Etihad Airways

Customer Reviews

4 star Skytrax Rating
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Seat Comfort 12345
Staff Service 12345
Value for Money 12345
Customer rating from 1759 reviews
4/10
4 star Skytrax Rating
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1/10

"very unhappy with this behavior"

(Germany)

Verified Review | Dusseldorf to Phuket via Abu Dhabi. Several people in Etihad’s customer service (by email and on the hotline) gave us different answers. This is disappointing and confusing for us. Several times their customer service confirmed to accept our ticket via email on 20.08 and hotline on 07.11 that we will able to check in. They booked us into their system (however only the return flight instead of both flights). After we called customer service on 07.11 again, Etihad employee sent us a ticket (both ways), and confirmed again that with this ticket we will be able to check into our flight. Since on 10.11. one flight was still not visible on Etihad website, we called the hotline again. We were then informed that they won't accept our ticket. We are left confused if Etihad will honor their previous promises. Also we are very unhappy with this behavior. If they make promises they should keep them. If they don't intent to keep promises then better don't make any promise at all. Now we have buy new tickets shortly before we fly, which are very expensive now, comparing to 3 months ago. I already contacted the consumer protection organisation about this topic. Also I want to warn other potential customers to be very cautious before putting trust into them by sharing my story.
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteDusseldorf to Phuket via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownNovember 2017
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"No responses yet after 3 weeks"

(Slovenia)

Verified Review | Bangkok to Belgrade via Abu Dhabi. This is not review about the flight itself but the customer service and the user experience. The problem for me started when I arrived at the airport and they noticed that my wife switched my name and surname when registering the ticket. They notified me that the ticket is invalid and I cannot use it at all. I had to buy a new ticket which cost me 2x more than the one I already had. Since the problem was that only name and surname were switched, this is something that is totally unacceptable to me. When I arrived at Bangkok I tried to get in touch with the airline to learn if I can be at least partly refunded for the ticket that I was not able to use. On the web they say to contact them over Facebook page so I did. The response on the messenger took a few hours but they said to send the question over email. So I did. No responses after 5 days. I found online also the email address to where I wrote the same question. No responses yet after 3 weeks except the autoreply that they will look into my request. After not getting any response I tried also calling them. Their phone service is terrible. You are guided through multiple level of selections such as "for english press 1", "if you bought your ticket online press 1". At the deepest level you always reach a stage where they say they explain that you should find you answer somewhere else and that the call will now end. Horrible service, especially since these are all international calls. At just one of these deepest levels I was able to finally get a person to whom I was able to speak. They explained to me that the ticket cannot be refunded and that I can even be happy that they don't charge me additional money for not showing up. The last straw for my dissatisfaction with the airline was the checking in to return back home. I tried to check in online one day before and all seats were already marked as non-available. I assumed I simply need to choose the seat when I check in at the counter. I was one of the first people at the counter 4 hours before the flight. The person who checked me in was a trainee without any experience. She said that there are no seats available anymore next to the window on the two connected flights that I had with the airline. This is simply unbelievable and it's simply a way for them to charge additional money for people being able to choose seats.
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteBangkok to Belgrade via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownNovember 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
2/10

"will fly with Qatar Airways next time"

(Singapore)

Verified Review | We flew from Singapore to Manchester via Abu Dhabi, the Singapore to Abu Dhabi leg was great. The next leg to Manchester was very different with a much older plane, rather poor entertainment and food was no where near as good as from Singapore. Then, when flying back from Manchester it all went rather wrong. We had to queue up for well over an hour and a half, when we eventually arrived at the at the check in desk the guy wanted an 150GPB to check in the bike I had brought from Singapore to Manchester without any extra cost. He stated we were only allowed one bag each, there seemed to be time so I wanted to repack my bag slightly and only check my bike bag, he would not allow me to do this an insisted we paid the 150GPB or we would miss our flight. On the next counter to us a couple were having similar issues. We tried our best though there was no other airline staff around and the check in staff are not employed by Etihad so there was nothing they could do really. We paid up and then got to the boarding to find out the flight was delayed an hour, then it was delayed even longer which meant we would miss our connecting flight. It wasn't all bad as we were put up in an excellent hotel with great food and the plus for me was that I was able to now watch the McGregor vs Mayweather fight. The other upside is that we chatted with the other couple who had isses in the next isle to us and they informed us about the regulations. If a passenger flying out of the UK is more than 6 hours delayed they are entitled to 600euro / person. After lots of emails and proof of our flights we eventually got our 600/each from Etihad. I'll pay the extra and fly with Qatar Airways next time for sure. I will add my scores would be much better as the Singapore side is excellent, the Manchester side really let's the whole airline down.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteManchester to Singapore via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownJuly 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"their suggestion was to take a train"

