Originally Posted by
GEB74
Hi - Call them now.
Just make sure you've pre-selected a seat by calling up the reservations centre (they should release one of the standardly blocked seats) AND checked in online ASAP.
Then on the day get to the bag drop desk in good time.
The people that get bounced are those that turn up lateish at the AUH check in desks without having already checked in online.
Particularly in Y, it's a not uncommon sight to see aggravated denied passengers being ushered away to the rebooking desk. Etihad on a number of routes does seem to run things tight on overbooking aggressively.
On the subject of being downgrade to Y, always a possibility.
There were two passengers on my last EY flight earlier this month sat in the first row of economy (seats A and C on A330) being given the FULL business service by J class serving crew / the purser as J was completely full.
Thank you! I called them yesterday and today and both times got an agent that told me right now they see 4 blocked seats in J and can't unblock them. They advised me to check-in 24 hours before and to grab one of those 4 blocked seats.
I used expertflyer to see the AUH-PER for the next 3 days (my departure date is this Thursday) and for that flight, EY486, all the letters (business and economy) are zeroed out. Wow! My guess it's definitely overbooked.
I'll call again tomorrow and kindly ask one of the agents to unblock one of the seats. I'll admit I wouldn't mind being rerouted AUH-MEL-PER or AUH-BNE-PER but only if I can get a J seat on both segments and that I arrive in PER by Friday evening.