Etihad. Not fit for purpose

Last March 2014 I flew for the first time with Etihad in Business class,, so I decided to joined the Etihad Guest Programme, then in Oct-Nov2014 I had two flights with partner airline, SriLankan Airways, I gave them my Etihad Guest Number, but after six weeks they had not appeared in my Etihad account.

Then on the 19″ January, I forwarded the Boarding passes to Etihad, and got a automated response saying someone would contact me in five days, I received a reply on the 22″ saying the miles had been credited to my account, but when I checked they were not there.

I have now sent eight e-mails, and every time I get a reply either saying, that the miles have been credited or some one will contact me, which never happens.

I then sent a complaint, the reply was, “At Etihad, we pride ourselves on our high standard of service. and I am concerned to hear of your experience. Rest assured we will investigate your feedback thoroughly and will ensure that the appropriate acton is taken as quickly as possible”.

16 Days later, From Etihad.
“First and foremost, please be advised that we always make it a point of responding to our guests in a timely manner. However, on this occasion, I understand that a response has been pending for some time, for which I apologise.

We have noted your dissatisfaction with respect to your Etihad Guest membership. Please find below a screen shot of your account. If the flights you are referring to are not added yet, could you kindly forward the details to me and I will contact the relevant department on your behalf?

Thank you for writing and for giving me this opportunity to review your concerns”.

My Reply.

Thank you for your E-mail to my complaint about missing miles, Ref, RQID315583, You said to check a screen shot of my account in your E-mail to me, but that was not included?,

I have now since January 19″ sent 8 E-mails asking for the missing miles, (and still not got them) so you will be happy to hear this will be my last time to send the boarding passes.

You ask me to forward the details, if the flights have not been added to my account, I would have thought it would have been your responsibly to check if they had been added before replying to me,

but of course I should not be surprised at this with the experience which I have had corresponding with your company, I find this totally unacceptable. Hopefully you can resolve this matter for me, and bring it to final conclusion Thanking You.

Etihad Response.

“Thank you for your response.

Please find attached screen shot of your account.

If the flights you are referring to are not added yet, could you kindly forward the details to me and I will contact the relevant department on your behalf, as we cannot add miles to accounts on this department”,

And after that I just gave up!!.

I’ve had a few problems like this in the past, which is disappointing as they are a good airline to fly with. Customer service is a problem but then again look at others that have been in the game longer.

Try this email to get their CEO James Hogan <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected] and copy in the Guest Gold address (whether or not you are Gold) <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected]

Should get some action.

Oh……you sure you’re not writing about BA?!!!!

First let me thank everyone who offer their knowledge and help with my problem Getting my Guest miles from Etihad. I would especially like to thank “goalie11”, who provided the email of the CEO James Hogan, That was a game changer!! I received a email early the next morning, they had been trying to ring me, but I had not updated my profile with my new mobile number, (my fault this time) and they asked me to provide a number so they could call me, which I did immediately, I then went to my profile to change my Numbers, and guess what!! every time I put the new number in, it reverted back to the old number, and it would not allow me to clear the page to start over again. will update you when I hear from Etihad.. But for now, a very big thanks

Glad you got sorted out. They shouldn’t make it so difficult though.

Emirates is much worse, the ultimate in non-existing customer service! Having had many issues as First and Business Class passenger and Skywards Gold member I sent my complaints to their customer service’s email. Despite sending reminders from time to time I have never received any reply. Eight months later I had enough and showed up in person in their Hong Kong office. I cancelled my booked upcoming flights and let off steam. Then, suddenly, there came an email claiming that my complaints have never been forwarded by the customer service headquarters in Dubai. Too ridiculous to believe! For the massive lack (or non-existence) of customer service they “generously” offered me a few useless miles, just enough to upgrade from the terminal building to the runway. I declined and made it clear: instead of miles I expect a precise answer on my specific case, not just this computer generated nonsense. Of course that never happened, due to lack of professionalism.

After that I have sent an email to their President, Tim Clark, requesting an explanation from the senior management. Again, nothing happened! Emirates is a careless airline with a careless and unprofessional management! Tim Clark lacks the drive to run a company with high service standards. In short: A fish rots from the head down! One solution would be replacing him and bringing the necessary fresh wind into this company. Currently the EK management knows only vocabulary: to expand. Under a new leadership they may learn another one: to serve.

In my company we issued an office order that nobody to fly Emirates anymore. Middle Eastern business goes with QR now: more classy, more prestigious and more impressive fleet for the same price.

Etihad is extremely bad when it comes to service outside of their aircraft. Their aircraft service is very good but anything beyond, they are very sluggish, inept and slow. I was a gold member of etihad but I stopped flying after their sub par customer service. there is one upside to etihad, they do give you upgrades very frequently for free.