Expert Complainer Wanted

[BEDBANDIT]

hi all

i need help

the story go's , i was due to fly out of BKK with Etihad , but they overbooked it .... and i had to get the flight 48hours later , ive wrote to them complaining and they have offered some compensation , but what i really want is a Free return UK -BKK ticket .

it took me all day to write my complaint letter , im not very good at letter writing , especlliy letters of this nature , and im not sure what my rights are too .

so below is my letter , and below that is there reply .

Any of you guys think i can do better . what would you say , or feel like you want to take up my Cause i would be very greatfull

Thanx

Etihad Airways

To whom it my concern

Ref: XXXXXX / [RQID:XXXXXX]‏ Re ; Bangkok to Manchester 7/3/2010 20.05

It’s been 2 weeks since my flight was over booked. I now have time to write and tell you what happened.

I arrived at Bangkok airport 2 hours before the flight was due to leave , I could tell right from the very start that there was going to be a problem ,as the check in cue was not moving at all . About 25 minutes before the flight was due to leave, myself and approximate 20 other passengers were told that the flight was over booked and we would not be travelling today.

I then waited , and watched as 20+ angry passengers tried to find out was going to happen , your 5 ground staff could not cope , some of the passengers were getting very volatile and airport security had to called .

I finally managed to speak to one of the ground staff , i was told that the flight for Monday ( the next day) was also over booked and i would be put on standby , or i could have a seat on the Tuesday flight , some48 hours later. When the lady tried to book this flight the computer would not let her .at this point more angry passengers started to harass the ground staff. Your ground staff asked me if they could take my mobile No and call me later when they could be sure of a departure date .

The ground staff mentioned that they would put me up in a airport hotel, but again i was asked to wait, while they dealt with more demanding passengers. Anyway for me this was not an option, i have very bad asthma, i come to Thailand for the clean air, hence the reason i have lived/holiday in koh samui for the last 9 years.

With no definite signs of a departure date ,or suitable accommodation i decided to return to koh samui . I waited all night and most of the following day for somebody to ring , I called Etihad office in Bangkok and was told that I needed to call the airport and speak to ground staff , eventually late on Monday afternoon my booking was confirmed for the next day , Tuesdays flight .

Whilst at the airport I was given a $300 Miscellaneous Charges order exchange coupon , the ground staff told me to call your office in regard to the coupon , I have called your UK office and was told that I need to take the coupon to airport as they did not understand what the coupon was for. I have attached a photo of this coupon.

I have been flying to Asia for 10 years + , I have flown on many airlines , I try and use Etihad as much as possible , I love the brand , and once in the air , I find your inflight entertainment , cabin crew , seats and general condition of the plains to Excellent , However this is not the first time arrived at the airport to find that you , Etihad had over booked the flight. Previously I didn’t mind a few extra days in Thailand, and I have never seeked compensation . on this occasion the overbooking cost me a lot of money , I lost 2 days’ work in England , £400. flights back to koh samui while Etihad tried to find a flight for me £200. Taxi, both in Thailand , and the UK £110 .

I would like the entire purchase price of my ticket to be refunded (£749.08) in the form of a future voucher for travel on Etihad Airlines. When I book a flight to return on Sunday that does not mean that it is acceptable to get me home 2 days later. I’m not asking for any compensation for my accommodation or food expenses, flights back to koh samui and Overstay fine on my visa , though they were considerable. Alternatively, I would like the Airmiles mileage equivalent of an unrestricted international flight to be deposited in my airmails account XXXXXX /XXXXXX Etihad guest account .

Looking forward to hearing from you in regard to this matter

Yours sincerely

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. X ;

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your concern while travelling with us. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced and for the delay in responding to your concerns.

Most airlines world wide over book flights on certain routes due to the fact that up to 30% of booked guests may not show up for their intended flight leaving airlines with little choice but to overbook in order to maximize revenue. Unfortunately sometimes the majority of our guests arrive and denied boarding occurs. If we are unable to provide previously confirmed space on a flight operated by us in the class in which you are booked and for which you have met all applicable check-in deadlines, we shall provide denied boarding compensation to our guests as per the IATA recommended practices.

In the event of denied boarding, we offer compensation and reroute or rebook our guests on an alternative flight if possible or next available Etihad flight. You have noted that you were offered the USD300 compensatory voucher and were advised of the next available flight. Complimentary hotel accommodation was also offered but you have indicated that you did not accept this.

We appreciate that your schedule was disrupted due to this and regret that this was the case.

