Caversham04
Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2013
- Posts
- 335
Over Christmas, I flew in business on Etihad from Adelaide to Heathrow and back. The route for the outbound journey was ADL-MEL-AUH-LHR and the ticket was purchased through Bestjet.
My originally-booked ADL-MEL leg on Virgin Australia was at 18:00-ish on an EY codeshare flight number but the original plane was substituted for an all-economy A320 so, after a fair bit of hassle, I was switched to the 16:00-ish flight.
However, on the day of the flight, the 16:00-ish flight was cancelled due to crew shortages and, under protest, I took the 18:00-ish flight instead, in economy. Virgin had originally been trying to re-schedule and re-route my entire outbound itinerary, travelling the following day instead, via Sydney.
The lounge angel was very helpful, and indicated that compensation would be forthcoming. However, Virgin Australia and Etihad customer services are both refusing compensation and are telling me to contact Bestjet. Bestjet's administrators have replied to say that they won't be paying compensation.
Both airlines will obviously know that Bestjet is in administration and I suspect they are also aware that the administrators won't pay out in this particular situation, so they are trying to fob me off and avoid responsibility.
In some circumstances, I might be prepared to shrug my shoulders and let it go, but Etihad also managed to lose my luggage for seven days and persistently lied to me that it was on its way on their next flight out of MEL, when eventually it was sent on Qantas via Singapore! My expenses for replacement clothing came to around GBP200 and Etihad have (in theory) agreed to pay. However, despite returning the indemnity form on 22nd Jan, they still haven't paid the compensation into my bank account. I have sent several requests for an update, and I know they've received them as I set the e-mail to provide a Read Receipt, but they haven't replied to any of my e-mails. I'm therefore not prepared to shrug my shoulders on the involuntary downgrade.
Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation? I'm unclear how to continue to pursue compensation for the involuntary downgrade - would a partial credit card charge-back be an option? I'm also getting increasingly frustrated with the delay in them compensating me for the lost luggage, so any advice on this would also be appreciated.
My originally-booked ADL-MEL leg on Virgin Australia was at 18:00-ish on an EY codeshare flight number but the original plane was substituted for an all-economy A320 so, after a fair bit of hassle, I was switched to the 16:00-ish flight.
However, on the day of the flight, the 16:00-ish flight was cancelled due to crew shortages and, under protest, I took the 18:00-ish flight instead, in economy. Virgin had originally been trying to re-schedule and re-route my entire outbound itinerary, travelling the following day instead, via Sydney.
The lounge angel was very helpful, and indicated that compensation would be forthcoming. However, Virgin Australia and Etihad customer services are both refusing compensation and are telling me to contact Bestjet. Bestjet's administrators have replied to say that they won't be paying compensation.
Both airlines will obviously know that Bestjet is in administration and I suspect they are also aware that the administrators won't pay out in this particular situation, so they are trying to fob me off and avoid responsibility.
In some circumstances, I might be prepared to shrug my shoulders and let it go, but Etihad also managed to lose my luggage for seven days and persistently lied to me that it was on its way on their next flight out of MEL, when eventually it was sent on Qantas via Singapore! My expenses for replacement clothing came to around GBP200 and Etihad have (in theory) agreed to pay. However, despite returning the indemnity form on 22nd Jan, they still haven't paid the compensation into my bank account. I have sent several requests for an update, and I know they've received them as I set the e-mail to provide a Read Receipt, but they haven't replied to any of my e-mails. I'm therefore not prepared to shrug my shoulders on the involuntary downgrade.
Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation? I'm unclear how to continue to pursue compensation for the involuntary downgrade - would a partial credit card charge-back be an option? I'm also getting increasingly frustrated with the delay in them compensating me for the lost luggage, so any advice on this would also be appreciated.
