Etihad customer care has left us with no choice but to write about our unpleasant experience with them on various platforms and situations.
We recently booked a return journey with them from JFK to New Delhi from 21st of April and return journey on 5th of May with our infant daughter. As we live in Charlotte our connecting flight was from Charlotte to JFK booked with American Airlines but due to technical issues our AA flight couldn’t take off and we had to take the next AA flight which was scheduled after two hours from original flight time. While waiting for our AA flight from Charlotte to JFK we informed Etihad that we will most likely miss our flight from JFK to DEL and requested them to provide any alternatives they can. (Meaning they were aware of our situation of not being able to take the flight from JFK).
On reaching JFK airport we rushed to the Etihad counter to seek help but the counter was already closed even though the flight didn’t depart. We were then asked by JFK authorities to go to another terminal for AA counter but from there we were sent back to the same terminal for Etihad customer service as the counters were closed. We were doing this in the late night with our daughter and as there was no other place for us to go we looked for the nearest best hotel option to spend the night (we spent around $350 there) and also looked for another flight option as we had to reach India for a family wedding.
As soon as we reached the hotel, I put my daughter to bed and my husband was on call with Etihad customer care and also American Airlines to look for the best options to reach India. There was also a time when we were in conference calls with AA and Etihad Airlines. I am mentioning these details just to explain that Etihad was aware of our situation before missing our flight from JFK and also we were in touch with customer care after we missed our flight to India. The next best option from Etihad was not matching our time schedule and was only delaying our arrival to India therefore we took the first morning flight with a different carrier. Overall our first leg of the journey had cost us heavy money.
Now, as we are preparing to take our return flight we found that ETIHAD HAS CANCELED OUR RETURN FLIGHT WITHOUT ANY NOTIFICATION and also no money was credited to our account for cancellation. Again we connected with customer care and as expected we were not helped and instead the customer care team asked us to purchase new tickets.
This experience has been a nightmare for our family. We expect IMMEDIATE resolution in this matter as we are stuck in DEL and are not able to return to the US.