Etihad Airways

✅ Trip Verified | My wife, 2 kids (4 years and 3 months old) were flying with me from Toronto to Doha. They were on a separate booking than me, so I paid extra money to have seats next to them. I paid for extra legroom seats at 23C aisle seat. The staff had moved my wife and kids away from row 23 and moved them to row 43. When I asked them to put them back on the seats we had selected in row 23 by calling Etihad airways customer service, they refused. As such they changed my seat to row 45 which did not have extra legroom and was a middle seat. Etihad went about boarding in Toronto with business first zone 1, 2, 3 and then came to us. I asked a few times that with children long lines are difficult for them, is there a family line and I was told there was none. We had four carry on for all four of us and had put it in the seats above us. While re-arranging others bags, the flight attendant whose bag is this to which I said it was mine. She took it out and gave it to me and said we have to put other peoples bags even though it was right above our seat. I said the leg space is already less and we have just put one carry on and not multiple like some other people, but she just left. For the 13 hr flight, not only did I get my extra leg space, I had my one carry on forced onto me to put under the seat in front of me. When we landed in Abu Dhabi we waited for the stroller to be given at the airline gate, we were told the we can only get the stroller in Doha and to ask for a stroller at the Abu Dhabi airport. We asked around waited for 30 minutes and no stroller was found at the Abu Dhabi airport. When it came time to board the Abu Dhabi flight, the same issue of not having a specified line was prevalent. When our boarding pass was scanned, I reached the bus gate and it was packed, so I asked the Etihad personnel to open the bus behind us which was empty. He instead led us to the same bus to the third bus door asking people to make space for us. There was no space to be made. The passengers in the bus were kind enough to see my wife holding a 3 month old baby and gave up their seats for her. The touchscreen for your entertainment screen from the Toronto to Abu Dhabi was extremely error prone and we mostly had to use handsets to manouvre the options around. I fly Qatar airways and they board people who need assistance and families sometimes even before business class. Doubtful anything will change after this post, I wish you luck in trying to be a fair and inclusive airline.

Not Verified | My experience with Etihad Airways, particularly at the check-in counter with Imran, was regrettably disappointing. Imran exhibited a concerning lack of flexibility and subjected me to the unnecessary inconvenience of weighing my handbag, an unusual and unwarranted practice in my extensive flying history. Moreover, the ordeal continued as he insisted on charging more for baggage fees than seemed justified, consistently rejecting the option to pay for an extra piece of luggage and instead emphasizing additional kilos. As a frequent flyer, my first encounter with Etihad left a lasting negative impression. Imran's meticulous scrutiny of grams, seemingly aimed at extracting every possible fee, was both frustrating and unprecedented in my travels. Unfortunately, this experience has left me with a strong reluctance to choose Etihad Airways for future flights. The emphasis on financial gains over customer service has significantly diminished my confidence in the airline.

✅ Trip Verified | When I bought a business class ticket from Lisbon to Bangkok, I expected comfort and all the perks of expensive tariffs. However, when I wanted to change the date of my return flight, I was surprised: instead of $30, they charged me $700 euros. Explanations about "fare rules" left a lot of questions. Even the support couldn’t clearly say where the fee comes from. All they said was “the website calculates it like this”. Unexpected fees and lack of clarity is something you don't expect from business class. I recommend weighing your choices before flying business with Etihad.

✅ Trip Verified | The cabin experience was fine and on par with other airlines. Consequently, this review is primarily regarding Ground/Back Office Operations. It has taken the Airlines more than 2 months and multiple contacts and misdirection to inform me that I need to contact American Airlines to claim Frequent Flier miles, in spite my having specified my AA number on the reservation! There appears to be very little coordination between Etihad and Abu Dhabi Customs in terms of disallowed items et al and I was detained for carrying clearly labelled medications, threatened with imprisonment and fined. Needing my medication, I visited a medical institution in Abu Dhabi, and paid for a doctors's consultation and a prescription! My subsequent flight to JFK was delayed by a whole day but the way the Airline handled Hotel and transport for the delayed passengers can only be described as chaotic.

