How to Ruin a Trip: My Etihad Airways Experience
It was a chilly evening in Johannesburg on the 30th of June. I have just called my regular cab driver to pick me up from my rented apartment in Sandton to OR Tambo International Airport. My flight was leaving at 8pm and Thabang, the driver arrived at 5:45pm. He said it will be a 30minutes drive.
Johannesburg anyway has abit of an unpredictable traffic and we encountered some due to an accident on the freeway near Kempton Park just a few KM to the airport. I arrived at OR Tambo Terminal B at exactly 6:50pm and slowly walked to the Etihad Counter which was at the end of a long row of airline counters.
By the time I arrived a few people were being attended to and I was standing behind a white dude with a hefty luggage while some couple stood at the counter.
An Etihad Airways staff came to the queue, asked for my flight itinerary and my passport and said ok. I guess that was supposed to be a routine check and I was glad it is getting on after a stupendous 2 weeks in Joburg, all I wanted was to get back to Italy.
At exactly 7pm I was still on the queue now 5mins standing the couple on the counter were already finishing off — am this close!. The hefty luggage guy checked-in and now my turn to advance, the staff at the desk told me that the check-in has closed and that the flight is full and that I should go and rebook for tomorrow’s flight, pointing at the Etihad ticketing office.
I was fuming and still smiley because I thought that was a joke. But he meant it.,He said repeatedly that the flight is full.
This was 7:08 pm and I see myself losing my cool and arguing with the staffs. “You can’t stop attending to people on the queue even if it is past the departure time”, I said. I have a valid ticket and have been here for more than 10mins now.
After about 20 mins this was going nowhere…meanwhile the guy with the hefty luggage is gone.
It was all bullshit and f**k coming from me., I have to try and resolve this by making sense. Well I tried. A calm, skinny-looking officer in an oversized suit came to explain to me that the check-in closes at 7pm but I was there before 7 even if is milliseconds before 7, I said.,I can’t jump the queue just because it is 7.
Customer service best practice is, ’’until the queue is cleared, timing cannot be imposed except with cogent reasons’’ — there was none here!. I overheard that Etihad staffs returning to Abu Dhabi have filled the spaces on the flight.
After the skinny-guy in oversized suit directed me to the counter to rebook for tomorrow it was still about 7:40. I bowed, caved-in and headed to the ticketing counter to rebook for tomorrow. This sounds like a movie where Hugh Grant missed the flight that he was supposed to use to catch up with his long time crush.
I have travelled around the world and this was only the second time on Etihad Airways. So how do you close check-in? You don’t walk up to people on the queue and say, ‘’you know am sorry but check-in has closes’’. For Emirates Airline, if the check-in closes, they retract the queue belts, this applies to all airlines; American Airlines, British Airways, etc that I have used. Nobody wants to argue with a customer whether he is late or not. The staffs later lied to me that the couple and the guy with hefty luggage did not board and that they wanted to reschedule their flight. But I was the only person on the Etihad ticketing counter until they closed at about 9:30pm..So how did they reschedule the flight?
I had no money left in my cash card after a week in Joburg. This flight was my best bet to get back and start over again. I couldn’t afford to stay a night in a hotel or any accommodation for that matter. Even a transport back into Joburg town is not possible as I precisely expended my last buck on the cab to the airport.
Well, I have to try the counter since I can’t force myself into the boarding gate. At the counter was a young lady and a guy. The lady was free so I went straight to her and complained., She took my ticket, with a very confused look that made me know instantly that this is going to be a long night. She doesn’t know what to do, so we had to wait for the guy who is busy attending to somebody.
Quickly, they verified my ticket, passport and started making calls to Abu Dhabi to change the ticket. All to no avail, we stood there for over 30 minutes and after much, I heard the guy confirm a reservation for same time tomorrow. Meanwhile, the story has changed, the guy in the counter just said over the phone that I missed my flight and will like to rebook same flight for tomorrow and how much will that cost?..
I was dying inside, I am not sure I have upto 100Euros in my bank card. The guy made the reservation and told me the price was 676Euros for same flight..Damn!.. all of a sudden I started to blame myself for making this trip in the first place. These guys don’t get it at all.
I booked my return ticket for 577Euros and now I have to pay for Etihad’s inefficiency to the tone of 676Euros. I turned to the guy and said, so this what you guys do here, deny travellers their right to board and coerce them into rebooking another ticket. Like a funny business model this works perfect for them.
I cannot believe any meaningful organizations can deny it’s customer of such rights. I was fuming and cursing..but that’s all I can do. Meanwhile the ticket guy just told me that I have to make the payment tomorrow before I board. The whole pleasure of South Africa became sour by the minute, I was willing to throw up, I was devastated and sick. If I had money I will do this and just leave this place, ‘says my conscience’.
At exactly 9:20 the flight that was scheduled to depart at 8pm was still there (see flight chart).
At about 9:25, I gave up and left with the agreement that I come back tomorrow to pay 676Euros, I don’t know where that will come from. Instinctively, I decided to check the ticketing office of Emirates Airline, I queued up, ask for any available flight to Venice and they said I will have to pay 422 Euros approximately to Venice and the flight leaves in about 45minutes. I texted my Ecuadorian research partner and asked for a favour. He quickly transferred 400Euros to my account and I flew back to Italy same night as scheduled.
I have emptied my bank account, I owe 400Euros and my house rent. I am more likely to become homeless at least till my next pay check. I don’t know if this inefficiency and quackiness is applied only to the South African office because I remember boarding from Venice in less than an hour to departure.
This is not a hate message or a campaign against Etihad. I have to share my story to help other holiday goers plan, choose and hold these airlines to account. I had to use free Wi-Fi on my way home to start a Twitter campaign, #SayNoToEtihad that has made rounds on Twitter and Facebook.
I am looking to reach out to rights groups, litigation experts, Antitrust agencies that can help me pursue this injustice in Europe. If you know someone, get in touch and share this to save someone you love from falling for this trap this summer or in the future.
Happy Holidays…Buon Vacanze
-Charles Ikem
