Can I just ask - what is
EtihadHelp's expectation of how their "service" is supposed to operate? What can they actually do to help FT'ers? To date, all they can seem to do is direct us to email someone else. Or they say they will get in touch with "the Etihad Guest team". Or they say they will get in touch "with the baggage team". And the threads then show that nothing came from these attempts. (Did the attempts succeed? Did
EtihadHelp not bother? Or does the rest of Etihad simply ignore
EtihadHelp, too?)
Given that 99% of their posts so far have contained the request to contact them at
[email protected], what exactly is their presence on here supposed to achieve?
In other words, if
EtihadHelp is here only to direct people to the
[email protected] address, why even bother interacting here? People will quickly learn that there is no point posting here - and should instead contact
[email protected] directly.
I think that if
EtihadHelp had taken the time to understand how the few other airlines with official representatives on FlyerTalk operate, they would have come up with (probably) a more useful, meaningful offer for the FlyerTalk community.
I sincerely hope that Etihad is listening and taking this on board - I always get the feeling that staff I voice complaints or frustrations to just act apologetic and subservient, but do absolutely nothing about the situation - whether this is due to lack of empowerment, or just an airline policy of attempted mollification is unclear - but Etihad's image has suffered hugely in my eyes in the last year.
Etihad is a great airline when things are going to plan. But any contact with Etihad Guest or Etihad Customer Service is the most spirit-sapping, time-wasting and frustrating experience.
EtihadHelp - please tell us that you are aware that Etihad falls behind all other airlines in these regards. And that you are willing and able to turn around these perceptions that you have helped to propagate here on FT with the "spambot" postings you have been making to date.
It would help if there was one dedicated official lurker assigned to the
EtihadHelp account - rather than the team that has been the case up to now. Some threads contain the ridiculous sight of several, almost identical posts from different people, all under the
EtihadHelp guise. ("We are sorry. Contact
[email protected]"). And, in many cases, the information provided (where any info has been offered) has been incorrect, or ambiguous/misleading. Please - assign someone competent
and empowered to this task. It does not fill me with confidence when we get posts along the lines of "we will try to contact our baggage team in Madras again for you" meaning that it seems not even internally are these people taken seriously.