airline compensation, whats fair ?

[Gone with the wind]

I'd leave it at that now. Highly unlikely you will get the money and you will just annoy them ruling out any chance of upgrades on future travel. Swallow your pride and even thank them (I know, it will hurt) for the reply and compensation by way of points and mention how you look forward to continuing to fly with them in the future blah blah blah....

This may increase your chances of an upgrade in the future. I don't work for an airline but fly a lot and this sort of approach has worked for me.

[iluvasians/latins]

They are not going to give you "real money."

[Guiness]

lets see !!  i replied as follows :

 

 

Dear Afraz Salar , 

thank you for your kind offer of 40,000 Etihad Guest Miles , which i am very happy to accept. however i have looked up the relevent  EU website dealing with 

these occurrences and have been informed that i am also entitled to  compensation of 600€ cash . if this is forthcoming i would be delighted to consider the unfortunate matter closed . 

i have as you now know travelled with etihad many times and would be delighted to travel with your airline again soon 

regards

 

 

n.b. i will if you wish ,forward the extract from the relevent E.U. travel advisory website .

 

i wonder if i will succeed !!!!       

[Freedy]

40,000 guest miles is worth at least £200 pounds off your next flight with Etihad, That's a decent chunk of compensation. I'm pretty sure you won't get the 600Eu, as the delay appears to be the fault of the airport, but no harm in trying:)

[Guiness]

i agree , no harm in trying at all . i contacted the EU consumer advice group and they basically said .......no dice ! .

i would get the 600€ if the airline was registered in the E.U. and if the flight started within the E.U. 

 

so i am happy to accept the 40000 miles and will add to my 18000 miles accrued !

 

thanks to all !!!!!

[Daddee]

i agree , no harm in trying at all . i contacted the EU consumer advice group and they basically said .......no dice ! .

i would get the 600€ if the airline was registered in the E.U. and if the flight started within the E.U. 

 

so i am happy to accept the 40000 miles and will add to my 18000 miles accrued !

 

thanks to all !!!!!

good work, and thanks for updating us with your success!

[Mr David]

Not a bad offer 40,000 miles. 32,000 is around what a one leg of the journey is with Etihad for an uprade to business. If you upgrade it for the first leg from home then you will be entitled to the chauffeur service as well if you are less than 100 miles from the airport. Normal upgrade offers which get emailed to you before you fly start at £400. Personally I'd try and push them for a free standby flight rather than cash as it costs them very little if the plane has spare capacity.

 

I did quite well a couple of years ago flying from Manchester with them on the 30th December. Using miles I'd phoned and upgraded to business for the Abu - BKK leg but on arriving at the airport found my origianal ticket for that leg cancelled and the business seat not booked. There was no capacity left even in first class from Abu to BKK. They offered to put me up over night at an Airport hotel and 500 euro compo. As I was meeting friends I told them no way and I had to be there for NYE. They put me on a BA flight to Heathrow and then Thai Airways direct to BKK which arrived 3 hrs earlier than the Ethiad flight. They also gave me 350 euro compo in cash at the airport.

 

Wish it would happen every time.

[Lucky Misfit]

What email address did you use to complain? I can't seem to find one on the web.

 

I missed a connection last month (Etihad's fault), and a few compensation miles would be nice.

[Guiness]

[email protected]

 

 

best of luck , please let us know here !!

[Lucky Misfit]

Thanks Guiness for the email address.

 

I successfully complained to Etihad and got 15k miles compensation. I could probably have pushed them further but I was happy to accept their offer. Overall Etihad were superb after I missed my connection. They put me up in a hotel overnight and there was also a free breakfast the following morning. The extra few miles are really just an added bonus and I had low expectations to begin with. I really had not grounds to complain.

 

Etihad's argument for not paying compensation was that the delay occurred on the Bangkok leg of my trip so no compensation is due because this is outside of the EU, and Etihad are not a European airline. I also did a bit of digging on this and they appear to be correct on that assumption. Regardless I was not going to push them any further..

 

Now for the fun part. I think I might treat myself to an upgrade using points for my trip next month! Any suggestion on the best leg use the points(I have enough for one leg saved up)? DUBLIN-AUH, AUH-BKK, BKK-AUH, AUH-DUB? Does the Etihad Chauffeur service include Pattaya?

[GtotheM]

I would go with AUH-BKK, arrive in style and start your trip right.