a bad day?

[Shrek]

Oh thats great, I just booked with them and paid to come out in a couple of weeks time.

Thai wanted over 800 GBP for cattle class and I thought for the first time ever, I will tell em to shove it and try something else. 'sigh'

Skytrax site makes interesting reading they either get it together and are very good or awful

In flight they were quite good, planes new-ish very comfy, little tellies and games in every seat, but the infrastructure supporting them...the airport at AD, ground staff, is non-existent so if you do have a delay you will encounter real problems...AD has so few flights to europe you will be stuck there for ages. As for my gripe with arabic people thats hardly etihads fault...they just dont want us in their country full stop. They dont need our money and we are considered the lowest of the low (possibly with the exception of those speaking hebrew !)

[intumult]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Etihad.

In 6 full round trips with Etihad I had 1 delay of 3 hours in BKK but they made sure they held the plane to Manchester at Abu Dhabi so we got our connection.

No fun to lose you baggage either. That can be infuriating on top of everything else.

Maybe a bad day? Don't all airlines have those?

Thing is, if we want to travel long distances we sometimes have to put up with these mishaps. Doesn't make us feel any better though especially when the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and being shoved from pillar to post while being told umpteen different things that never agree with what we were told in the first place.

[percy2]

Need to share this in case anyone is weighing up their options on flights to BKK.

My self and my wife and 2 small kids came back on EY401 from BKK to Manchester via Abu Dhabi on 15/11/07.

The flight out of BKK was 3 hours late so everyone missed their connection in Abu Dhabi....so check in took me 4 hours and I was 7th in the queue. This was followed by a 8 hour wait in the lounge at AD (were promised a hotel in AD bu BKK staff but when we got to AD they refused one).

We eventually got rerouted to Heathrow and then to Manchester 13 hours late.

Etihad staff were non existent at each airport on the way. Their paperwork was not done so staff at the next airport knew nothing of the problem, causing more delays.

Baggage was lost for 24 hours and then cases damaged.

Bottom line is you can get to AD but you cant get any further...there were only 6 departures scheduled all night, 3 of them cancelled, and none were to western europe.

I have to say also that I find the upper class / businessman person type in UAE the most arrogant and ignorant in the world. 2 years ago they asked my thai wife to leave a restaurant at AD airport as she was female and this time they excelled, from insisting on smoking cigars the size of cucumbers whilst my kids were eating breakfast to ignoring all queues and walking straight to the front. Annoyingly the airport staff and etihad staff just let them.

Do youselves a favour go from either london, franfurt, amsterdam etc to bangkok where regardless of flight delays you can easilly get home; and where the locals at least have a granule of liking and respect for non-arabic visitors.

Its a shame about your experience as its almost exactly 1 year ago that I was saying my flight on Etihad was the best ever.

Cheers

[Shrek]

I suppose if I was already booked I would offer the following advice....if you are in bangkok and the flight back to AD is delayed and they start talking reflighting, hotels in AD etc DONT.....a few lucky ones with us at the front of the queue insisted on being switched to Thai international and got it but there were only a handful of empty seats...some others insisted on a hotel in BKK and going the following day as opposed to being stuck in AD. Good idea to get right to the front of the check in at BKK if you are going to switch airlines its first come first served. We have had bother with airlines using the UAE twice...last time we were at the front of the queue and got an entire new flight with Emirates straight thru. In flight really not bad at all its how they handle issues such as delays and missed connections that lets them down badly

[Shrek]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Etihad.

In 6 full round trips with Etihad I had 1 delay of 3 hours in BKK but they made sure they held the plane to Manchester at Abu Dhabi so we got our connection.

No fun to lose you baggage either. That can be infuriating on top of everything else.

Maybe a bad day? Don't all airlines have those?

Thing is, if we want to travel long distances we sometimes have to put up with these mishaps. Doesn't make us feel any better though especially when the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and being shoved from pillar to post while being told umpteen different things that never agree with what we were told in the first place.

True enough but as Etihad cut their fares complaints due to 'matters not in flight' ie baggage, delays, information, support, transfers' seem to be growing.

You can cut the chances of avoiding these issues by simply avoiding the middle east and just going straight from BKK to england or western europe, where you can easilly get to manchester. leeds or even sheffield.

