Flight cancelled using error fare excuse
 

Dear Sirs,

my name is Vitaliy and I'm writting you here because in other places nobody want to hear me.
On 21 of July 2015 I bought 2 tickets from Russia to Australia, with transit through Thailand. It was my first time that i was booking Etihad flight and I saw a good price for this tickets? so I bought them. In 10 minutes I received the confirmation, all was confirmed on your webpage and I told this beautyful news to my wife about tickets. The day after, on 22th od July I received an e-mail saying that my booking was cancelled because of error fare. No other options provided. I have done some research on internet and found that in the past, there was something similar, but in that case, Etihad, as well known company with a good name has respected the reservation and confirmed it.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/etiha......-fares.html
For EU citizens.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...-mistake-fare/
US citizens.

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/12/etih...bi-and-beyond/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/grantmar...-to-abu-dhabi/
US citizens.

And now, with Russia citizens you free yourself to cancel our tickets saying simply about error fare?
Why this kind of descrimination against Russian people? What difference there is in my case and in examples that I have provided before about EU and US citizens?
Will be glad for your reply.

Best Regards
Vitaliy Shenderovskiy

Well, has Etihad issued you an e-ticket with a real e-ticket number?
If not, Etihas would have been to cancel.

At this moment you were also 100% sure that you would get a visa for Australia?

To Vitaliy:

This is not an official conduit for conversing with Etihad.

This is not an issue of discriminating against Russian citizens - these tickets were sold to people of any nationality, and indeed a very large number were snapped up by non-Russians. In fact, if anything, it is the sheer volume of tickets sold that is the deciding factor here in the airline's decision to cancel.

And for the record, very many other "error fares" on a variety of carriers have been cancelled, even for tickets sold in the EU, for travel to/from/via the EU, to EU citizens.

I suggest you contact Etihadhelp here. If you have your PNR or ticket number that's helpful.

As others have said, these mistake fare tickets have been cancelled by Etihad and other airlines, from passengers of all nationalities. Circumstances vary.

Considering that LED is about 3,5 hour train ride away from the city of Helsinki, I'd say quite a few Finnish people took advantage of this great fare.

Does LED allow for a cross-carrier visa-free transit for EU citizens?

As far as I know, there is no need for a transit visa if you are waiting your connecting flight in the transit-zone of LED for less than 24 hours. However I am not 100% sure about that, I have a valid multi-entry visa to Russia and was thinking of using the train anyways.

Hi Vitaliy,

We are sorry to hear your feedback, could you private message us your booking details so we can look at this for you? Or you can contact us via our social media channels if you prefer?

Thank you
*DP

Well, I have heard that Finnish citizen have an easier time receiving a Russian visa than other EU citizens. Taking the Allegro would require a Russian visa.
My question was whether LED offers airside (visa-free) transit facilities like SVO and DME.

Guys,

first of all I would like to underline here that i don't want to be polemic, I simply want to find a solution to my problem.
I also would like to provide some details and to make some more questions:
1) Yes, I was sure to get Australian visa. With my wife we have a seconbd citizenthip that allows us to have an Australian eVisa.
2) I realize now that it was error fare, but on other hand, if you go to the shop and buy a bread on price of 1 USD, and the day after somebody will come to you saying that the price was wrong and right now you have to give bread back. Do you think it's correct? Same here. What is the difference between my example and what happened with tickets?
I told about bread, but think about everything. Even your house. You buy your house paying the requested price. And 1 day later somebody think that this price is an error price and you have paid not enought. \
3) I was expecting from Etihad a different approache. This was your internal error, so why right now I should be damaged by it?
4) @ meFirst, could you be more specific on Etihad example, just showing me at least 1 example where Etihad has cancelled a flight to EU or US citizens because of error fare? I tried to find, but no success.
We are not speaking about all airline companies right now, but only about Etihad. I considere Etihad very serious and respected airline company and as so, I was expecting a different approache.

Again guys, I don't want to be polemic with you and if my message seems so, I sorry in advance for it.

This forum is riddled with posts complaining about that mistake fares ex-US.
EY initially and publicly honoured the fares, but what they did next is pretty interesting. They cancelled flights, adjusted departure/arrival times and shuffled bookings. Many booked passengers were rendered unable to travel a day earlier or later, or had misconnections in AUH. In the end most ended up cancelling/refunding.

Very few managed to fly as booked.

The only course of action that you could take is legal, you will have to find out if the Russian equivalent of US' DoT (or EU261 ruling) have teeth on cancelled itineraries.

What kind of monetary damage had occurred to you?

I do not get your point here. EY cancelled complete flights because of too many error fare passengers?

They didn't cancel flights like you put it, they simply did adjustments to flight times, and those with missed connections (mostly on mistake fares) were accommodated on DIFFERENT days. Because most US-based passengers are tight on days off, it meant they couldn't take those trips and the end result was a voluntary cancellation of itineraries.

Just search for threads on this forum and you shall find.

The point raised by the OP is irrelevant and moot. There is no discrimination. And the fare offered was widely reported as a mistake fare. An average person wouldn't think of going from Russia to Thailand to Australia and then back to Russia via Abu Dhabi 3 times.

More details
 

Hi all,

thanks for your replies. This is what I would like to add something more.
@ warakorn speaks about monetary damage. If with this you mean loosing my money, right now this haven't happened. Right now Etihad has my money and I'm waiting until they will provide some more details. Right now money are on Etihad account and I can't use them. Everybody of us has different private situation and maybe I can't buy new tickets until I will get my money back. You don't consider this as damage? And what if prices will go up while I'm waiting for a reimbursement? This is not a monetary damage? Some more details about my situation:
21.07.15 - tickets are bought and money are reserved on my account for Etihad.
22.07 - I'm receiving a cancellation e-mail. At this point my thought was, ok, this was an error, but at least I will get my money back.
23.07 - Etihad requests again money for tickets and money are passing from reserved to payed. Now they are on Etihad account.
My question is, why they requested again the payment 24 hours later after they send me the cancellation? You will call this error? In my country it's called fraud.
Again, it has nothing to do with my citizenship and from my side it was mistake in my 1 post. I was really disappointed and angry. It simply has to do with bad service. Otherwise how you explain that from Etihad side I never received clear reply. No details on refund time. I wrote directly to them through their website, on Facebook and here.
I think you will agree that such level of service is not acceptable from a worldwide company as Etihad is it.
Hope to finally receive some details from Etihad.
Good day to everyone.

Best Regards
Vitaliy Shenderovskiy

Vitaliy Shenderovskiy would like to join you. I have bought tickets 22/07, after 5 days Etihad have cancelled my tickets for no reason. Reason about wrong fare is not a reason since 5 (FIVE) days.
Would like to send a message to local Regulator also about this case.
My e-ticket number was: [redacted]