bakwas_bhai

The customer service on Etihad flight LAX - AUH - AMD was horrid. My wife's dad died and she was on her way to his funeral. She purchased a ticket at night and was set to fly out in the morning. A boarding pass for her AUH - AMD leg was issued at LAX with a seat number assigned. In AUH she goes to the transit counter to confirm her boarding pass, the person at the transit counter tells her that all is well and there's no need for a new boarding pass. At the gate when she is about to board the plane, the Etihad person at the gate tells her that he seat was given to someone else since she did not get a new boarding pass at the transit counter. She explained the situation (her boarding pass from LAX, the transit counter, funeral etc.), but the people at the gate blamed her and said it was her fault. She was then escorted to the transit counter where a bunch of people started yelling at her. She explained that she was going for her dad's funeral, but they had no empathy whatsoever. Finally after a tonne of argument they got her on the flight. They took no responsibility of the problem and blamed the passenger for Etihad's issue

Also - baggage arrived 48 hrs after she arrived in AMD.

Very bad service for some airline that's trying to be a world player. All of us understand mistakes happen, but the way the airline reps treat you when you bring a problem up to them tells you whether or not you are good at customer service. This was horrendous.

whimike

You first said the customer service on the flight was horrid, but then explain a situation at the airport in AUH. Did she also have bad customer service on the flight?

If only at AUH, unfortunately, the same could easily have happened on EK in DXB or QR in DOH. The ground handling really is just often horrendous at the home airports of these airlines, nobody is empowered to do anything and nobody accepts any blame.

OTOH, service on the plane and at outstations is usually much better.

Sorry to hear about your mom's issues with EY, but unfortunately, hardly surprising.

irishguy28

So they held the flight for her? That's pretty amazing given that they sent her back to the transfer counter which clearly took a lot of time given the amount of arguments they doled out there.

Also, if her seat had been given away but there were still seats available, and she had a valid ticket, why did they not just issue a new boarding pass at the gate?

Why did your mother visit the transfer counter in the first place? Etihad always issues all boarding passes at the point of embarkation and there is never a requirement to "check" the boarding pass in AUH. Is there more to the story?

ahmed2020

Strange situation especially if she's already had a boarding pass. They can't just give the seat to someone else particularly when it's a connection flight. Regardless to where the fault is, clearly the bereaving passenger here felt there was no sympathy from the ground staff and this must be fed back to Etihad. I would complain to Etihad about the treatment received at the airport and the delayed luggage.

bakwas_bhai

I don't believe there were any seats available on the flight. My wife said the plane was full.

That's what we would have thought as well. But she was asked to visit the transfer station (not sure by whom though). I'll have to ask her

bakwas_bhai

The issue was with the Etihad staff at the gate in AUH... and subsequently the supervisors/ managers that got involved.

LausanneBoy

Just out of curiosity, which transfer desk did she visit the first and the second time? I always find the staff at EY transfer desk in T1 to be quite difficult to deal with and borderline rude at times, whilst the transfer desk in T3 is staffed with nicer agents who regularly give out just about whatever you can reasonably demand of them.

Also, what happened after she got the red beep at the gate and her bp was no longer valid? Did they really not have a replacement bp ready for her and sent her back to the transfer desk (bizarre)?

edy4eva

My thoughts too. The gate agents have the sole control on the boarding passes. From past experience once the flight status turns to boarding they become the only authority that can handle reseating/upgrade requests.

cdn1

If the passenger gets both BP's in LAX, why does the passenger again need to verify or confirm with agents at connecting airport?

Don't we just proceed to the gate at connecting airport?

Why do these middle east airlines force customers to confirm their BP's again and re-allot seats ? Why didn't THEY inform her that her seat is given away ? They should've called her attention in the airport and resolved the issue.

tartempion

I don't understand this.
Just flew EY as usual last week, BRU-AUH-BKK, got both boarding passes at BRU check in, just proceeded to gate 31 in AUH for flight to BKK.
No need to visit transfer desk.

EFATO

It sounds like she somehow inadvertently offloaded herself from the flight at the transfer desk. This would explain quite a few things, including:
- boarding pass being refused at the gate;
- being escorted back to transfer desk;
- transfer desk being angry (offloading, now reversing);
- baggage delay (offloaded bags).

Any clue if she might have said something at the transfer desk to cause this? Like mentioning a funeral and last minute arrangements that the transfer desk might have construed as her needing to CHANGE her flight?

Transfer desk don't issue ongoing boarding passes. They pretty much exist to offload / rebook / upgrade flights. Perhaps she said something to cause them to rebook her onto a different flight?

irishguy28

Yes, I definitely think that we are not getting the entire story. It may be that the OP and his wife are also unaware of the full facts, but something was said/done/happened before travel, or along the way, that made this trip somewhat unusual.

At the very least, it's a case of crossed wires between the couple and the airline.

Until we know why this was necessary, we really cannot comment further. This isnot standard practice. Your wife should have known the reason for this requirement - the transfer desk may just have seen an onward boarding pass, and automatically (like all of us here) just assumed that this was a nervous/overly-cautious/first-time flier, not familiar with standard practice, and just saw that she had a boarding pass and told her that everything was in order (why wouldn't it be? The transfer desk doesn't need to involve itself in all transfers at AUH, so perhaps they didn't even look at her reservation, especially if she didn't give them the reason or explain that she was told to do so for a very particular reason).

Please let us know why this was required in the first place!