[Shrek]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Etihad.

In 6 full round trips with Etihad I had 1 delay of 3 hours in BKK but they made sure they held the plane to Manchester at Abu Dhabi so we got our connection.

No fun to lose you baggage either. That can be infuriating on top of everything else.

Maybe a bad day? Don't all airlines have those?

Thing is, if we want to travel long distances we sometimes have to put up with these mishaps. Doesn't make us feel any better though especially when the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and being shoved from pillar to post while being told umpteen different things that never agree with what we were told in the first place.

True enough but as Etihad cut their fares complaints due to 'matters not in flight' ie baggage, delays, information, support, transfers' seem to be growing.

You can cut the chances of avoiding these issues by simply avoiding the middle east and just going straight from BKK to england or western europe, where you can easilly get to manchester. leeds or even sheffield.

They wouldnt hold our flight from AD to manchester. Irony is we only missed it by 15 minutes ! Caused a knock-on 13 hour delay

[Shrubbery]

At least you were not on this aircraft.

A recent incident at Tolouse on a brand new aircraft due to be delivered 21st Nov.

[tutsiwarrior]

I flew Ettihad Jeddah - BKK return in September: surly cabin staff, 3 hr delay in BKK with unhelpful bovine ground staff, luggage ended up at the Jeddah haj terminal that took them 3 hours to retrieve...

never again...

[Shrek]

I flew Ettihad Jeddah - BKK return in September: surly cabin staff, 3 hr delay in BKK with unhelpful bovine ground staff, luggage ended up at the Jeddah haj terminal that took them 3 hours to retrieve...

never again...

yep...can associate with that except we get it at all 3 airports !

Best trip ever was manchester - amsterdam then china airways to bkk direct. Faultless. Thats how we will go from now on.

[flightcrew1]

As flight crew I hear it all. I work for one of the major air carriers who flies all over the world. One day we are great...the next we are terrible. As one member said. Could have been a bad day and of course then the s**t hit the fan. I have friends flying (working) for Etihad and they tell me that the aircraft are new with all the amenities to pass away a boring flight in economy class but the service is basic. They also tell me when things are working well then the transfers in Abu Dhabi are great with less than 2 hours. But if there is a delay, well then all falls apart with no help from the ground staff.

BKK ground staff are contract staff with few "real" employees so they have no real power to help. Always insist on a reroute on another carrier to your destination if the flight is delayed and you are connecting. Flights are rarely held for another flight contrary to what the ground/flight crew tell you. Passengers ask me all the time when we are running late if I think they will hold the flight and I generally say "Oh yes, I'm sure they will". Sure it happens, but rarely. Depends on how many passengers connecting to the other flight.

Remember if your flight is late and they hold the other flight, that makes that flight late and perhaps other people are connecting down the line so they miss their connections. The plane then coming back becomes delayed as generally the plane is only on the ground long enough (2/3hours) for cleaning/refueling/maintenance. So you can see what happens.

It's really bad that since you were travelling with 2 small children they did not go out of their way to help.

[Goshawk]

Always found Etihad to be an excellent choice myself. Used many times, no problems ever..

[kennkate]

Sorry to here you had a bad experiance with ETIHAD I have used them twice this year out of Manchester to Bangkok After my first visit I returned to Man on the 1st May The flight due to depart Bkk at 20.55 Took off at 23.55 3 hrs late

We were told that the connecting flight to Man would wait at Abu Dhabi for ours to arrive

Transfer was 1Hr during this time all baggage was transferd onto another aircraft I can only say you had a bad experiance I can say that I had a good one used them again in May to come to Bkk no probs and again back to the Uk in sept I have to say the cabin staff are as good as you get Never had a reason to complain as the Flight attendant said on the ground its Airport Staff Dont Knock ETIHAD for ONE bad experiance try as you might (You cant win them all)

[CbrLad]

I always find that my problems with airlines are not that things happen but how they go about handling the problem. That is where they fall down big time. I got caught up in the Air France striked a few weeks back. I got messed around something cronic by the barbaric manner in which the crew striked. The ground crew were almost useless and messed me and others around for hours. All I wanted to do was get my bag out of the system and jump on the next Eurostar to London, but no I had to put up with their crap.

