Yea, EY wouldn't pay up even though it was their ticket and code number all the way through. So back of the line with other creditors I go.

Stranded in AUH

I didn't have much planned for my first full day in Abu Dhabi. I had been here before, visiting as a day trip from Dubai many years ago. What has changed since my last visit was the opening of Etihad Towers and its observation deck. Getting there would take some time by airport bus and then transferring to another bus. The first thing I needed to figure out was to buy a local transport card as drivers no longer accept cash, and the Dubai smart card doesn't work here.





After about an hour, I reached the City Terminal, where check-in counters were available, and transferred to another city bus to reach my destination. The morning heat was starting to get to me. The forecast daytime high would exceed 40C today. However, the views were worth it.









Back to the airport after a light sightseeing day, I returned to the counter to ask about compensation for my cancelled flight and subsequent delay. I was told due to Air Berlin's insolvency procedures, they wereunlikely able to pay EU261, and since the cancelled flight was on AB, despite being an affiliate airline, I could not be taken care of by Etihad in the same way as if it was an EY cancellation. This was despite the whole ticket being on EY stock. I was given 1 days' worth of meal vouchers (since the original revised departure would be 1 day later) and I went shopping at the limited number of restaurants land-side.



I had one more full day before my revised flight. Having run out of things to do in Abu Dhabi, I headed to Dubai for a day trip. Etihad runs a shuttle service for its customers fairly regularly from the airport. The coaches are parked in another lane and not by the exit / taxi queues so they were hard to find. But they were very comfortable, an upgrade from the typical intercity buses, while an attendant handed out water and candy to each passenger for the journey.





Less than an hour and a half later, the coach pulled into the Etihad Travel Mall next to Noor Bank station.





My day in 40C+ weather would be mostly around the Marina, where there were some new buildings under construction that I wanted to see. That's up next.