Etihad is on a roll with the New York service. The airline has been offering their new A380 service with the Residence and the Apartments to their New York based guests since November 2015. I was able to catch one of their early flights out of New York to Abu Dhabi on the Apartment in January 2016 as I drew a close to my #redcarpettrip.
Anyhow, Etihad has just announced that they are upgrading their second service out of New York to an A380 service as well, with effect from June 1, 2017. With this, the daily flight schedule between the two cities will look like this:
In fact, this is awesome news, and the new flight is already loaded in the systems of Etihad for booking:
And yes, award redemption seats are not available at Saver level at the moment, but typically Etihad releases them erratically anyways!
I’m excited about this new Etihad upgrade to the A380.
What do you guys think about this move?
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Ajay,
I have been reading the various Boarding Area blogs and thought Etihad was equal in standards to Emirates, SQ, CX, etc. But my recent experience with them has forced a volte face in impression.
I was booked on a direct flight from AUH-SIN last weekend and upon check in at AUH was told that flight was over booked. When I questioned them on the fact that I have reported 2 hrs 30 mins prior to flight time and hence I should logically not be the one to be bumped off, I was offered a series of fibs and finally put on a line with scores of passengers with over booking issues. Long story short, they just bumped me off that flight due to over booking, giving priority to passengers connecting through AUH. Next they offered me USD 300 Etihad voucher for which I have no use (no cash) and put me on a connection through BOM on a flight that was worse than discount airlines and reached me 8 hours later than original schedule into SIN.
I was booked separately to fly out of SIN- JKT on SQ on separate ticket that I ended up missing and was good 20 hours by when I managed to get onto next available flight. I ended up paying another USD 200 to obtain flight on higher class on SQ.
My peeve with the issue is the ham handedness of the airport staff of Etihad and they did not show dint of customer service. Their attitude seemed as if they were doing me a big favor by putting me on a connecting flight instead of my direct flight from which they bumped me.
My mail to their customer service has received no response.
Many passengers who were victims of overbooking in the overbooking queue googled and realized this seems to be de rigeur modus operandi with them.
If Etihad is aspiring to be leading global airline, they can start by getting their act together at home base!! They seem to be light years behind their Gulf counterparts and SQ.
Since you have written extensively about flying on Etihad, I would like your feedback on how does one take this up with them or am I to just shrug it off??
@Peter, try dropping their CEO an email (first dot last name at etihad dot ae) 🙂
Any plans to update/finish your trip report? It’s been six months.
@Mr Brightside, yes all intentions to finish it. too much on my plate, so all the big ones get delayed! now will try to catch up
Fantastic! I booked the flight before the devAAluation and now moving the flight to next fall will be easier.
I’m just not sure if I prefer a 3am or a 10am AUH departure. Any thoughts?