mlqsko

Good luck! ^

ahcjar103

i'm going to try and live post this as much as possible for the insight and entertainment factor.

18:25 local time at CMB: went to transfer desk at CMB (this desk is the transfer handling agent for pretty much all airlines here). handed over our passports and the eticket itineraries i'd printed out from virtually there and gave them to the agent. we had been waiting in the lotus lounge and he gave us two cards that said "transit" and said he'd bring everything to us in lounge when it was ready (has to go downstairs to the etihad ticket office). i ask how long it will take - he says 10-15 minutes, his boss standing next to him says 30. in true price is right style i'm taking 31 minutes. came back to the lounge, grabbed a coke light, fired up this post. the flintstones is playing on the tv in here and there is a lack of outlets. i need to shower.

18:35: there are four lounges we saw here: lotus (contract), executive (contract), araliya (contract), and serendib (srilankan). the first three are right next to each other; serendib is around the corner and down the walkway a bit. EY uses araliya; lotus takes priority pass. lotus has on offer cheese/tuna/chicken sandwiches, fish patties, fried sausages, vegetable pizza, mini chicken burgers, fruit, cheese, breads, basic liquor (skyy, etc), beer, soft drinks, and either a soup or a witch's potion in a cauldron in the corner, among other items. i really hope it's the potion.

18:50: there is a trumpet cover of richard marx - right here waiting playing throughout the terminal. a fitting song for the moment.

18:56: the UL flight attendant uniforms (saris) show a fair amount of skin. imagined what AA fa's would look like in those uniforms. puked in mouth a little. dont imagine this, please for the love of god.

19:03: speaking of AA, upgrade email for DFW-SEA leg came in. yay for not spending the last of 10 flights in coach.

19:06: no one has come here yet. curious now, time to venture to the transfer desk for an update.

19:09: seems they took our stuff to the ticket office only about 5-10 minutes ago. back to the lounge it is.

19:30: still nothing. yawn.

19:50: still nothing. went back to the transfer desk. lady said it has been taken down (oh really?) and that etihad "hasn't processed it yet" (because it takes so long to create a boarding pass) and that they will "get in touch with me when ready". i'm beginning to think they're purposefully delaying and will deliver everything last minute so there's no time to dispute anything if inaccurate/not as described. in other news, a bunch of new food came out: paneer palak, potato curry, vegetable chop suey, oven baked fish, roast lamb in mint sauce, stuffed glass noodles, chicken biryani, and yellow rice.

20:08: just got our stuff. saw the woman walking towards the wrong lounge with it (that could've been bad). they moved our seats for the first flight even though they were confirmed, and gave us lounge passes for the lounge we've been sitting in (how does that work?). no lounge passes for AUH. T-50 to takeoff.

00:45 local time in AUH: made it here. so it turned out the seat change was a good thing. there was an aircraft swap and instead of a regional a320 with recliners we flew one of the wet leased 777s from 9W. this meant flat beds for a 4 hour flight departing at 21:00, so it was great. since first wasn't originally available that cabin flew empty, however in talking with the cabin manager about our plans and the partnership with 9W he invited me for a tour of the first class cabin. he made it known that everything in all classes is up to etihad standards, however some of the hard product details (seat leather, touch screens, etc) of the metal is just better on EY (which he took great pride in). the service in flight was fantastic.

landing here was a different story and somewhat surreal. upon arrival we went to an etihad customer service agent to ask directions to the first lounge. he took them and talk to a couple others, and then all of them returned with 2 security agents. they said there was a problem with our tickets and that we needed to come with them. they surrounded us and we arrived at our "lounge," which was a i believe an immigration interrogation room where they just left us with no explanation. about 30 minutes later an EY representative came in and asked how we got our tickets, if we knew that we were stealing from EY and in turn the UAE, and that we were subject to fines and possible legal action. i had no idea what was going on so i didn't say much else than "i bought them on PL" to which they didn't really say anything. after getting chastised for a good 15 minutes we were then left for another 20 or so, after which at around T-45 they returned with new boarding passes for seats in Y and told us to go to the gate and never return. just a crazy turn of events and one i still dont know how to handle.

00:46: just kidding. we're sitting in the first class lounge in AUH. i just got out of a shower and massage, i'm waiting for lobster thermidor, and we take off for the good ol' US of A in 1h25m. the service is awesome and everyone is so friendly and eager to help. looking forward to this longhaul and experiencing EY F.

EDIT: long haul comments in post 2106.

parting notes:
- in retrospect, the processing time in CMB didn't really affect anything as we were in the lounge anyways. they knew this so probably saw no rush in completing the task. i was interested to see if it would go quicker as after i handled the "downgraded to Y on AA segments, call EY to get reinstated in F" dance, the booking status on our eTickets in virtually there changed to "ok to fly." i'm sure on the backend they still were void of coupons (the bp's even say not valid without flight coupon) but i was curious nonetheless.
- if you dont have priority pass or anything else the transfer desk will give you a card that says "transit" that will get you into the lounge. you then wait there and they'll bring you the bp's. this, of course, only works if you're arriving and not entering sri lanka. wouldn't have been nearly as comfortable if we had to spend this whole time in the check-in area.
- our arriving flight from CMB docked in T1; the lounge there is only business and you need to make your way to T3 for the F lounge.
- fwiw, i never received "the email" or any correspondence from PL or EY on anything.

any questions, lemme know.

polandspringuy

Haha. Following this with interest, as I am also planning to transfer from SIN on UL. Good luck!

roastpuff

Thanks for posting! I love the commentary. Following this is quite the distraction from work.

Potreroflyr

RULING: No contract. We lose

gnof

did you get the email this morning?

Potreroflyr

Yes. As raised by others, the Agency considered whether a contract was entered into by both parties...and found that it was not. Also says consumers should have known $1000 fare for First Class was a mistake.

Very pro-establishment ruling.

Pseudo Nim

This is on which case? The 7, or the 85, or what?

I wonder why the sudden about-turn.

Potreroflyr

This is for the 83 remaining complainants.

But not unexpected -- others indicated the contract issue could be problematic since it wasn't raised in the Yangon 7 original complaint. Swiss is still litigating/appealing that, I think.

Upside: No more REPLY ALL responses.

Edit: And of course right after I typed that, I got one :/

jmolony

CTA just issued decision that Swiss has won on all counts.
All 83 complaints dismissed!!

billyliu

Figures that the only Reply All is from Davis...

YYZC2

Disappointing, but you can't fight city hall. It's been fun.

If I'm reading this right, the CTA requires airlines to notify customers of a cancellation 72 hours after they become aware of a discrepancy, regardless of how long ago a transaction involving that discrepancy has taken place.

Wow.

gnof

Coincidence? I don't think we've ever gotten a reply all (at least this quickly) from the law firm before.

The one time we get it from them is when there's a favourable decision for them. Feels almost like they're rubbing it in...

Potreroflyr

I'm sure they are basking in the glory of their billables. @:-)

calvinoeh

Oh well.. It's been fun.

Good luck to the original 7..

*sacarsm* Next time I'll be sure to call the airline to make sure it's not a mistake first *sacarsm*