What you say about the travelling through the middle east is true though. In that part of the world it seems to be all about "me". There is no one else that matters. Pushing in, showing disrespect the whole lot. I am surprised none of them wanted to buy your wife!!! To some extent Asian's can be a bit 'rude' by queue pushing, but they do it in a nice way, if you know what I mean. With them if you push back they are ok, but try doing that to someone who thinks they are important in the middle east and you are likley to get shot!!

[Cobalt60]

Looks like a bit of bad luck/wrong day thing at the moment then. £202 difference in ticket price could soon seem like small change if you get a tough luck experience though.

I will sit back and hope and praise or abuse them later

[onzestan]

Was in Abu Dhabi on Etihad flights on November 18th.

Fact is that the Gulf had bad weather (heavy fog) for a couple of days which played havoc with

schedules.

Must admit was not impressed with the way the ground staff handled the situation, and it was near to

impossible to get to the information desk without having to fight through an angry crowd, which didn't

help the situation.

The ground staff was completely overwhelmed.

Have flown Etihad now 8 times and have to admit that except this last one all flights have been near perfect.

Cheers

onzestan

[thaigene2]

This is why some airlines get consistently good reports and others don't. I paid to upgrade to First from Business on a trans-pacific flight with Korean Air - was assured I would get flat bed (which is why I paid the upgrade), but nope - only a slightly bigger seat. Complained - got nowhere and even when I sent an official letter asking for the upgrade to be refunded (since their own staff gave me wrong info in first place), they DIDN'T EVEN RESPOND. Wrote twice - nothing.

Oh - and did I mention the flight attendant dumped a couple of cups of water in my lap 1 hour into a 13 hour flight? And then SHE DID IT AGAIN to the Korean couple in front of me? Got both of them that time..

Will I fly Korean Air again? What do you think..

I will only ever fly the highly ranked airlines like Thai, Singapore, Cathay, BA, AC, Emirates, etc..

Edited November 22, 2007 by thaigene2

[zorro1]

You are flying in a highly compressed aluminum tube at 39000ft at -65c temp and at the mercy of the elements with 300 people and a ton of luggage. snugly watching a latest release while gulping on your beverage of choice. Of course occasionally there will be delays it ain't brain surgery so get over it and be happy you don't have to paddle your canoe

[Shrek]

You are flying in a highly compressed aluminum tube at 39000ft at -65c temp and at the mercy of the elements with 300 people and a ton of luggage. snugly watching a latest release while gulping on your beverage of choice. Of course occasionally there will be delays it ain't brain surgery so get over it and be happy you don't have to paddle your canoe

Sangsong ?

Try more soda.

[Shrek]

You are flying in a highly compressed aluminum tube at 39000ft at -65c temp and at the mercy of the elements with 300 people and a ton of luggage. snugly watching a latest release while gulping on your beverage of choice. Of course occasionally there will be delays it ain't brain surgery so get over it and be happy you don't have to paddle your canoe

Sangsong ?

Try more soda.

Interesting perspective now let me add mine

For £2000 I expect to be transported from A to B as promised and be afforded a modicum of good service and pleasantness.

19 intelligent replies to 1 moron...about the usual ratio I suppose

[Lucifer]

In general, Etihad is set up well, as long as things go right. However, when things go wrong, they, like other middle eastern airlines, they haven't a clue as to how to handle people.Or the situation. They're not 'people' trained. They need to look towards the Americans for that.

In my opinion, you can't get better than Americans when it comes to service.

[zorro1]

You are flying in a highly compressed aluminum tube at 39000ft at -65c temp and at the mercy of the elements with 300 people and a ton of luggage. snugly watching a latest release while gulping on your beverage of choice. Of course occasionally there will be delays it ain't brain surgery so get over it and be happy you don't have to paddle your canoe

Sangsong ?

Try more soda.

You are flying in a highly compressed aluminum tube at 39000ft at -65c temp and at the mercy of the elements with 300 people and a ton of luggage. snugly watching a latest release while gulping on your beverage of choice. Of course occasionally there will be delays it ain't brain surgery so get over it and be happy you don't have to paddle your canoe

Sangsong ?

Try more soda.

Interesting perspective now let me add mine

For £2000 I expect to be transported from A to B as promised and be afforded a modicum of good service and pleasantness.

