pgiyer

What an obnoxious post! Says more about the poster than Thailand.

akalra1187

So you're saying it's ok to blame Etihad but not Thailand? How does that work?

pgiyer

The way it works: The OP complained specifically about an agent employed by Etihad. You generalized it about the whole nation of Thailand. This strategy has worked in the past unfortunately.

NoY

Hilarious. Almost.

NoY

True to say, there have been some classics in the past too. Sigh.

akalra1187

Not wanting to make this a scene, but will make two points, Phuket is not known as bastion of education. I've visited Koh Samui and with the exception of resorts, it's an almost feudal place. That's not an attempt to put it down, Cambridge and Oxford don't have the scenery of the gulf of Thailand, but both are known for different things.
Secondly, Etihad is an organisation and Phuket is a city. Putting down an organisation is ok but mentioning the shortcomings of a city is not?
Yes go ahead and open a research laboratory in Phuket as opposed to Palo Alto. I'm sure it will do great business...
Finally and perhaps most importantly, an airport security personnel rarely works for an airline, therefore, this would have happened on any airline leaving Phuket. What doesn't change is that this employee was a resident of Phuket.

BRITINJAPAN3

Except that it was the check in staff, not airport seurity that insisted on checking the laptop. I dont know if the check in staff were Etihad employees or TG or another company, but doubt it would apply to ALL airlines, but possible. Also I find it probable that not ALL staff at Phuket are local, must be many from Bangkok aslo, but in anycase I think you comment was simply unfair and rather unpleasant.

akalra1187

Ok, I don't mean to be unfair or unpleasant. Let's put it this way, even if it was a check in agent, there's a high chance they're employed by the main host airline at that airport, so it's likely this would have happened whether flying TG, QR, EK, EY or any other airline out of that airport. Let's leave where the airport is out of it for the sake of political correctness, the point is still that, other than staff onboard or in outstation EY lounges, or at AUH, most of the people you encounter before you board the plane at outsations are seldom trained and rarely even directly employed by the airline you're flying. Viz. they are local to that particular airport not airline.

ft101

Most of the things you plug here are personal preferences. The only one I would rate from your list, or that would seriously influence my airline choice, is the chauffeur drive.

HawaiiO

Etihad doesnt offer chauffeur on Biz saver fares though.
Also didnt offer free stopover, at least, the phone agent didnt offer to me when i asked.

Etihad also never replied to email regarding some inflight service questions.

Hopefully service and flight itself would be good.
Will find out soon.

kmzandrew

While I understand that most check in counter staff are airport employees I highly doubt this woman was simply another "airport employee". She was the only one in an Etihad uniform and was unquestionably the manager. Even if she wasn't an Etihad employee she must have at least received training from them. If she didn't it's really Etihad's fault for creating the situation. Even if you believe it was a "Thailand" and not Etihad problem the fact of the matter is that on multiple trips to Thailand the customer service in 5 star hotels and restaurants is always top notch. Etihad should be able to train at least 1-2 people on the ground to be able to handle difficult situations (Even though this honestly was such an idiotic thing to happen. There's really no excuse other than her having ill-will or being so incompetent that she wouldn't know that you go through security and screening at other airports while transiting, which again would be completely unacceptable and leaves me dumbfounded about Etihad's judgement. If this is who they hire on the ground I'm left wondering who is flying their planes and what their qualifications are).

Furthermore, if you consider Thailand and Phuket to be "third world" destinations I don't really know how you can fly EY. I mean Thailand has more culture, history, and even older universities than the UAE, which were it not for striking oil would certainly be the textbook definition of "third world". If anything I think it's much more likely that any issues arose from EY having a "third world" mentality when it comes to training and customer service than from the flight being out of Thailand.

akalra1187

Fill in this form for the free stopover, they will usually confirm in 24hrs:

http://resources.etihadairways.com/e...Over_Form.html

I don't think they actively offer it, and that's a good thing in my book.

akalra1187

If you're sure she was an Etihad employee I have to agree with you, this is wrong. I'll just say I often fly out of Heathrow and other than some of the lounge employees, everyone else I encounter at LHR is an LHR employee (especially check-in staff), I've asked many of them. Given that HKT is a much smaller airport than LHR, I have doubts that many actual EY staff work on the ground there. I have no evidence, but if you ask me the vast majority of staff will be HKT employees not EY employees.
In this case, she may well have been the only EY manager at that station, so yes let's say she was an EY employee, and they should know better. Just know its very rare to have airlines own employees at small outstations.
I never said Thailand is the third world, its the second world and it fits most definitions of that. The third world today is Sudan, Liberia, Bukina Faso and such the like, not Thailand. My comment never mentioned the third world actually.
That doesn't change the fact that the UAE is very much the first word, oil or no oil. History or no history. The USA is the first world by most accounts, they don't have much history. Many European countries have no good universities, this doesn't change the fact that they are the first world (the UAE has many branches of the worlds top universities actually, so whilst they may not be their own, they are there). I originate from a second world country (India) and the majority of my business is in India, I find it funny that its likely 'white' people throwing their arms up in the air about me mentioning the shortfalls of our second world countries.
Put it this way, such a situation would very likely happen to you at Indira Gandhi or Chattrapatti Shivaji International airports. There are a lot of low level employees on power trips in India, or looking for bribes. It wouldn't matter which airline I'm on. If I can say this about my country, I don't see why hands were in the air about my comment about Thailand. I don't think many will argue that Phuket is as developed in Mumbai. So if it can happen in Mumbai, why not Phuket?
I don't really see these things happening in LHR, SIN, HKG, etc.
If you're convinced this was an Etihad problem and not a local problem that's entirely up to you.

kmzandrew

I disagree with you here. The UAE has a HDI of .840, much lower than 1st world countries like the US, Japan, Germany, etc. It's close to the HDI of many eastern european countries which I would consider 2nd world (and which actually are the definition of 2nd world when it comes to the origin of the term).

It's also quite silly to try and compare the US or any european power with the UAE when it's precisely countries like the US that have created an global environment where a country like the UAE can even exist. It reminds me a bit of American liberals who try to preach about how great Norway is and how the US should try to emulate Norway even though they are ignorant to the fact that Norway was historically one of the poorest and most uneducated countries in Europe. Were it not for "winning the lottery" and striking oil coupled with the facts that the US is essentially protecting Norway as well as providing it with the newest technologies most Norwegians would be living in second or third world conditions to this day (Can you even name a couple famous Norwegian scientists, inventors, artists, composers, etc? The same can be said for the UAE).

akalra1187

I tend to agree with part of what you're saying. Yes the US and its proliferation of the personal automobile is exactly what got the UAE where it is today, but on the same note it's the UK and its proliferation of Lords and peasants which got the US where it is today, and let's not forget Germany founded the basic automotive technology before the US and the Germany of the 1940s today would be known as a terrorist state.
Where I don't agree is that none of these prudent facts change whether a country is First or Thrid World or anything in between.

Edit: I think we're digressing. I didn't even say Thailand is a third world country, in my eyes it's very much second world. I did however say that the education/bribery culture/power tripping low level employees who will not be reprimanded culture in Phuket is significantly higher than an airport like AUH, DXB, SIN, LHR, NRT etc etc... and I feel this is where the problem originated, if you think this is down to Etihad I'm nobody to argue but that's not my take.