(Australia)

Verified Review | My wife and I bought a flight from Perth to Berlin via Abu Dhabi, our problems started when day before I wanted to check in - my flight wasn't here! They canceled my flight form Abu Dhabi to Berlin, instead of this I had Abu Dhabi to Munich connection. I called them, their suggestion was to take a train - are you kidding me?! They didn't have any solution for it so I bought additional flight. It was very expensive flight and I paid for it from my pocket because of Etihad. They've changed my return flight again and again they didn't tell me about this! Plane was dirty inside, my chair was wet and solution from the crew was to put 2 blankets on it to not feel it. I've sent a complain about this, for most of the time they are ignoring me, they didn't even acknowledge that they did something wrong. Make your life easier and avoid them.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RoutePerth to Berlin via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownSeptember 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"indifferent staff and dreadful food"

(Australia)

Verified Review | I flew from Melbourne to Berlin with Etihad Airways, as I am gluten intolerant, I had ordered a special meal - on one leg of the flight, this was given to another passenger. Because Etihad code share with Air Berlin, with Air Berlin going into liquidation, our return bookings were cancelled and changed around 4 times. I was supposed to be flying out of Berlin, but they thought it would be easy to just fly out of Dusseldorf or Munich - both 5 hour train trips or maybe to get across to Serbia and fly from there. The final solution offered was to fly from Berlin with Alitalia to Rome, hang around in the airport for 8 hours and then join up to Abu Dhabi and fly back to Melbourne - this equated to a very long journey. On checking in with Alitalia, they decided that my 15kgs of extra luggage would be charged at Euro 344 for the journey. Note that I had tried to put in the excess baggage through the Etihad website, but it does not allow you to do this - so you are zapped at the airport with a large charge that you are then not in a position to find options for. The travel documentation indicates that the cost for an extra bag is US$ 185.00, however this is not the case. I shipped a 30kg suitcase door to door from Germany for Euro 280 so you can see how bad this charge is. On the flight, once again no special meal so the crew had to find bits of fruit for me to eat - they blame this on Flight Centre and Flight Centre say the meal request was definitely in the system - who is lying? Both totally incompetent. A totally dreadful experience and will never fly with them or recommend them again. Beware, the flights look cheap but you get what you pay for, squashed seats, bad service, indifferent staff and dreadful food. Add to that dirty bathrooms, in one, no toilet roll and do yourself a favour and fly another airline.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteRome to Melbourne via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownNovember 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
2/10

"see how late plane will leave"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Cairo to Abu Dhabi. We started by checking luggage in which took about an hour for such small crowd about 40 people ahead of me. Then reported at desk that the guy had a point that we saw a number of people checking luggage from side outside line. Only three desks were open for check in. Then at gate very late boarding I am still waiting at airplane as I am writing and people still boarding so let’s see how late plane will leave. And at gate only two employees checking boarding pass to let people in after computer fail. Boarding started 15-30 min before take off time. I am flying Coach but if I would rate this airline I would give them a 3 so far. I have another flight to Los Angeles which is 17 hours. I will write another review when I get home about the whole experience. But so far I would not recommend this airline.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteCairo to Abu Dhabi
Date FlownNovember 2017
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
3/10

"choose a different airline next time"

(Germany)

Verified Review | Jakarta to Berlin via Abu Dhabi and Belgrade, I was looking forward to enjoy a pleasant flight. The first flight from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi was an Etihad operated flight, the last two flights were Air Serbia operated flights. For those, who do not know Air Serbia: Etihad owns 49% of that airline and manages it. The first flight was a night flight, departing 0:10 am. My seat was not reclining as it should. It was going back to normal position, when I leaned forward a little. The flight attendant confirmed that the seat has a defect, and told me, she would try to find a solution. Well, nothing happened, not even a feedback. After 23 hours of travelling with Etihad (including waiting times at the airports), I was about to start my final flight to Berlin at Belgrade on time. While waiting in the airplane I fell asleep, just to wake up 20 min. after regular departure time, because of the pilot's announcement: All passengers would need to leave the airplane due to a technical error. Then, we needed to wait, without knowing, what would happen next. This took around 3 hours. The airline provided water and apple juice for free but no information. Then, the flight was cancelled. The ground staff told us, that we would get new tickets immediately and after that we would stay in a hotel to catch our new flight connection on the next day. What they did not tell us: Everybody would need to wait until all new tickets are issued. No option to buy food is available at that part of the airport. After that, we would be transfered directly to the hotel. This happened another 2 hours later. While waiting for the new tickets to be issued and in the bus for the other passengers whose tickets have not been issued yet, no food was provided. So 5.30 hours after the regular departure time, I was checking in at the hotel. It was 11.40 pm local time and they were about to pick me up at 4 am the next day, so that I could catch my flight in the morning at 6.35 am. At the hotel we were finally provided a food bag, with a sandwich in it, an apple, drinkable yoghurt and chocolate mousse...The hotel kitchen was closed already...too late. The spa was also closed by the way. Well, I did not get any sleep that night, because I was so afraid of missing my next flight, because I was super tired. All in all, the way I was treated as a customer was semi-professional. I would probably choose a different airline next time.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteJakarta to Abu Dhabi
Date FlownOctober 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
9/10

