Hi all, just want some guidance on this. I booked my mother on business class BME-PER-AUH-CDG in J on 30 May. Her flight BME-PER was slightly delayed but she still checked in all the way and made it to the gate well before boarding closed. When she got to the gate, she was told by Etihad staff that she couldn't board as there were no seats and she was moved to the flight 24 hours later. No text, no phone call, just gave her seat to someone else and re-booked her and left her to find out at the gate with no compensation. Is this normal? Seems like pretty outrageous behaviour to me...
They did. But still, to refuse boarding to a checked in passenger seems completely unreasonable. She will miss the whole reason she was travelling. I understand that weather and technical issues are beyond the airline's control. But to simply resell the seat of a passenger that was enroute without notification?
Unfortunately, there is nothing that she can do. Australia doesn't have specific laws regarding involuntarily denied boarding (had this been in Europe you would have got 600 euros in hand)
Etihad's conditions of carriage suggest they do have some policy document about this but it isn't online and must be requested for some reason...
I would personally have pushed for rebooking on another airline however it doesn't seem that's been offerd as an option here (there is still plenty seats tonight or early tomorrow morning with other carriers) otherwise you're entitled to a full refund for the ticket excluding the parts already flown.
You mentioned in the first post that the flight was today?
If it's not too late to salvage the trip I'd get on Twitter and get Eithad's help from their twitter team. The social media staff are much better than other phone staff and might be able to rebook on another airline either tonight or early tommrow morning.
chris_melbourne
chris_melbourne
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 16 Jan 2013
Total posts 20
Hi all, just want some guidance on this. I booked my mother on business class BME-PER-AUH-CDG in J on 30 May. Her flight BME-PER was slightly delayed but she still checked in all the way and made it to the gate well before boarding closed. When she got to the gate, she was told by Etihad staff that she couldn't board as there were no seats and she was moved to the flight 24 hours later. No text, no phone call, just gave her seat to someone else and re-booked her and left her to find out at the gate with no compensation. Is this normal? Seems like pretty outrageous behaviour to me...
Dredgy
Dredgy
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 02 Apr 2017
Total posts 180
Did they accomodate her overnight?
chris_melbourne
chris_melbourne
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 16 Jan 2013
Total posts 20
They did. But still, to refuse boarding to a checked in passenger seems completely unreasonable. She will miss the whole reason she was travelling. I understand that weather and technical issues are beyond the airline's control. But to simply resell the seat of a passenger that was enroute without notification?
henrus
henrus
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 23 Oct 2013
Total posts 766
Unfortunately, there is nothing that she can do. Australia doesn't have specific laws regarding involuntarily denied boarding (had this been in Europe you would have got 600 euros in hand)
henrus
henrus
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 23 Oct 2013
Total posts 766
You mentioned in the first post that the flight was today?
MattJelonek
MattJelonek
Turkish Airlines - Miles & Smiles
Member since 08 Jun 2014
Total posts 90
Wow. J isn't always fully-booked from PER so surprized by that! Shame they couldn't re-book her on another airline and no compensation!
MRYJDrake
MRYJDrake
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
Member since 31 Oct 2016
Total posts 206
I'm wondering how this panned out...