Etihad Airways Etihad Guest - A Recent Experience on Etihad - Compliments

Last Friday, we traveled from BLR to ATL thru AUH and ORD. Our flight from BLR to AUH was delayed by over 5 hours because BLR was shut down due to fog. There were 60 of us traveling to the US (JFK and ORD) connecting thru AUH. We were sure to miss our connecting flights. Since it was peak period for travel back to the US from India during the first weekend in Jan, there would have been no way of rebooking us thru any other airline or even on Etihad for the next several days. Etihad was kind enough to hold the JFK and ORD flights by more than 3 hours. All of us were able to catch the US flights. The ORD flight was just about 2 hours late arriving. All in all Etihad managed a weather related situation well minimizing the overall inconvenience. Kudos.

Now for the obligatory complaint:-(. When I tried to redeem some miles on AA (ATL -ORD), they wanted $150 per ticket for taxes even though AA's website clearly says that taxes are less than $30. It seems outrageous that a free ticket could cost $150! I burnt up some BA miles and the tickets cost me $5. Some one at Etihad needs to understand how "free" tickets work.

KK

I bet the other travellers on the flights from AUH-U.S. had a different opinion about Etihad's "hold the flights" decision ... I for sure would have been furious :mad:

This is pretty unacceptable to hold a flight for that long. The U.S. flights on EY are typically packed in all classes. It seems EY was just cheap and wanted to avoid rebooking passengers from BLR on other airlines (eg connecting through Europe).

Thumbs down :td: :td:

Hoping for Etihad to make a statement announcing flights from Edinburgh soon!

It was tradeoff between (1) 500 passengers being delayed about 2 hours each VS (ii) 70 passengers who could have been delayed 3 to 4 days each. I think Etihad made the right call. Now I am somewhat biased because I benefited by their decision. I hope Etihad explained the delay properly to those who were affected. By the way, I have been on a Delta flight (in 2005) when they held a flight for more than an hour to accommodate another delayed flight.
KK

It was tradeoff between (1) 500 passengers being delayed about 2 hours each VS (ii) 70 passengers who could have been delayed 3 to 4 days each. I think Etihad made the right call. Now I am somewhat biased because I benefited by their decision. I hope Etihad explained the delay properly to those who were affected. By the way, I have been on a Delta flight (in 2005) when they held a flight for more than an hour to accommodate another delayed flight.
KK

I am sure nobody would have been delayed by 3-4 days, there are gazillion of connections from AUH to JFK / ORD via other carriers. But this would have meant significant revenue loss for EY, so they preferred to annoy the majority of passengers on board.

A similar delay happened to me very recently (my flights waiting for incoming pax for several hours), and I lost my own connecting flight for that reason. Very annoying.

I've had planes that have been late, and they always hold the connecting plane until the late passengers arrive. It must be a policy for Etihad to do this. I really don't mind it as long as it isn't over 3-4 hours long, but I just spend it in the lounge.
As AUH doesn't have that much traffic through it, I can see how this is a more viable solution than trying to reroute.

It would have been amusing if someone else posted a rant at the same time, saying "Etihad delayed our flights by over 2 hours to wait for a bunch of connecting passengers"...