"professional and kind"

(United States)

Verified Review | Etihad Airways made our flights the least of our worries on the whole trip (we had very bad luck the entire trip, except on the flights). We visited UAE for 4 days and Cairo, Egypt for 10 days with transit home to Chicago. Our journey back home was 26 hours. The team had a very hospitable and caring attitude and never seemed like we were bothering them at all if we needed anything. My husband was very sick and had sinus pressure pain in his face, one of the girls kept coming to check on us and got us a hot towel, and followed up later on to check on him. They really went above and beyond compared to other airlines we have been with before. I even forgot my phone on the plane when landing in Chicago and the captain and manager took it and saw me running back and returned it to me, then followed up with us a few minutes after about our baggage just to check on us. The most professional and kind international team I ever flew with. Recommended for anyone traveling to or around the Middle East.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteChicago to Cairo via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownOctober 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
yes
6/10

"Etihad has become so cost cutting"

(United States)

Verified Review | Munich to Abu Dhabi in First class. I flew Eithad to the US twice before from the UAE in first and raved about the food, service and comfort on its 380. So roll on three years forward and a business class booking where I spent good money to upgrade to first from Munich to Abu Dhabi​ where​ the experience could not have been more different and disappointing. The outbound flight EY04 Boeing 777-300 seat was the first shock since clearly these seats had seen a better day and for the most part unless fully extended was uncomfortable. The leather padding kept moving around and thus prone to slide in the sitting position. Unlike the two prior trips where the first class seating was big enough to seat two people these seats were not. The aircraft seemed old and worn unlike the new 777’s which are great to fly. The food options were greatly diminished from prior Etihad flights and I was a bit shocked to see just how uninteresting the menu was. I ordered food but then decided to cancel since sleep was needed. I did not feel like I missed anything and other reviewers confirmed it. I would have liked something to munch on even though the plane had less than an hour before landing but the answer was no. Really not even a breakfast roll? I had to keep asking for coffee refills but at least I got that. Very different from my prior Etihad flights​ where service was outstanding​.​ ​ The movie selection was mediocre and not worth turning on to watch the films available. The other on board surprise was the FC toiletries that were handed out. An oversized bag with tiny samples of lotion or toothpaste. Etihad no longer carries the Bergamonte brand it did ​previously​ and clearly my bag was exactly the same as business. Etihad use to be much more generous in its offering both size and quality of products. Once I passed immigration I decided to stop into the arrivals lounge for a bite to eat since I missed my meal and the food offerings there were a joke. Some tiny sandwiches tea, juice or coffee. So I passed and decided to wait until I reach my hotel. Etihad has also cheapened its car service by insisting you buy a full fare ticket before you have access to the service. At first their worthless customer service said no but I tried requesting again online and got a confirmation of service so I was able to use it. The supervisor in the line of cars awaiting Etihad passengers had to argue with four of the drivers before one would agree to take me as I was not that far from the airport. I was shocked to watch them go back and forth. The value if I had booked a car service they recommended for the discounted FC passengers from AUH to ​the Intercontinental​ $35. Now Etihad has become so cost cutting that on a $5500 ticket they didn’t want to cover the $35 cost or even pay for the $20 taxi ride to my hotel? So average service, mediocre food, worn out first class seating, unnecessary rules for first class car service; just adds up to a second class airline in all major categories when looking at their competition. It was the initial pricing and prior experience which hooked me into grabbing a seat. I just wish I had read the other reviews before booking as I would have taken another choice.
AircraftBoeing 777-300ER
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeFirst Class
RouteMunich to Abu Dhabi
Date FlownOctober 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
7/10

"food not up to the mark"

(India)

Verified Review | Business class was comfortable and the staff is very attentive. However the menu and food is not up to the mark and very restricted. Despite booking meals in advance we didn’t get what we asked for. They also ran out of some dishes after some part of the flight. Lastly, we had a Jet Airways connection flight from Bombay to Abu dhabhi. It’s a terrible seat for business class in an old school carrier. Waste of money - we hope Etihad chooses better partners.
AircraftBoeing 777
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeBusiness Class
RouteMumbai to Dallas via Abu Dhabi
Date FlownOctober 2017
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
yes