19 intelligent replies to 1 moron...about the usual ratio I suppose

You already added your perspective "sansong? try more soda" your a bit slow if you got to come back twice to reply. Sounds to me like that was your first flight on an aeroplane so would like to see you back here with some miles under your belt. All airlines will give you a bad trip and spare a moment for those who have spent a fortune on 1 st class and had the same delay. Personal insults anywhere anytime are not acceptable by the way and and i know for sure that your 2 spineless to call some one a "moron" face to face so good for you its easy to hide behind a PC . good luck with your next flight

[Lickey]

So Shrek, a 3 hour delay leaving BKK, did you bother to ask why this was? perhaps a problem with the plane, did you want to fly on a faulty plane with your family?or would you rather wait and have the plane right, i know what i would want!! whatever the delay.Although AD is Eithads home, they dont own the airport, they are the worlds newest airline company and to my mind have got it right very quick, the in-flight service is brilliant and the planes are all very new, and so the arabs go to the front of the queque, so what? youve got a ticket and boarding pass so go to the front as well, I would say your main gripe is you got delayed, not so much with Eithad,

[torrenova]

I flew them from BKK to LHR and return 3 days later in March this year and it was my first 6+6 flight and only due to the massively cheaper cost (bt29k versus Thai at Bt46k). They were great, from food, to equipment to service and turnaround was instantaneous. However, it was obvious that their hub is small and their equipment perhaps fully utilised.

As for the people, they were fine but lets not forget that 100 years ago they were running around the desert chopping people's heads off because they like it and once the oil is gone, they'll be heading back that way. Without oil and I wish we didn't need it, no-one would care about them and no-one would ever have a need to go there.

[zorro1]

You are flying in a highly compressed aluminum tube at 39000ft at -65c temp and at the mercy of the elements with 300 people and a ton of luggage. snugly watching a latest release while gulping on your beverage of choice. Of course occasionally there will be delays it ain't brain surgery so get over it and be happy you don't have to paddle your canoe

Sangsong ?

Try more soda.

Interesting perspective now let me add mine

For £2000 I expect to be transported from A to B as promised and be afforded a modicum of good service and pleasantness.

19 intelligent replies to 1 moron...about the usual ratio I suppose

By the way shreck I also have a commercial pilots licence but I guess any "moron" can get one of those. There are many many reasons why you were delayed, to many possibilities to list here but feel free to pm me if your intersted. A good/sad example is the one to go crash ( he was warned about wind shear). The pilot was more concerned about his schedule than he was for the safety of his pax. A divertion back to Bkk would have caused a 2-3 hour delay for all flights already booked on that aircraft for the rest of the day. 3 hours for a life is surely a small price so be happy shreck you arrived frustrated but you did arrive

[midas]

I can never understand what makes people choose these Middle Eastern airlines

- I absolutely equally detest Emirates and I have flown most of the world's airlines.

I just don't think is any comparison to the premier Asian airlines such as

Singapore air or Cathay Pacific. Even if you have to pay slightly more on these

carriers at least you know what to expect - and many of these Middle Eastern carriers

are staffed by Westerners anyway who just don't try as hard to please

[PattayaParent]

As for the people, they were fine but lets not forget that 100 years ago they were running around the desert chopping people's heads off because they like it and once the oil is gone, they'll be heading back that way.

They still are chopping people's heads of, that's never changed.

[onzestan]

Even if you have to pay slightly more on these

carriers at least you know what to expect - and many of these Middle Eastern carriers

are staffed by Westerners anyway who just don't try as hard to please

Maybe because of the price difference, which is not slightly but sometimes double.

If I can fly to Frankfurt in business class, with flatbed service for under 70.000 Baht,

compared to Thai at 130.000 Baht with older type B747 seats, I know which I prefer.

As I stated earlier have flown 8 times with Etihad of which 7 flights have been excellent.

There's nothing ANY airline can do about weather conditions and if schedules are disrupted,

those that suffer most are the passengers at ANY airport.

I don't mean to imply that Etihad couldn't have handled the crisis much better, but having been at

Abu Dhabi in the midst of things, I can assure you that none of the staff present could do anything

to control the mob of angry passengers any better than they did, given the exceptional circomstances.

Furthermore it was my distinct impression that the passengers who remained calm suffered the least.

No malice intended

cheers

onzestan