It is never our intention to leave our guests feeling unhappy with the services provided. As a measure of goodwill, we would like to offer you sufficient miles to access a firm class of travel upgrade on your next flight from Manchester to Abu Dhabi with us.

It is my sincere hope that you will be able to put this negative experience behind you and continue to travel with Etihad in the future. I hope that when you next travel with us you will experience the good service and comfort on board our flights for which we are keen to ensure.

Yours sincerely,

Edited April 17, 2010 by BEDBANDIT

[clinique]

there are too many variables for someone else to write your letter. only you know the full details of a)your booking and the checkin for which you were denied boarding..

you need to provide much more detail if someone is going to help you, but it would still be difficult..

As abusiness traveller of 30 years I think the reply from the airline is actually quite reasonable.

[2008bangkok]

So what was the $300 Miscellaneous Charges for?

i also think this is a resonable reply, free hotels, free $300 and now a free upgrade from manchester to abu..

nice

[ukrules]

There's a volcano don't you know ?

[mca]

^There wasn't 2 weeks ago.

[IMA_FARANG]

Regarding being on an "overbooked" flight. There are relatively new EU regulations on what compensation the airline must offer if your flight is overbooked. Unfortunately I don't think Ethihad is considered an EU based airline. However they should , based on good business practice have ofered you at least:

1. An upgrade in class if it was available (maybe business class or first class was already full).

2. If they had no seat available, they should offer you a hotel room at their expense during the delay. I understand from what you said that they did offer a room, which you turned down.

3. They should have made you a priority passenger on the next available flight. From what you said they put you on a the next scheduled flight 48 hours later, which was what they were required to do.

4. The voucher they offered was either a discount for another flight or should have been redeemable for cash. It doesn't seem they made that clear. You should have asked if the coupon was redeemable for cash at the airline head office.

5. What you should have done is to have called the Ethihad office to reconfirm your reservation at least 3 days before you planned to leave. I know, airlines don't like to do "reconfirmations" these days....but if they did, and noted it on the computer as being "reconfirmed by passenger", you might have been able to get on the original flight (and some one else would have been bumped, instead of you).

The new EU airline standards specify how much an airline must offer for overbooked flights...according to the length of the flight. Unfortunately they only apply to flights leaving from EU countries, or flights arriving in the EU if the airline is considered an EU ailine (like BA would be). Ethihad isn't considerde an EU airline, and your flight left from BKK....so the new EU regs didn't apply.

[Spee]

The first trick of a complaint letter is to word it so that it doesn't sound like a complaint.

Rather, in purchasing a ticket from a company, you established a contract. In your opinion, the company breached the contract which caused you to be inconvenienced. So put it in those terms. What you want is compensation for inconvenience and breach of contract.

I'm also not convinced that letters to big companies are all that effective. I would prefer phone calls, especially if you are a steady and regular customer. Through phone calls it can be easier to acquire names and additional phone numbers.

You just have to be persistent. Don't accept any company excuses about overbooking or this or that. They broke their contract and you were inconvenienced and feel you should be compensated. Just stick to those key talking points. The company will of course try to convince you of the opposite and dilute the conversation. Stick to your guns and keep good notes of every conversation.

Good luck.

[dobadoy]

I agree with the last poster and disagree that the company's reply is 'reasonable' in any way. The company's tactic - which has convinced a few posters above - is to make you sympathise with their business reality (they have to overbook to maximize revenue). This is wholly irrelevant to you as a customer. It is not your duty or concern to be worried about their business plan when you book a ticket and you shold point this out to them with anger. As the last poster says, you paid money for a ticket on a certain date and they defaulted on that deal. They owe you the price of the ticket so long as you didn't take anything else in part compensation. It doesn't matter what they offered you before so long as you refused it.

I worked in customer service for a few years and let me tell you being polite and reasonable will get you nothing except continually fobbed off.

The more unreasonable you are the bette your chances of someone deciding its eaisier to give you what you want than to patronise you into submission. Start making some noise, threaten to never fly their airline again, threaten to tell all your many business traveller friends not to fly, tell them you're going to talk about it all over facebook etc etc.

The one thing that makes customer service managers cave in is noise. And trust me, they don't care about the issue of the cost of the flight, this is just a battle of wills between you and the CS manager. He'll keep fobbing you off till you make enough noise to make his job annoying and its easier for him to get through a quiet day without you. Get his name, harrass him and threaten to go over his head, even better if you mention writing to the CEO by name or some other higher up exec' whose name you can get from the web. Don't be frightened about carrying out these threats either - big name execs are far more concerned about customer service than CS managers in my experience.

Edited April 18, 2010 by dobadoy

[kandahar]

Sorry it took you a day to write your letter. Slow or not, you did a good job. Well done.

