Does Etihad Airways has bad reputation?

If you google 'Etihad airways reputation' this is the second result, so I guess it attracts angry customers.

i think etihad is a bad airline,i lost my bag while traveling with etihad airline on 16th of september,enroute from lagos to london,i ve filled there lost baggage compensation form,up till now no reply,am confused and i need help,,any advise is kindly needed,i ve started my masters class and i lost everytin i neeeded for my programme

Beware of covert and fraudulent methods of this Airline!

Have you heard of an airline fleecing their passengers and collecting whopping amounts of money when you are in transit? Have you ever gone through such situations? Read on and become aware. Before I go on narrating my horrifying experience, let me tell you that I am an American Citizen and a frequent flier with different airlines between United States, Middle-East and many other places. Be patient to read through this to know the name of this airline.

Being a frequent flier, I have always traveled with almost the same number and size of bags every time, by different airlines.This incident took place just recently ( I had traveled by this very airline just a few weeks earlier too), on my way back to Muscat from a week-long trip to the United States..

I had checked in my bags at the airport in United States where I started my return journey and I was given boarding passes for all legs of travel all the way up to Muscat(via Chicago O’hare, and Abu Dhabi). I had the shock of my life when I arrived at Chicago O’ hare international airport. I reached the terminal(change of terminal) to board the aircraft to Abu Dhabi(on way to Muscat), and as I was walking towards the gate, I came to the area with a long winding queue. Upon inquiry, I was told that even transit passengers with ‘already issued’ boarding passes ‘had to’ go through that queue and ‘re-check in’. Like me, several other transit passengers were aghast at this ‘new’ development.

An unfriendly and arrogant stewardess/ground staff was at the entry point of the queue telling passengers that the carry-on bags have to fit the ‘sizer’ of that airline in order to be allowed as ‘carry-on bag’ or else it would have to be checked in at ‘additional cost’ of US $ 175. She simply would not care if you were a transit passenger. She directed me and some other transit passengers to the so called ‘supervisor’ who ‘sermonized’ that rules had changed months ago about the size of carry-on bags that would be allowed on board.

There was one elderly professor of Medicine from an Asian country with his family(wife and daughters) ahead of me in the queue with the ‘supervisor’ and this family had three hand bags that would not fit the sizer of this airline. Like me, they too were in transit to Abu Dhabi on way back to their country. At least 4 representatives from the airline (so called supervisors) came one after the other to us, only to tell us that our carry-on bags would not be allowed on board unless we coughed up US $ 175 per bag.

The problem was that our bags were fitting in the sizer, but, not the wheels. These supervisors were not ready to accept the fact that we had traveled with the same bags in our onward journey and in our earlier trips and that none of their airline staff at any of the originating points had ever mentioned to us about the sizer and size of carry-on bags. (I had done one trip just about a few weeks before by the same airline with the same bags without being subjected to this harassment. ). These supervisors did not hesitate to deride their own colleagues! They declared, “what you do with your carry-on bags is your problem, if you don’t pay, you won’t have them on board”.

The family who was ahead of me in the queue had to rush out and buy one smaller carry-on bag and had to rearrange their items and yet had to pay for two bags! As for me, I paid US $ 175 to have my carry-on bag checked in as an additional bag. I felt sick and disgusted. I had never faced this kind of ‘rude, uncaring and belligerent’ airline staff in my many years of international air travel. All my good impression about this airline got wiped out.

If that was not all, I have to mention one more thing. Apparently, this ‘rough’ treatment was probably not towards all passengers. Interestingly, the harassed family ahead of me was brown skinned and so was I(although I am an American Citizen). I could see a racial preference in this dispensation by this airline, where some travelers with ‘fairer’ skin seemed to have been spared the ‘harassment’. Racial tolerance and acceptance did not seem to be strong point of this airline. It may be possible that somewhere down the queue, ‘fair’ skinned travelers too were treated this way, but my experience and observation was clear. I feel that there should be consistency in the way an airline does its business.

Thanks for patiently reading and this treatment was by none other than ‘Etihad’ airline that claims many superlative things about itself. So the next time you think of traveling by ‘Etihad’ Airlines, think twice and don’t say I didn't warn you!

Beware of this airline!!

We (me and my brother) boarded a flight from Manchester which was supposed to depart at 8:40am. Even though the boarding closed at 8:20 the flight simply did not depart and the only explanation we got is "we do not have flying permit yet" on announcement. My question is, why would you schedule your flight at 8:40am when you donot even have permit to fly at that time?? Nevertheless, after almost 1hour wait INSIDE the plane the flight finally flew at 9:35am.

We thought that our sufferings ended there but I was so wrong. We had a transit from Abu Dhabi to Dhaka which had the departure time of 9:25pm. We arrived at the gate, kept waiting...waiting and more waiting and none of the staff seemed to know when will that flight actually depart!!! Several of us had to remain STANDING on the waiting area as there were not enough seats and after almost 3 HOURS OF DELAY WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION

Beware of this airline!!

We (me and my brother) boarded a flight from Manchester which was supposed to depart at 8:40am. Even though the boarding closed at 8:20 the flight simply did not depart and the only explanation we got is "we do not have flying permit yet" on announcement. My question is, why would you schedule your flight at 8:40am when you donot even have permit to fly at that time?? Nevertheless, after almost 1hour wait INSIDE the plane the flight finally flew at 9:35am.

We thought that our sufferings ended there but I was so wrong. We had a transit from Abu Dhabi to Dhaka which had the departure time of 9:25pm. We arrived at the gate, kept waiting...waiting and more waiting and none of the staff seemed to know when will that flight actually depart!!! Several of us had to remain STANDING on the waiting area as there were not enough seats and after almost 3 HOURS OF DELAY WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION we were finally allowed to board the flight which then flew at 1am in the morning! But alas, the surprises were not over yet! Two of our bags were missing from Dhaka Airport and when we complained to Etihad Dhaka Agent we were told "they FORGOT to load your bags in Manchester Airport". We had to wait for 2 entire days without our belongings before our bags got shipped to Dhaka.

I had already booked my return flight when I purchased Manchester > Dhaka ticket and now I'm seriously worried about the return journey on 8th Jan 2014. Never in my life have I experienced such a bad service from ANY airline!

Very dissapointed with this airline.
I flew Business class from Istanbul to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi.this past week.
I had heard a lot about the airline so I decided to give them a try instead of flying Turkish Airlines or Emirates which both are flying the same route.
I thought that their food was lousy,the service very slow and the aircraft not very clean ,the seats most uncomfortable.(narrow).
Maybe their economy class was better,I do not know but their business class was certainly not worth the Money.

posted in error, sorry

Edited by: smglass

Not recommande if you are from Bangladesh travelling from Dhaka to Abu Dhabi unless you take business class.
You may face some downright racist experience, they treat you with inappropriate service
Even, once I took business class but the service was very poor and if you order a bottle of water, they will bring you just 'a bottle' but no glass. You have to precise that you are unable to drink your room temperatured sparkling water without some ice and a glass and then some other cabin crew will bring you a glass.

Can`t complain but my standards are pretty low.

Flew Frankfurt - Abu Dhabi - Kathmandu and return. Worked fine for me. No hiccups.

Two things they did really well: gin tonics and being flexible: I turned up at Kathmandu airport one day before my scheduled flight and they managed to get me on board on the same day.