My daughter in Australia had a phone contact from someone with a very thick accent I think on the Thursday before we were due to return from the UK who said something about a downgrade. I checked our booking on the Etihad site, and our seats from AUH to MEL weren't visible any longer, and I couldn't select new seats. I rang Etihad and was assured that we were still in business class all the way, and the seats would be allocated at the airport.
The agent at the airport check in counter could only print our boarding passes for the MAN - AUH leg, but told us that the passes for the next leg would be
available at the gate. At the gate, they took our original passes and printed new ones with both legs, but the AUH-MEL leg in economy. I immediately told the gate agent this wasn't acceptable and we were told to wait for the supervisor. She eventually arrived and told us that the downgrade was due to an aeroplane swap (787-1000 to 787-900) with fewer business class seats. I stood my ground and she eventually offered us a flight the next day to AUH at the same time, with an overnight stop in AUH and the flight to MEL the next morning. I had heard her talking to someone further up the line who said the compensation that would be available if we accepted the downgrade would be US$300 each - fortunately she didn't offer that to us.
So our bags were offloaded and we had to wait around until after the plane had departed to be escorted back through security. She produced new tickets for us, with both flights confirmed, and vouchers for GBP520 each compensation, and told us we would be met in AUH and transported to a hotel. The same agent who checked us in originally had turned up during this period and took us back through security.
We checked into the Radisson hotel on the skyway, and the back to T2 on the next morning. This time everything went smoothly. When we arrived in AUH there was of course no one to meet us, and it took a bit of argy bargy to get the accommodation sorted, but eventually they took us to a 5 Star hotel in the city (a 45 minute drive).
I wonder what would have happened if we had meekly accepted the downgrade (I suspect nothing). I also questioned why they would contact someone in Australia when the passengers were in the UK, and she stated that was the only contact they had for us, despite them having our email contact. The supervisor's comment was that they wouldn't use email for a downgrade. One wonders how they select passengers for downgrades, as we appeared to be among the 1st to book on this flight as all seats were available when I selected them in February. We were travelling on AC awards, so maybe this was a factor.
The agent at the airport check in counter could only print our boarding passes for the MAN - AUH leg, but told us that the passes for the next leg would be
available at the gate. At the gate, they took our original passes and printed new ones with both legs, but the AUH-MEL leg in economy. I immediately told the gate agent this wasn't acceptable and we were told to wait for the supervisor. She eventually arrived and told us that the downgrade was due to an aeroplane swap (787-1000 to 787-900) with fewer business class seats. I stood my ground and she eventually offered us a flight the next day to AUH at the same time, with an overnight stop in AUH and the flight to MEL the next morning. I had heard her talking to someone further up the line who said the compensation that would be available if we accepted the downgrade would be US$300 each - fortunately she didn't offer that to us.
So our bags were offloaded and we had to wait around until after the plane had departed to be escorted back through security. She produced new tickets for us, with both flights confirmed, and vouchers for GBP520 each compensation, and told us we would be met in AUH and transported to a hotel. The same agent who checked us in originally had turned up during this period and took us back through security.
We checked into the Radisson hotel on the skyway, and the back to T2 on the next morning. This time everything went smoothly. When we arrived in AUH there was of course no one to meet us, and it took a bit of argy bargy to get the accommodation sorted, but eventually they took us to a 5 Star hotel in the city (a 45 minute drive).
I wonder what would have happened if we had meekly accepted the downgrade (I suspect nothing). I also questioned why they would contact someone in Australia when the passengers were in the UK, and she stated that was the only contact they had for us, despite them having our email contact. The supervisor's comment was that they wouldn't use email for a downgrade. One wonders how they select passengers for downgrades, as we appeared to be among the 1st to book on this flight as all seats were available when I selected them in February. We were travelling on AC awards, so maybe this was a factor.