As some of the others mentioned, the airline did do a pretty decent job with their offers. Some don't do much of anything without a long fight.

Maybe with another letter you can do better. Here's some things to mention:

You really aren't interested in what the IATA recommends or if that airline follows those recommendations. You expect your airline to:

1. Fully fullfill their obligation to you. Let them know that you did not enter into a gambling contract with them nor was a nice game of musical chairs in the deal. They promised the seat on THAT flight and took your money accordingly.

2. Make it up to you in such a way that you will remain a customer of that airline (even if you know you have no choice about that airline to that destination).

3. Provide you with a "club member" card or some other form of upping your status with the company so that it doesn't happen again.

4. Fully exceed IATA requirements, which are a minimum set of guidelines set forth to compensate passengers but more-so, to protect the reputation of the airline industry as a whole.

You arguments are:

1. While you appreciate their business acumen in trying to maintain full flights, you are NOT a number in their accounting ledger. The next guy might be just a number but you have been a dedicated customer of that airline and you will not settle for, nor do you deserve, the treatment given the herd. You chose, and have chosen for many years, that airline over others because of the exceptional service/value. If that airline has downgraded an especially devoted customer to "herd" status, then you will find another airline.

2. Compensation does NOT make up for the lack of service and care that you encountered. Compensation DOES say, "Something bad happened to you because of us and we are sorry". Compensation does say "We value your business enough that we are offering an apology in the form that YOU, the customer, has made clear will be sufficient". Compensation, such as I have suggested, does say "We offer this compensation, recommended by you, because we, the transgessors in this situation, aren't in a position to know what value you have assigned to our bad judgement and we DO appreciate your letting us know so that we can meet your expectations".

3. The airline has an opportunity to make you feel comfortable that future flights will NOT be a gamble. You are not one of those lackadaisical customers that has time for such nonsense. When you book, you fly. When you pay money, it is serious. You need to know that they are just as serious in meeting your requirements in the future.

4. IATA is NOT who you are. While it is fine that you choose to be a member, as there are benefits in it for you, to rely solely on THEIR criteria for compensation is below you. The WORST airline out there is expected to meet their minimum recommendations. That is why they have those recommendations- To offer some insight into the MINIMUM standards expected of International air-travellers and to encourage the WORST airlines to meet par. I have never considered your airline to be at the bottom of the barrel and I am dismayed that you would choose to fill a seat on that second-string bench just because it is offered. In my travels with your airline, I have often seen the ways in which you rise above the competition and I thought that is how you wanted to be perceived. If you have changed your business plan regarding customer satisfaction, please inform me immediately or, at the least, post a press-release in the trade and travel magazines. I'm sure that most of your customers and your competition will be interested.

I'm serious here people. I have been a long-time, dedicated customer. I have chosen you, over others, for many years and many flights and I have encouraged my friends to do the same. I would love to continue to do so. Over-booking and losing my seat has never been a part of my deal with you nor should it ever be. Make this right. Make me want to stay with you because you are an airline that does what's right. Lead the industry in your part of the world; don't become another member of the herd. Your airline wasn't founded on herd business practices.

As I have proposed before, here is what I expect from your airline in order for me accept that you do indeed value me as a customer: Blah, blah, blah, whatever you think they should give you

I realize that in a business sense, I am but one to you. I am much more than one. Where your airline is concerned, I am me, I am my friends, I am my family and I am at least hundreds of thousands who read my blog and who read my posts in the different forums in which I regularly post. I truly want to tell the good story in my writings, not the bad one. I can tell you, if you choose to put me in that 30 percent that you spoke of, it will cost you a lot more than the compensation that I have proposed. In the course of my future lifetime of travelling, your gamble with this customer will amount to a much larger loss than you wagered.

Sincerely, blah, blah , blah.

Okay. That's it dude. Get to writing.

Sorry about any typos here or grammar errors here. I'm in a hurry, as usual. Good luck. And let us know how it turns out.

kandahar

Edit: Others have posted some good stuff here since I started writing. Incorporate it in your writings. Cut and paste what you see here in the different posts and tie it together. The letter should get written a lot quicker that way.

Edited April 18, 2010 by kandahar

[lioness]

You need to make your points without all the emotional baggage in between.

One thing I did find interesting was in the reply, they are Double Dipping.

They say most airlines world wide overbook flights on certain routes due to the fact that up to 30% of booked guests may not show up...little choice but to overbook to maximise revenue.

Those booked guests would have prepaid for their tickets so in fact the airlines is loosing nothing at all.

