Originally Posted by
Speedbird676
A friend had a similar experience where the Manchester team listened to the recording of a previous call handled in one of the UAE contact centres only to find they'd been completely misinformed.
I'm having difficulty accepting that Etihad's rulebook was written in Manchester and not in the UAE.
I've found most of Etihad's call agents very good... particularly compared to other airlines like Lufthansa, Swiss, Alitalia. Oddly, BA are pretty good on the phone I must say, actually with all the bashing BA gets, and yes I too hate their onboard product, their customer service is actually very good.
Emirates has long hold times, something I've never had to endure with Etihad, and most of the phone agents are pretty unhelpful at EK.
Its actually interesting how the airlines address customer service so differently, in my experience
1. Lufthansa - Unhelpful and quite often misinformed, will often tell you the most banal thing - try at the airport.
2. Swiss - Even worst than LH, on top of being unhelpful and misinformed, they are also ok with being rude to you. When I called back because one agent was not able to deal with my request, the agent had no qualm in telling me she had heard my previous conversation with her colleague and could not help, then put the phone down. Hello? Its none of your business if I call back.
Both don't think much of long hold times either.
3. BA - Wow, even seemingly trivial requests are dealt with, polite and decent. Shame the airline onboard operates totally differently. Also, when it comes to complaints it seems this is the only airline left that abides to treating the customer as key. Whether right or wrong they will pay out compensation when valid and not try to get out on technicalities or worse lies (I'm looking at you SWISS), and further once I wrote in about a flight delay, although not eligible for statutory EU delay comp. they offered to pay the cost of the taxi home because I stated that due to the delayed arrival the person who was to pick me up was now not able to. Cheque came in days.
4. Etihad, trust me we have it good. Little to no hold times, and if at first they refuse your request, try standing your ground, more often than not they find a solution. I did get one person who said no to everything (seemingly without checking) but I hung up and retried, no issue.
5. Emirates, surprisingly bad considering their airport admin staff are if anything over trained and super efficient. The call centre staff know much less and the hold times are ridiculous.
6. Alitalia - Oh sorry, did I wake you up or did I interrupt your chat with your colleagues?! Luckily, I haven't had any issues with Alitalia, so the call wasn't changing much, but I can only imagine if I did. I was calling to check my benefits as an EY Guest Gold on AZ.
7. Vistara - really helpful, changed a business seat DEL-BOM 3 times, pushing it one hour forward each time with such simplicity.
They're not the only airlines I've flown, but I've not had to call SQ, BR, NH, CX, 9W, UA, AI, TK, AF, IB, SK, TG, GF, OS, AK, FR, U2, PG, KQ, KL, or AA.