Can an airline get away with this?
Here's an email I sent to Etihad 3 days ago after I offloaded their much delayed flight:

Dear Sir or Madam:
I am writing to have my ticket reissued against a flight I chose to "voluntarily offload" from. My flight EY203 from BOM-AUH on 11 June was indefinetely delayed, as a result of which I would have missed my connecting AUH-LOS flight and the meeting for which I was making the journey. In view of the inconvenience encountered by me and the additional expenditure I have had to incur (hotel stay in Mumbai due to offloading and return flight to Ahmedabad), in addition to having wasted 2 days, i request an upgrade to business class by issuing my current unutilized ticket to following dates: AMD-LOS - DEPARTURE 15 JUNE (EY 215, EY 671) LOS-AMD - DEPARTURE 21 JUNE (EY 674, EY 216) Kindly reissue this ticket in business class for the requested dates. If my requested is not accepted, you may use the money from the unutilized ticket as a Donation to Etihad airways to improve their on time performance and customer service during flight delays.
______
since I did not get any reply I called them and was told by the customer service representative that I will not be refunded or reissued a new ticket, since I did not report to counter (my telling him that I was at the counter for 4 hours went on deaf ears). He said all other passengers finally did depart to AUH and those onwards to Lagos were booked by Etihad on Qatar airways (an option i would not have gone for since I'd have missed my meeting for which I was to fly). The counter staff at Etihad mumbai were clueless and were actually hiding, and had no answers - so my asking them what are my options had no answer, simply that I can offload if I like.

My travel agent also called the local Etihad person and was told that because of their travel agency they can reissue the ticket if I pay the reissue fees - to which I refused. Seems like the cost of this ticket will go as a donation as I proposed, but a thank you would have been nice (a business class ticket would have been more fair).

I am very disappointed in Etihad not taking the responsibility for compensating for this flight I did not fly. My regular airline, Emirates, would have been for forthcoming but they have cut their flights to Lagos by half (or one a day).

What are my options to get Etihad to own up to their responsibility? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.