For over two decades, I’ve been a frequent flyer, navigating the skies with various airlines. However, my recent experiences with Etihad Airways have been unlike any other, marked by what I can only describe as shockingly poor customer service. So concerning were these issues that I felt compelled, for the first time, to share my experience and strongly advise fellow travelers to AVOID ETIHAD AIRWAYS. If anything goes wrong with your journey, resolving it through Etihad Airways Customer Service is likely to be an exercise in futility.
My spouse and I encountered a series of problems across just two trips with Etihad. These weren’t minor inconveniences; they were significant hurdles that highlighted a systemic failure in their customer support. From repeated online check-in failures and ground staff disregarding pre-booked seat reservations to a phantom upgrade offer that vanished upon arrival at our connecting airport, the issues mounted. These are in addition to the typical travel hiccups one might expect over years of flying.
What truly sets Etihad apart, and not in a positive way, is the utter inadequacy of their customer service. Over ten phone calls – yes, for just two trips! – I discovered their representatives are largely powerless. They can process basic requests like flight changes (often with fees) but are incapable of addressing any real issues. For anything beyond simple transactions, you’re directed to the enigmatic “Etihad Guest Affairs,” or left hoping a customer service email might somehow reach, and be acted upon by, ground staff – a hope that consistently went unfulfilled.
Here’s where the situation descends into the truly unbelievable, especially for an airline that positions itself as “World’s Best”:
The Impenetrable Wall of Etihad Guest Affairs
Etihad Guest Affairs, the department supposedly equipped to handle customer issues, is completely unreachable by phone. Not even Etihad’s own customer service agents can directly call them. Communication is exclusively through email.
Adding to the frustration, all Etihad Guest Affairs staff appear to use the same generic email address: “[email protected]“. This means there’s no direct line of communication, no way to reply directly to an individual. You send your email into a void and wait – currently, I’m on day six awaiting a response to my latest message.
The pattern with Etihad Guest Affairs is consistent: they prioritize quick dismissal of responsibility. When they are demonstrably at fault, expect to send multiple follow-up emails before anyone bothers to properly address your concern and potentially initiate a call.
Should you be fortunate enough to receive a call from Etihad Guest Affairs, it will be at a random time of their choosing. Customer convenience is not a consideration. If you miss their call, or if the call drops – as happened to me due to mobile network issues – they seize this as an opportunity to revert back to email communication, further delaying resolution. To continue the conversation, you are forced to send yet another email, and brace yourself for another minimum three-working-day wait for a response.
Etihad Guest Affairs operates in the UAE, where Friday is a day off. However, their “officers” will readily extend their non-working days to include Saturday and Sunday, even if you are in a country where these are standard working days, using this as justification for their delayed responses. It’s a masterclass in bureaucratic delay tactics.
Requests to escalate issues to a supervisor or anyone with actual authority are met with outright refusal. Promises of supervisor callbacks are routinely broken, and shockingly, in one instance, I was informed directly by a customer service agent that a supervisor had decided not to call me, despite a prior assurance. Neither the supervisor nor the agent bothered to inform me of this decision, further illustrating their disregard for customer communication.
The inescapable conclusion is this: Etihad Airways simply does not care about how they treat their customers.
Weeks of Silence and a Deliberate Strategy of Delay
The issue I am currently embroiled in has been dragging on for weeks. It’s increasingly clear that the Etihad Guest Affairs “officer” assigned to my case is employing a strategy of attrition, hoping I will simply give up out of frustration with their calculated delays and outright ignoring of my communications.
For the past three days, I have contacted Etihad Airways customer service, pleading for Guest Affairs to respond. Each time, I receive assurances that Guest Affairs will call or email me “today.” These promises are consistently broken.
My regret at choosing to fly with Etihad is immense. I will be returning to airlines like Emirates, Qantas, and British Airways, all of whom have demonstrated responsive and genuinely helpful customer care departments that value customer retention.
Despite the appalling customer service, I am determined to resolve my current issue. I was unfairly charged an exorbitant fee to modify my flight booking, despite confirming at the time of booking that my fare class had no such restrictive conditions. This fee was not disclosed on my e-ticket or during the online booking process on Etihad’s website, only to appear when a medical issue necessitated a change to my return flight.
When I disputed this fee with multiple Etihad customer service representatives, they refused to provide the fare conditions document justifying the charge. I was simply told I had to trust that the fee was legitimate and forced to select an alternative, arbitrary flight date under duress, or risk losing my return ticket entirely. At the time, still unwell, I reluctantly complied.
When the issue remained unresolved as the new return date approached, I called again. This time, I was surprisingly informed that there would be no fee for a “no-show” and that I could simply call to rebook at a later date. When I questioned why this option wasn’t offered weeks prior, and why I was charged the exorbitant fee, I was directed, predictably, to Etihad Guest Affairs – thus initiating my ongoing saga with their unresponsive system.
Etihad customer service never informed me of the “no-show” option during my initial calls. Instead, they pressured me into paying a substantial fee to change my flight to a random date, based on misinformation. Now, having revealed their error (at my expense), they have passed me off to Guest Affairs, who are seemingly determined to avoid refunding the wrongly charged fee.
I have since made alternative travel arrangements with other airlines. While I would still like to utilize my return Etihad ticket before it expires, it is outrageous that they are effectively holding it hostage, demanding another fee on top of the one I was wrongly charged initially. The cumulative cost would likely exceed the price of a new one-way ticket.
If you’ve persevered and read this far, any advice on how to get Etihad to respond and what legal recourse I might have would be greatly appreciated. I have already obtained details of my country’s airline regulator and discovered that this undisclosed fare condition may violate EU directives. My experience serves as a stark warning: proceed with extreme caution when considering Etihad Airways, as their customer service may prove to be more trouble than it’s worth.
