Etihad Has Terrible Customer Service

[alexy23]

Am I the only one who has had issues with Etihad's customer service? It's so inconsistent and it seems like every time I call I get routed to either Phillipines, Abu Dhabi, or London.

a) I wanted a simple change to my itinerary, AUH-SYD instead of AUH-CDG and I was told this would incur a 10% change fee, plus take up to 14 days for the points to land in my account before I can rebook it.
b) They have no function to reserve flights so I'm left here at the edge of my seat hoping they don't go.
c) It seems as though their customer service have no capacity to escalate and override functions (waive 10% fee if rebooking) - thus making the service quite robotic.

After dealing with SQ/QF for a while now - EY seems like a step down.

 

[Mattg]

It's not just you. I find Etihad's call centre consistently frustrating. Many of the agents really have no idea what they're doing, and/or they have no discretion to do anything. So often I'm given a "computer says no" answer to something that should be very simple (e.g. booking a Virgin award flight to NZ).

It's got to the point now where I'll usually HUACA until I get put through to somebody in Manchester.

 

[OzEire]

No you are not alone. EY is a great airline if everything goes well, but awful if it doesn't. I endured several long and fruitless calls on my last trip with EY but got nowhere and, as a direct result, have now relegated EY to my last option on these routes.

 

[alexy23]

EY is a great airline if everything goes well, but awful if it doesn't.

So having EY Gold hasn't helped at all?

 

[jetpack]

Am I the only one who has had issues with Etihad's customer service? It's so inconsistent and it seems like every time I call I get routed to either Phillipines, Abu Dhabi, or London.

a) I wanted a simple change to my itinerary, AUH-SYD instead of AUH-CDG and I was told this would incur a 10% change fee, plus take up to 14 days for the points to land in my account before I can rebook it.
b) They have no function to reserve flights so I'm left here at the edge of my seat hoping they don't go.
c) It seems as though their customer service have no capacity to escalate and override functions (waive 10% fee if rebooking) - thus making the service quite robotic.

After dealing with SQ/QF for a while now - EY seems like a step down.

To be fair to Etihad, what you were told seems to be what they would have told anybody else.

a) Etihad's published policy Changes & Cancellation policy - Etihad Guest on changes only allow date changes. A route change would therefore require a cancellation and a 10% fee. 14 days for a miles refund doesn't sound too bad considering I had to wait two months once for Qantas to do the same.
b) Most airlines don't allow holds on award flights so not sure why Etihad should be any different.
c) I am not aware of any airline that allows you to change your award routing for free so not sure why Etihad would waive their fee.

 

[N860CR]

Fortunately, etihad customer care will respond to this post in a year or so. Until then, just settle in.

(When they respond, they won't actually assist you)

 

[Mattg]

I've just tried calling Etihad 3 times for a relatively simple partner airline award booking.

The first time the lady couldn't find any availability and for some reason decided to transfer me to somebody that didn't seem to understand, no matter how many times I told them, that I was looking for an award (not revenue) ticket on a partner airline (not Etihad). She kept telling me that I could book online... the only reason I called is because I can't!

The second time, I told the lady the itinerary I wanted to book and after putting me on hold she told me to hang up and call back because her system had frozen!

The third time I got through to somebody that seemed helpful and understood what I was trying to do. He was able to find the seats I was looking for but after 25 minutes on hold he came back to me and said that it was going to take a bit longer still and that he would call me back. I'm not holding my breath for that call back...

 

[Daver6]

Not just you. Only ever had pain from EY. Both times booking J and once even as EY gold. They simply suck at customer service. Both occasions I had to resort to shaming them repeatedly on Twitter to get the wheels turning.

As someone else said, for me to fly EY ever again, it would have to be because I either have no choice or a J/F fare is ridiculously cheap. A real shame because their J experience is one of the best.

 

[Mattg]

Well you could blow me over with a feather - Etihad just called me back after "only" 90 minutes! It's the first time they've actually called me back after promising to do so.

On a side note, the number appeared as a Serbian phone number - does Etihad have a call centre there now as well?

 

[Daver6]

Well you could blow me over with a feather - Etihad just called me back after "only" 90 minutes! It's the first time they've actually called me back after promising to do so.

On a side note, the number appeared as a Serbian phone number - does Etihad have a call centre there now as well?

You sure someone isn't playing a joke on you?

 

[borism5]

Not just you. Only ever had pain from EY. Both times booking J and once even as EY gold. They simply suck at customer service. Both occasions I had to resort to shaming them repeatedly on Twitter to get the wheels turning.

As someone else said, for me to fly EY ever again, it would have to be because I either have no choice or a J/F fare is ridiculously cheap. A real shame because their J experience is one of the best.

Yes they opened it in Belgrade earlier this year/late last year. From my experience they are more competent than Abu Dhabi centre.

 

[Mattg]

Yes they opened it in Belgrade earlier this year/late last year. From my experience they are more competent than Abu Dhabi centre.

Good to know! Based on my (limited) experience with the Belgrade centre I would have to agree... although it's a low bar.

 

[OzEire]

So having EY Gold hasn't helped at all?

Sorry for late response,I didn't see this.

Not flying or crediting EY means I have dropped to silver ... need to update my AFF signature !

 

[OzEire]

As someone else said, for me to fly EY ever again, it would have to be because ...

"Someone Else" reporting for duty, S'ah!

 

[Mattg]

Well I just booked another EY award this morning. I'm not sure which call centre I was put through to - perhaps one in India?

The whole process was painfully slow - it took nearly an hour to make a simple one-way award booking on Air Serbia. Not to mention, I could barely understand the operator and the audio quality was so poor I thought I was calling a remote village in South America.

I had to laugh when the guy asked me to complete a survey after the call. The survey included questions like "to what extent did the operator make you feel valued as an Etihad Guest member?" and "how easy or difficult did you find it to do business with us?" - needless to say I gave 1/5 to everything.

On the plus side, I was able to book TXL-BEG in J for 8,650 miles....

 

[Daver6]

What's the best time of day in Australia to call with the hope of getting the Manchester call centre?

 

[spudseamus]

I use EY to Ireland when I travel ,which isn't often, but I have had dealings with AUH customer service on a couple of occasions and had no problems at all . I find their J class as one of the better I have used but I must say their ground staff at AUH need some training . The staff at Mel or Dub couldn't be more helpful. Doing a trip again in September fingers crossed