How Etihad Guest tarnished a good airline experience
This is a story of how Etihad Guest tarnished my good experience flying with Etihad.
My Etihad Experience
In March I booked a return flight to Paris on the website of Etihad and on the 4th of April I travelled to France with Etihad and returned on the 17th of May.
It was my first flight overseas for a while and they made it easy with reminder emails and an app I installed on my phone to keep me up to date. The staff were nice, the aircraft was clean and well maintained and the food was good. I was happy and would have favoured them in future travels (of which it looks like I am going to be doing quite a few).
At this point I had received three emails from Etihad.
- Electronic ticket receipt, April 04 Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris, France for …
- Your Etihad Airways Travel Reminder (going to Paris)
- Your Etihad Airways Travel Reminder (returning from Paris)
My Etihad Guest Experience
On the 20th of June I received my first email from Ethihad Guest.
Partial-Etihad-Guest-email-screenshot
OK. That’s great I thought. I am going to be travelling again so I can use the miles to get a cheaper ticket or upgrade or something. So I clicked on “Claim My Miles”. This took to a place I could register (remembering that they know I don’t have a Etihad Guest account yet) and again repeated the promised 500 bonus miles. So I registered.
It Starts To Go Wrong
At this point it should have all been done. I have registered on the link they gave me and my name matches my ticket etc…. I should have my miles. And for a minute I though I had. Until I realised that at the top it said,“0 Miles Etihad Guest”.
Where are my miles? Oh, OK. I have to apply for them now. But didn’t you just tell me that,
“To claim your miles, simply enrol in the Etihad Guest programme before 28th of June 2017. “
Oh look, there was fine print in the Email.
“Terms & Conditions: To receive Etihad Guest Miles for flight(s) taken with Etihad Airways in April 2017, you need to enrol in the Etihad Guest programme and activate your new account before 28th of June 2017. Etihad Guest Miles will be awarded to your new account by 30th June 2017 as long as the first name and last name of your Etihad Guest membership account match the first name and last name on your Etihad Airways ticket and passport.”
But I had done that. So I went to use their “Claim missing miles“ page.
Claim Missing Miles Doesn’t Work
All very simple except the “From” form is mandatory and won’t accept the Airport I flew from. So I emailed them and they replied with an unhelpful email stating,
“To help us to process your claim for missing miles, we kindly request you to email a copy of the boarding pass and e-ticket number to RetroClaims@etihadguest.com.”
Which boarding pass? I received six during the entire journey and I don’t keep them. Why would I keep them. For that matter why would they need them? They sent me the initial email, they know I have flown with them, they know I am me. They have my passport number, they registered me on the flights. So why exactly do they need the extra information?
Remember, they have already told me, ” You’ve earned 2217 miles from your recent Etihad flight” and that there would be,“500 bonus miles – on top of the miles you’ll receive for your flight”.
Are they a scam? Why are they lying? Why do they want information they obviously already have otherwise they couldn’t have sent me the initial email?
Why would they screw up a perfectly satisfactory customer relationship for no reason?
The Result
Etihad Guest put me off Etihad. They spoiled a good customer relationship and they flat out lied in order to get me to sign up. Thank you, Etihad Guest.
