[Anonymous]

[SeptoSudiro]

I flew Etihad from JFK to CGK (Jakarta) on June 28, 2013 and suppose to connect on GA flight 89 or EY7139 but due to Etihad system problem I was not able to get onboard Garuda, hence I must stop over more than 14 hours.

As I am Indonesia passport holder, I cannot go out immigration without UAE visa. Etihad transfer desk staff in terminal 1 promised me an inside airport hotel but later on, I checked myself to the inside terminal hotel and I found that there is no room available until next morning.

Actually Etihad transfer staff should knew that there is no available room until next morning but he elected to say that I will be given a room soon.

And when I asked to provide me a hotel outside, he refused by saying that it will need 6 to 8 hours to get 96 hours visa on arrival, for me it is no problem, at least I can take a nap for 4-5 hours before my next flight.

Actually, Etihad should do it better by preparing visa on arrival for long stop over passenger by collecting the passenger data such as father name, mother name, education, current position, citizenship and copy of passport when we checking in the originating airport, for example, the passenger from JFK have 15 hours flight plus the check in time it would give Etihad more than 17 hours to provide the passenger a visa on arrival upon his/her arrival in AUH. Passengers from south east asia will have minimum 9 hours before they arrive in AUH.

[ImissConcorde]

Visas are the responsibility of the customer.

[HBHLondon]

That is not the point. What SeptoSurido is suggesting is that Etihad could have anticipated the problem and book a room at the airport hotel or request the visa for the him/her. Having to wait at Abu Dhabi airport 14 hours is certainly not a pleasant experience and obviously Etihad was not interested whatsoever in providing a decent service to this passenger. I must say, I used Etihad recently to get from London to Bangkok connecting to Vientiane and was not impressed at all with them. I was not bothered about the food, but how lax the FAs were with safely issues. And I had of course to use the hell of Abu Dhabi airport.

[MartynSinclair]

somebody seems to have it in for Etihad….

[SimonS1]

I did wonder why it couldn’t be all put in one thread?

Ultimately I thought visas were issued by immigration not the airline.

[HBHLondon]

What is your point MSinclair? Be serious and do respect other’s point! Posting a genuine concern about Etihad does not mean having it in for them. You are increasingly sounding like vintagekrug.

[HBHLondon]

An airline can make initial ‘arrangements’ for visas in case one of its passenger needs to leave an airport. In case you have not noticed, a lot of people who fly are not EU, American, Japanese, Swiss etc passport holders who do not require visas for many countries. They are given a very hard time simple by holding passport of certain countries.

[TominScotland]

Martyn, in fairness, multiple Etihad postings are not much different from the contributions of those intent on highlighting BA’s shortcomings – I seem to remember more than one thread about BA Lounge changes and other threads which seem to update/ bore us with every BA failing to the neglect of those of other carriers!!

[CXDiamond]

TominScotland – 30/06/2013 11:03 GMT

I disagree, I can’t recall a situation where multiple similar threads were begun one after the other all to complain about an aspect of BA service.

Martyn is right, one thread would have been sufficient.

[TominScotland]

CXDiamond – what about the two threads complaining about T5 Lounges – end of Walkers Biscuits and Cvilisation as we know it?

[MartynSinclair]

Was it really necessary for the same poster to start 3 threads at the same time, detailing a different aspect of his complaint. Surely 1 thread would have sufficed.

[Swindoneric]

Come back VK, all is forgiven?

[CXDiamond]

TominScotland – 30/06/2013 15:34 GMT

They weren’t both started within minutes of each other by the same poster.

[SimonRowberry]

Nice to know that peace broke out for a while. It didn’t last (again) and now it’s bickering as usual over trivialities.

What a tiresome bunch some of you are…..

Simon

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