Help with Etihad seat allocation issue

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dalereardon

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Nov 6, 2012
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Hi,

My wife and I are flying on an Etihad first class apartments award ticket (A380) from Paris through to Sydney leaving Paris on 9 June. The award was booked through American Aadvantage and we are having seat allocation issues.

The Etihad website when logged in wouldn't let us allocate seats at all - just gave an unknown error repeatedly.

So I spoke to contact centre on phone who was staggeringly useless. Eventually with lots of prodding and pushing they got us seats allocated on the CDG-AUH leg in the first class apartments that join together.

However on the second leg AUH-SYD they claimed that all those couple seats were blocked by airport authorities and could not be allocated until got to the airport. I called complete BS on this as they aren't exit seats or anything like that.

I then spoke to Etihad Help on Twitter who also initially claimed that the seats were blocked and couldn't be allocated. When I pushed and pushed they sent a message to what they called their editing team - their phrase and sounds strange.

Today I got back to them and they now claim all the couple seats are already allocated and I should have done the allocations when got the tickets - despite only telling me yesterday that wasn't possible and owuld have to wait until got to the airport.

Our flight is EY450 on 10 June from AUH to SYD - I am wondering if some kind person with an expert flyer account might be able to take a look and see what seats are actually allocated. We can't even see which seats are available when we log in on the Etihad site.

It really is a pain as I am blind and it is far easier with my wife close by to operate the TV/seat controls. I have tried asking if any of the couple seats have singles in them and if we could ask to swap but they said they couldn't possibly do that.

The difference between Etihad and Emirates is just amazing even before we get on board. Recently flew Emirates first class twice on the A380 and they keep the centre seats blocked unless you contact them to ensure couples get first go at allocating them. They helped me instantly and were just wonderful to deal with. Etihad just seems to operate off scripts and has no customer centred approach.

Thanks if you can help,

Dale.
 
Hi Dale, I can see from your previous tweet we're trying our best to assist you. However, at this minute, we're not able to move other guests once they have chosen their seat selection. We shall get back to you via Twitter if anything gets changed. Thank you. *Ari
 
That's astounding how poorly you're being treated in first. Can only imagine how bad it would be if you had an issue in economy.

This is what I see on EF for the flight to SYD. Seats are either allocated or blocked.

167426

From a quick read, it appears rows 3 and 4 are the couple seats. However, from the pictures, it doesn't really look like walking between them would be practical. In some ways, being across the aisle from each other might be more practical. I also wonder if perhaps they've already put you in one of the couples seats?

My only experience with EY was when returning from Africa after MrsDaver6 had a severe spinal injury and couldn't do anything for herself. EY online and ground staff were an absolute disgrace in terms of being accommodating so we could sit together so I could help her. We just kept getting fobbed off in JNB, and again in AUH. Thankfully the crew on board were amazing. EY truly have the pre-flight/post flight/ground staff experience.

Hope things work out for you.
 
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You can't walk within the cabins on EY. The screen drops in the 'couples' seats (which are in rows 3 and 4), but that's the extent of it.
 
Yeah, I had an issue with Etihad incorrectly blocking off seat allocations due to an aircraft swap that didn't go ahead. It was blocked for months.

It took a number of repeated escalations through their contact centre to finally get them to fix it, but fob offs and denials were the order of the day. Even at the end they promised to put my request through and still didn't, nor got back to me as promised. I just checked after a few days of silence and they'd fixed their balls up.

It seems like many companies there's a default belief that whatever the computer says must be right - even when the back end have messed up.
 
Is there really a bad F seat though? Have 2 F flights coming up and when I rang the call centre was told seat selection was not possible at all. I couldn't be bothererd pushing it but was not impressed.
 
Hi everyone,

Thanks for the advice and information.
This won't spoil our trip of course but the real problem is that Etihad doesn't seem to really know what the truth is - I got told twice that couldn't do any seat allocations until check in at airport; then finally when pushed they did allocate on first flight segment but not second.

I don't actually believe the second flight seats are allocated but we will find out.
It is just not a good sign that Etihad is disorganised, doesn't seem to have consistent staff expertise and/or training and doesn't really seem to care about doing the best for all passengers.

And of course they can ask other guests to swap if they really wanted to - I have been moved before for operational reasons on other airlines.

Dale.
 
Etihad is unfortunately renowned for horrifically poor and at best patchy customer service - and that was before they started having dire financial issues!

I struggled to get seats allocated as well when booked through VA as a partner flight. I called and called and got put through to hopeless agents who acted like they were querying a Commodore 64 to select a seat... I finally got elevated to a ‘solutions’ expert who managed to get a seat selected but suspect I was just lucky...
 
Etihad is unfortunately renowned for horrifically poor and at best patchy customer service - and that was before they started having dire financial issues!

I struggled to get seats allocated as well when booked through VA as a partner flight. I called and called and got put through to hopeless agents who acted like they were querying a Commodore 64 to select a seat... I finally got elevated to a ‘solutions’ expert who managed to get a seat selected but suspect I was just lucky...

This contact is a couple of years old, but I received good service from the person involved, they may have moved offshore since but may be worth a try.

Kind Regards

(name deleted)
Reservations & Ticketing Agent

Etihad Airways
Trade Reservations: 1300 734 577
Guest Reservations: 1300 532 215
etihad.com
 
And of course they can ask other guests to swap if they really wanted to - I have been moved before for operational reasons on other airlines.

Have you registered with Etihad as being in need of special assistance (that you are blind)? This would make seating an operational issue based on safety grounds. Perhaps if they enter you in the system as requiring assistance all the way (from check-in to destination) this might force their hand? (If you have done this already then I agree it's a pretty poor show from EY in not helping you. On safety grounds alone you shoud be near your partner in case of emergency.)
 
Have you registered with Etihad as being in need of special assistance (that you are blind)? This would make seating an operational issue based on safety grounds. Perhaps if they enter you in the system as requiring assistance all the way (from check-in to destination) this might force their hand? (If you have done this already then I agree it's a pretty poor show from EY in not helping you. On safety grounds alone you shoud be near your partner in case of emergency.)
Hi,

I hadn't registered as needing special assistance but you are right - that may help.

I shall contact them again.

Dale.
 
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