✅ Trip Verified | The return flight from Athens to Singapore had a 9+ hours layover in Abu Dhabi, Etihad unilaterally changed the time of departure twice and since the last move exceeded the 10 hours, by airline policy I was supposed to be entitled to a complimentary hotel night stay. Of course, the airline never informed me that I was entitled to this, but I was able to contact the live chat service and ask whether I was entitled to it indeed they answered and gave me a set of instructions on how to complete the reservation prepaid by Etihad. The process was way harder than it should have, but I finally manage to get the confirmation email of the hotel. Etihad is already struggling to meet expectations at this point. On the night of the flight, I land in Abu Dhabi after a 7 hours flight, catch the taxi to the hotel at midnight and to my horror I am told that I have a reservation, but it has been cancelled by Etihad - I remain in disbelief but the hotel confirms this, I fire up my laptop and look for the Etihad chat service, it takes a lot of hurdles to speak with a human but I finally manage. It may as well been a robot: "HI my name is XXX XXX, how can I help you?" and from there it proceeds to tell me that the reservation was cancelled as the company later realized that I didn't meet new criteria that they never mentioned before for the free hotel booking, and that a different department decided to cancel it after it was already booked, except I was never notified. The staff at the hotel was super kind and understanding, even offered me the same preferential conditions as Etihad, but the price for the night would have been 3X the normal price at this point. I told the Etihad operator that I would be spending the rest of the night shaming their bad practices on this like this one if they had not done anything at all to make up for the mistake, which was clearly their fault, and I'm here to keep that promise. They used to have good quality service and planes, but the airline has turned into trash post covid under all aspects - this was no doubt the worst customer service experience of my life.

Not Verified | Worst experience ever. Old aircraft, many personal screens not working properly, usb plug in for charging phones etc not working, service not great. But the worst of all: luggage was delayed. Was easy to put in a claim for money spent for urgent needed items until the luggage arrived, then the tedious work started: links they sent re the claim weren’t working and emails didn’t have clear instruction. I was forced to sign up as a guest member to go ahead with the claim. Difficult to find phone numbers to contact them directly, then no one answered, even not the option to leave a voice mail. They sent emails from email accounts which were no longer valid when sending an answer a few hours later, no indication which email to use for them so ended up having a minimum of 4 different email addresses and none of them seem to have been the correct one. All in all, many emails had to be sent, weren't answered detailed, but in a standard way. The whole process took 3 months. I will never fly with them again!

✅ Trip Verified | Ridiculous rude staff. I would not recommend this airline. The ground staff was the worst. I was forced to check my small hand luggage as it was just over 7kg.

Not Verified | The worst airline company I have ever seen, they lost my luggage after my flight from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi on the 20th August, and now it is the 26th of October still with no answer. I followed all the procedures that needed to be followed, I called their useless customer/ luggage center on a daily basis, but nothing much has changed. The only thing they can say is that we email the officer and they are going to contact you as soon as possible. After 21 days of waiting for the luggage to be located or traced, you will need to start a new long journey of 28 days waiting for them scratching their heads to think about the reimbursement amount. Once they decide to reimburse you( a set of money that doesn't cover even one-third the value of your luggage), you have to fill out a PDF full of abbreviations. Here, the journey of replying to their emails and spending decades waiting for their reply starts. Once you decide to call them, they will reply in a disrespectful way saying that the process takes 30 days for the money transfer to be reflected on your account. Overall, I will never travel on that airline and it is not recommended at all.

