Etihad Flight Compensation Help
 

Hey everyone, I was wondering if I could get some of you more experienced travellers advice on what happenned with my etihad flights over the summer.

So travelling from london l took 4 etihad flights:
1) LHR to AUH
2) AUH to KUL
3) BKK to AUH
4) AUH to LHR

Flights 1 and 2 were connecting flights and there was no planned stopover. However,there was a delay leaving Heathrow of over an hour meaning we reached Abu dhabi over an hour late and disembarked the plan 30 mins before the connecting flight was scheduled to leave. Once we disembarked we were gathered together and held for 10 minutes before being told we would not be allowed onto the flight to Kuala Lumpur as they cannot delay the flight. It was just after midnight and we were given rooms at the airport hotel. The connecting flight staff were appalling but that's not what this post is about. We were fairly given seats on the next flight to Kuala Lumpur which was the following morning at 10am. This flight was delayed by over an hour again which was rather humorous seeing as the reason they gave us as to why we couldn't board our initial flight was because "flights to kuala lumpur cannot be delayed". So we arrived at our destination 12 hours later than we had booked.

The return journey from Bangkok to Abu dhabi was also delayed though I admit this wasn't exactly etihad's fault. A passenger decided they didn't want to fly which resulted in them and their luggage in cargo being removed. This resulted in a delay of over 2.5 hours. Luckily we had booked a couple nights in Abu dhabi so didn't miss the connecting flight to london as many others did.
Our final flight from Abu dhabi to London was also delayed by over an hour.

I did submit a complaint to Etihad customer relations and they did up their offer of compensation to 20,000 air miles each. Is this fair? As a student I really don't have much used for air miles so I was wondering what you guys would do in this situation.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any replies

For Etihad that's actually a better offer than most get - typically they tend to offer only 5,000 Etihad Guest points for poor performance, if you manage to get anyone to respond/care.

Etihad frequently suffers delays into/out of Heathrow - it is a rarity if flights are on time and knock-on effects are common occurrences. Etihad is generally poor at managing flight disruptions and ground staff competency is very variable (with fob offs and false information often occurring).

Sure 20,000 Etihad Guest points is really not anything more than sop (a token gesture) but it's better than it's usual response (or lack there of). I highly doubt the chance of anything more appropriate being provided.

Flights 1 and 2 may generate some debate as to the applicability or otherwise of EC261. Only think about this if you are prepared to go to court, or can persuade a NWNF lawyer to do it for you.

what you do not say is what loss did you suffer as a result of arriving 12 hours later than planned

If you check out the etihad shop you will see 40,000 miles will buy quite a lot

As for a plane being an hour late forget it

Thanks for your responses. I lost the first day of my holiday. Arriving at your hotel at 2am when you have a day in the rainforest booked at 6am the next day isn't ideal. But thats the airlines problem I understand!!!

And amnicoll i was just stating what happened, I've missed connections before due to no fault of my own and have not claimed but as this was a long-haul flight and the service was horrendous I feel like I should.

Thank you Suiteflight and ft101. I will look into NWNF but in all likelihood given what has been said I might just take the 20,000

On the issue of compensation then what loss you suffered is key in answering the question and there would be a difference between the (i agree ) far from ideal 02.00 am arrival and the missing of the trip altogether

Sorry Amnicoll, I meant to thank you also!

I agree that what loss I suffered is important and that luckily in my case it didn't result in the loss of too much only really a day in KL but then again its all rather subjective and I don't think the airline would take into account what plans I had made anyway. I just wanted to see if someone had experience of dealing with Etihad customer relations and what the best course of action would be for me.

I think that there are times when an airline would take into account your plans but would expect you first to turn to your travel insurance.
However there are always likely to be delays and the airlines (most) will provide a hotel (if applicable) food and put you on the next available flight and see this as the normal limit of their responsibility and to be honest I think this is fair enough and have never asked an airline for compensation in this event.
No doubt you will make many more flights and you may consider doing as I do and not making any "important" arrangements on the first day although I would happily return to work on the same day as an early morning arrival back in the UK

However unfortunately dealing with Etihad customer relations can be an unrewarding experience - I am still awaiting a response to an enquiry made on 5rd September despite me sending a reminder

If you basically lost a night at the hotel, it may be worth asking them to compensate you for that. Explain what you just did here, that you're a student (so the holiday was a treat and the cost of the hotel not cheap), but so miles are not as helpful adn don't go far enough to compensate for the time you lost and the experience in the rainforest suffered from lack of sleep. Worth a try. You must have been exhausted!

Didn't want to create a new thread so asking here. My flight from JFK to AUH was canceled and I was rebooked on the same flight, but for the next day, forcing me to stay one extra night in NYC. I actually missed my connecting flight to HK. I understand I won't qualify for compensation under EU 261. Am entitled to any other compensation from Etihad? I'm going to guess no. Thanks.

They have a duty of care. They should have tried to rebook you. But since they didn't they should reimburse your expenses. Send them the bills. If they don't pay complain to the DOT.

Rubbish. JFK is in the US, not the EU and EY is not an EU carrier. "Duty of care" is a legal concept under EC 261/2004, not DOT rules or any other US law.
No US law requires EY to cover ang2383's costs and a DOT complaint will do nothing.

ang2383 has not even explained what he is out and thus what compensation he even would want. With that, he might start with a request to EY.

But, the smart move would be to make a claim on his travel interruption insurance if he has direct out-of-pocket expenses not covered by EY.

As to the connection, EY will, of course rebook ang2383.

I stand corrected. Though EY's CoCs still provide for rebooking on another carrier. I would still send in the receipts. I have had success with that. Also check if your credit card has insurance that covers it.

You are eligible for EC261/04 compensation of 600 EUR as you were ticketed ex-EU (LHR-AUH-KUL) and delayed more than 4 hours to your FINAL destination. You'll need to press them and, potetially, initiate small claims court action (or leave it to a claims company who will take a %). If in doubt, check the great thread in the BA forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...61-2004-a.html

Good luck.