EY460 8.12 Rerouting

[Robbietenor]

Any other frequent flyers on the Etihad flight from Abudhabi on Saturday to Melbourne that was rerouted to Singapore? What a nightmare...eithad told me nothing until 2 hours before departure the next day (monday the 10th) which sent me to Perth and then flown to Melbourne.

As a platinum Velocity member i expect a bit more from a partner airline but Etihad dont look after velocity members at all in my experience.

I am travelling Mel - Auh - MUC on sunday 16th December, and unless its amazing it will be my last flight with Etihad...

 

[eastwest101]

Any other frequent flyers on the Etihad flight from Abudhabi on Saturday to Melbourne that was rerouted to Melbourne? What a nightmare...eithad told me nothing until 2 hours before departure the next day (monday the 10th) which sent me to Perth and then flown to Melbourne....

??? They rerouted your flight to Melbourne so it actually went to Melbourne? Or via Perth? Might want to clarify that post a bit. If you are logged in there is an "Edit Post" function on the bottom right of your original post if you do want to change it.

 

[Robbietenor]

Sorry rerouted to Singapore...mind not working.

 

[eastwest101]

That is quite a diversion! What was the reason given? Its annoying when airlines have some sort of idea that a big diversion like that is possible, and they fail to inform their customers.

 

[Robbietenor]

There was mechanical failure about 5 hours from oz (Perth would have been just as close as Singapore). We were all carted off to Hotels at Singapore. All of which I understand, but what infuriated me was no one would say what they were going to do about it, they just left us in the hotel with no info. I finally got to sleep at 6am only to get a call to my room at 720 saying 'we have you on a flight at 925 you need to leave now'. When i arrived at the airport i assumed it was a direct flight, but at the SQ desk was informed I was going to Perth, not Melbourne. Was then told i'd be found a connection in Perth once I got there. Finally got a qf flight to Mel and arrived at 2340 on monday. My original arrival time was 1920 Sunday. I was travelling full fare flexi economy and have platinum velocity member so I was expecting a lot more.

On the plus side, the singapore flight SIN - PER and the QF PER - MEL were excellent. Ive flown etihad a lot this year and have meber got any service or real recognition of my platinum status with Virgin. As far as im concerned my flight MEL - AUH - MUC will be my last with Etihad unless they provide some decent service.

 

[markis10]

There was mechanical failure about 5 hours from oz (Perth would have been just as close as Singapore).

Not sure what you mean by that, 5 hours out of Melbourne would have had you an hour out of Singapore and 4 to Perth.

 

[Robbietenor]

Sorry i probably am not right with that. We were simply well over half was through the trip.

 

[Mwenenzi]

There was mechanical failure about 5 hours from oz (Perth would have been just as close as Singapore). We were all carted off to Hotels at Singapore..

In the plane was broken SIN may have been a lot closer. They do not always fly the GC route. Great Circle Mapper

Hope you have claimed for those Qantas miles if you have a QF/AA/BA/? freq flyer account and "original route credit" with velocity

 

[markis10]

I am guessing it was probably before Christmas island otherwise CGK would have been an option.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Whilst it should be irrelevant, can I ask who ticketed the flight? If it was VA that's extremely disappointing.

Either way, not good enough. Although from what I hear about Etihad, they're pretty bad with this kind of stuff. As an aside, the last four days EY460 has been on average over an hour late.

 

[simongr]

Just what exactly did you expect anyone to do?

I know more information would have been good but they got you onto the next available flights. But what else?

 

[Virgin Bart]

I would expect a choice of which of the next flights to go on, to try and minimise disturbance. I would also expect much better communication than that. I would also perhaps like a call from customer service when a Plat is delayed, although perhaps that's asking too much.

 

[markis10]

Whilst it should be irrelevant, can I ask who ticketed the flight? If it was VA that's extremely disappointing.

Either way, not good enough. Although from what I hear about Etihad, they're pretty bad with this kind of stuff. As an aside, the last four days EY460 has been on average over an hour late.

Its the operating carriers responsibility under IATA rules to sort it out, not the ticketing carrier, and from what has been described things are not too bad given it was a diversion inflight due to an emergency of some sort. Most passengers in this situation are happy to let the airline do what they can, often you will find however being proactive, getting on the phone and ringing reservations re possible options often brings more suitable results. Not having the data at hand in terms of how many passengers were affected, what seats were available on what flights etc ex Singapore, we can only guess that they took the best course of action.

 

[Fruitcake]

I would expect a choice of which of the next flights to go on, to try and minimise disturbance.

I would suggest that given the best they could do was an indirect flight with an uncertain connection to your destination, they were probably scraping the barrel with alternative flights anyway. I'm not sure it's practical to ring people with a shopping list of alternatives at 2:00am in the morning. And if they find three seats on the plane you'd prefer but before you can accept it the operator in the next cubicle books those seats for another pax it's hardly going to make you feel better about being offered the choice.

One would like to think that DJ status pax were first in line for the direct flights to MEL the next morning but I guess we'll never know. Even if they did there would still be 40 J/F pax ahead of you, then EY's own status members. So even with DJ status you'd potentially be 50th or 60th in line.

 

[Robbietenor]

Hey it was an EY ticket, that said sold as VA7460. And yes got my qantas miles as well as the SQ and EY flights into my velocity account. The sooner I can book SQ to FRA via VA the better - i do the route 6 or more times a year and all the etihad flights bar one have been substandard.

 

[Robbietenor]

I would have expected some update in the 14 hours i was in singapore. Even juat to say we are still working on it. But nothing and when i rang etihad and virgin they couldnt tell me either. I know these things are unavoidable but the way they are dealt with - communication etc. Is very important. And the general lack of any acknowledgement of my velocity status every time ive flown with etihad is a problem woth a so called partner airline i would have thought...im always impressed with Virgin and their flights having done the MEL to AUH with them in premium, but you may as well have no velocity status at all when you are inside an Etihad plane...

 

[Robbietenor]

I would also have expected to be told that my new flight wasnt actually going direct to Melbourne before i got back to the airport...

 

[EuroFlyer]

I found the same thing myself, Etihad are only a good option if you are lucky enough to be in J in my experience at least but im sure others have enjoyed it better. At least as a plat and gold some of the lounges are ok to use.

I would have expected some update in the 14 hours i was in singapore. Even juat to say we are still working on it. But nothing and when i rang etihad and virgin they couldnt tell me either. I know these things are unavoidable but the way they are dealt with - communication etc. Is very important. And the general lack of any acknowledgement of my velocity status every time ive flown with etihad is a problem woth a so called partner airline i would have thought...im always impressed with Virgin and their flights having done the MEL to AUH with them in premium, but you may as well have no velocity status at all when you are inside an Etihad plane...

 

[ReLoad]

As always it's when something goes wrong that your status usually proves its value and whilst you did get home, via a heck of a mixed bag, communication is of the essence. Really it's not that hard for one phone call that goes along these lines "were working hard to get you home ASAP, it may be via a range of stopovers, if that's cool we will get back to you"
That costs virtually nothing and would have made the OP feel loved and that he was being looked after.

Irrespective that he was 50+ in the pecking order a little comms goes a long way.

Question for those in the VA know. Do they have a plat team which pro actively monitors all plat flights and issues?

 

[jmphoto]

Maybe I'm just a grump, but a mechanical failure is rare, they got you straight into a hotel in SIN, and then onwards to MEL via PER the next morning. Perfect, no, but sheesh, doesn't seem like a major inconvenience nor bad service.

Perhaps like Tex Perkins said, man wasn't meant to fly