✅ Trip Verified | Having recently enjoyed a great time on Etihad's A380, I was looking forward to the flight on the newly refurbished Boeing 787 . However, at Bangkok Airport, the check-in desks were probably the worst I've encountered. The two business class desks looked plain and unwelcoming. There were two dirty worn-out pieces of carpet, bearing the word 'business', that were a sorry sight. The woman at the check-in desk would not smile or even utter a word of greeting. Instead, simply went through the process of passport check and handed me the boarding pass. I had to ask for a voucher for the lounge, to which she replied 'OK' and proceeded to find one and hand it to me. I was disappointed, as a few rows back the Thai Airlines counters were all gorgeous looking, with floral decorations and clean. The business class cabin looked beautiful, and the colours soothing. The cabin crew were smiling and welcomed me, I was served with champagne and hot towel and wished a good flight. The seat design is the same as in the A380. Wide and comfortable, with options to adjust for a harder or softer feel. Also provided was a large pillow, soft mattress and duvet. On the side table was an Acqua di Parma amenity kit. The storage compartment on the side of the seat contained the headphones, water bottle and space for storing smaller items. The IFE was very easy to use. Though not a great number of new movies, there was enough I think to satisfy everyone. The flight to Abu Dhabi was with a stop in Phuket to pick up more passengers. Therefore during the short one hour flight, I was served with drinks and a selection of tiny morsels of finger food. Asked whether I enjoyed it, I replied 'I don't know what it all was, but it tasted damn good'. Once the rest of the passengers boarded at Phuket and hot towels were given, pre-departure drinks were served. I opted for a delicious mint drink, and soon we were on our way, on time, to Abu Dhabi. Mohammed, the Cabin Manager, was exceptionally obliging and engaging with passengers in the nearly full 28-seat cabin. Other crew members were taking dinner orders. With the 'dine on demand' service, I decided to have my dinner as soon as possible, to get some sleep. I omitted any starters and went for the main course of braised rib steak, followed by a cheese board. A turndown service was offered. However, I managed to set up the mattress myself and, following a coffee and cognac, I settled for a two hour sleep and was woken up as requested two-hours before arrival. The cabin crew came around speaking to awake passengers, and checking if they needed anything. Overall the service was excellent. My only wee complaint is, as in night flights, providing pyjamas would have added that extra comfort to an otherwise perfect flight experience.

✅ Trip Verified | It was good to see Etihad had brought back its A380 fleet especially on the London to Abu Dhabi route. I built up much anticipation for my upcoming flights. From the speedy and friendly check-in to the comfortable lounge, and being addressed by name on boarding, I felt I was on a memorable flight. The upper deck has both forward and rear-facing seating referred to as business studios. I had selected a forward-facing window seat, which also has additional storage bins by the windows. The seat felt very comfortable with options to adjust for a harder or softer feel. Also provided was a large pillow, soft mattress and duvet. On the side table was an Acqua di Parma amenity kit. The storage compartment on the side of the seat contained the headphones, water bottle and space for smaller items. Following the usual pre-flight champagne and hot towels, the cabin crew came around to take orders for lunch. I found the 'dine on demand' concept especially useful. In addition, an à la carte 'all day menu' enables you to order quite a tempting selection of items like a steak sandwich, salads, cheeses and crackers and ice cream. Soon after take off, the bar service began, and I settled for a JD on ice which was served with warm nuts. One crew member invited me to the small lounge, (which can seat up to six passengers), and have a light snack and more drinks before my late lunch. And it was served on time, with a delicious Arabic Meze for starters, and stone sea bass for the main course. The Chardonnay served, followed the etiquette of showing the bottle, and tasting before pouring, which I appreciated. The IFE was very easy to use. Though not a great number of first-run movies, there was something to satisfy everyone. What I did come across was that you could order drinks from the bar through your IFE - something I had not come across before. On the return red-eye flight, I did manage to get some sleep. My one slight disappointment was no pyjamas were provided. The cabin crew were excellent, checking up on me, engaging in short chats, and offering to top up my drinks. While the hard product on most airlines' long-haul business class is good, what makes a good flight a great flight is the onboard service. And here, Etihad are on the top of their game.