[noahvail]

I've always found that a snail mail letter works much better than an email. Address it to the president of the company at their corporate address, and pay for the signature returned mail. The president won't see it, of course - but it will be opened by a person who has the ability at his/her discretion to send you a letter of apology along with what you are asking for. There is often a small group of customer services reps who work just under the executive secretary, and they are empowered to keep the customer satisfied. Going direct like this bypasses all the other layers, and will get you a faster reply.

[minburi2]

Just one question, cause have never heard of any clean air in Thailand and specially not for astma patients, due to the high humidity.

ARE YOU JOKING?????

[el jefe]

Just one question, cause have never heard of any clean air in Thailand and specially not for astma patients, due to the high humidity.

ARE YOU JOKING?????

This is your first post to Thai Visa? You added a lot to the discussion.

btw, the humidity yesterday afternoon in CM was 29%. I have no idea what it was in Samui in March. But that's not really important, is it?

[el jefe]

I feel bad for the OP, but has anyone looked up what the "denied boarding" rules are for this flight. That should be the starting point. it's possible that Etihad has not met the requirements. It's also possible that their offer exceeded the minimum compensation required. Without knowing any of this you are expecting a corporation to negotiate based on an emotional argument. Good luck with that. How many of you will no longer fly with Etihad if they don't increase their offer?? ........................ That's what I thought. So why should they offer more if they don't have to?

[xilef]

Incredible letter by Kandahar. if sending that using Noahvail's recommended method doesn't get you what you want, then it's time to find a new airline. If Etihad fails, be sure to follow up with the blogging wherever you can.

[cheshiremusicman]

I don't know if you have seen the next item below yours, interesting comments re 'ETHIAD' , IT MIGHT help your cause, good luck.

I also like 'Ethiad', but having read what I have, it will definitely make me think twice before booking again with them.

May I suggest that you inform them that a general discussion is now taking place on many 'forums' regarding their statement to you of 'deliberate overbooking'. Blxxdy scandalous in my opinion and should be outlawed, or severely censured by VERY hefty fines.

[el jefe]

I don't know if you have seen the next item below yours, interesting comments re 'ETHIAD' , IT MIGHT help your cause, good luck.

I also like 'Ethiad', but having read what I have, it will definitely make me think twice before booking again with them.

May I suggest that you inform them that a general discussion is now taking place on many 'forums' regarding their statement to you of 'deliberate overbooking'. Blxxdy scandalous in my opinion and should be outlawed, or severely censured by VERY hefty fines.

You don't fly much, do you? Every airline really does do that and it is perfectly legal. That's why every country has rules about what the compensation must be when someone is "denied boarding" because of overbooking.

What's interesting to see is that the rules in Thailand about minimum compensation are so lenient.

[kandahar]

I don't know if you have seen the next item below yours, interesting comments re 'ETHIAD' , IT MIGHT help your cause, good luck.

I also like 'Ethiad', but having read what I have, it will definitely make me think twice before booking again with them.

May I suggest that you inform them that a general discussion is now taking place on many 'forums' regarding their statement to you of 'deliberate overbooking'. Blxxdy scandalous in my opinion and should be outlawed, or severely censured by VERY hefty fines.

You don't fly much, do you? Every airline really does do that and it is perfectly legal. That's why every country has rules about what the compensation must be when someone is "denied boarding" because of overbooking.

What's interesting to see is that the rules in Thailand about minimum compensation are so lenient.

Flying much doesn't have much to do with it. I spent a lot of time flying and that has never happened to me. But, I have seen the aggravation that others have gone through. I think it depends on what airlines you use, where you are headed, how the economy is doing and the time of year that you fly. Lots of people never run in to that problem. Lots do. Some airlines don't overbook and if they do, they go for 30 percent. As the letter says in the OP, THAT particular route has lots of cancellations so they do what they do to compensate.

[BEDBANDIT]

wow , thanx for the reply's and comments , i'm away at the moment , and dont really have time to respond in full .

But i would like to point out ... i did call the airline 5 days before departure to confirm my flight , i was told it was confirmed , ( if you ring Etihad the message before you get thou to Anyone says " no need to confirm flight with etihad " . i did this because its has happened to me the past .

Big thanx to Kandahar ....... you,ve made the points that i struggle to put into words

ill let you guys know the outcome

thanx

[Stjohnm]

Just stick to the facts and don't whine too much, I was seriously bored half way through if I worked at 'ETHIAD I'd have to be on a serious pay grade to continue reading that it.

Edited April 20, 2010 by Stjohnm

[Patsycat]

StJohnm,

You really are a nasty person, aren't you?