Holiday ruined due to Etihad
To all our friends:
We booked to go on a 5 day holiday to Paris.we hoped to have a great time.
Etihad airlines made sure that the first 2 days were utterly ruined.
We flew Etihad on 10th September 2015, from Chennai to Abu Dhabi (EY 0269), and Abu Dhabi to Paris(EY0037).When we reached Paris we went to the baggage carousel to pick up our bags, when our names were announced on the PA system, and we were asked to report to a counter, where a lady informed us that our bags,( and those of all travellers from Chennai on EY0269) had not been loaded onto the Paris flight from Abu Dhabi.And that they would arrive only the next day.
She asked us to fill in a form, given a reference number and told us that the bags would come next morning (11th Sept) at 9 am from Abu Dhabi and would be delivered to our address.We were asked go to another counter to get a handsome compensation of 40 U.S.D each to buy clothes with!!
The next day forenoon(11th Sep) we were contacted on phone and told that the baggage had arrived at 9am in CDG and that the baggage would be picked up for delivery from CDG airport at 300 pm, and delivered that evening.
We requested that they make is urgent, as the baggage had been lying there at the airport since 9 AM and we had no clothes or warm clothing.They promised that it would be delivered between 8 and 11 PM. We stayed up till midnight on the 11th at the apartment, not going out as we were worried that the luggage may turn up , but there was no sign of the baggage delivery.
On the 12th morning our landlady( whose mobile number also we had given the airline) said that the baggage services had called her at 12 MN on the 11th, and told her that they had too many deliveries of lost baggage from Etihad, and would deliver in the morning. ( The Worldtracer website at this point - 12th morning had an entry on our file that the baggage had been delivered!!!).
I made at least 50 to 60 calls to the Etihad lost luggage number (0183802790), was on hold for over an hour ( my landlady also tried and was put on hold for over an hour!).I also tried the baggage handling number (0781636698) and was unsucessful.
I sometimes got through and was told that they were only a messaging service and could not really help us directly, only pass the message on.
Also tried the Etihad Airlines number on the lost baggage website(world tracer) 0148166673 and the number from which we got a SMS ( 0781636698). Also entered many messages on the Etihad airline baggage lost website- Webtracer.I also tried Etihad Airlines Paris (0147423000) and could not get through.
We were really lucky in that our landlady was very upset for us, and persisted with trying all these numbers again and again and eventually got through to some responsible person who said that the baggage service was SOS delivery services, and that their number was 08250255015.
Our landlady also got through to the baggage services and got their assurance that they would deliver as soon as possible.
Finally as we were walking out for lunch at 250 pm, I got a phone call saying that they would deliver within a few minutes upto the next 2 hours? I requested them to please give us a half hour for lunch and that we would be in the apartment soon. they said they would call before delivering.
At 530 pm, my landlady called me and said that they had called her and that they would be there in 2 minutes! I went down to the street in record time and the delivery man handed me the bags, asked me to sign and went away.
Thus ended our 48 hour ordeal
The lesson:
I know that baggage does get lost at times, and that's something we have to live with.However, whenever it has happened to us in the past in British Airways, American Airlines and Lufthansa; there was always a person contactable and giving us reliable information. Also the baggage was delivered by the same or latest, the next day.
The Etihad airlines and their agents did not do the responsible thing here, and ruined 2 of only 5 days that we had planned and saved for. Also they were not easily contactable, and unreliable in that they did not tell us when they would deliver, tying us down to our apartment.
And but for the efforts of a wonderful landlady, our ordeal may have been longer.
I know that nothing will come of my letter to them,perhaps not even an acknowledgement, but I wanted all my friends to know, so that
1) they will avoid Etihad at all cost
2) if they have no alternative they will take adequate clothes in their hand baggage when travelling by Etihad
3) they will have zero expectation of the Airline trying to help if they are in trouble- perhaps that's reserved for those who book the Residence- the suite in the sky.