Just came back from Africa flying Etihad and I thought I would provide an additional reference point: no email invitation to upgrade was received, however upgrades at the airport were available for purchase. For the flight from NBO to AUH, we were quoted US$250 to upgrade from Y to J and for the AUH - SYD sector, the cost would have been US$700, per person. We booked discount economy but this apparently did not matter.
Curious developments with Etihad/plusGrade/Airport upgrades - All not as it may seem.
Returned yesterday and Etihad has not covered itself in glory to say the least.
For outward legs I did not get 'invited' by PlusGrade despite email address being linked to booking (done by Etihad at my request). For SYD/AUH they had 11 empty business seats on departure day and AUH/MUC at least 10.
I did buy upgrades from Eco to Bus at the airport for
USD750 quoted price vs price mentioned in this thread (queried twice to no avail) and then a further sting in the tail the exchange rate for USD/AUD was EVEN WORSE than Travelex was charging for cash. No Etihad airport staff would not charge my cc in USD, they used rate of AUD 1 = 0.99 USD, so nearly a 6% mark-up in price. We caved and figured approx $50 per flight hour worth it.
On flight service was very attentive and we were left with the feeling the staff must normally deal with self-absorbed SOBs by the way they reacted to our children saying "Thank you" when handed the food, soft drinks etc. Flat beds very comfortable but narrow. At 80kg, 180cm I'm not large but shoulder width was only just wide enough.
Arrived in AUC to see that onward leg flight due to depart as expected. Trouble is it didn't, in fact the airport screens continued to say it (and a dozen other flights) were on time etc even 3 hours after they were due to have departed. There are no PA announcements made at Abu Dhabi airport (we were informed by Airport liaison personnel).
When I pointed out that they had the flight shown in Terminal 1 as leaving from Terminal 1 and in Terminal 2 as leaving from Terminal 2 they said that was impossible. So I walked back to the other terminal to find the impossible happens and was still happening.
Over the scheduled 3 hour wait from arrival to scheduled departure I amused myself by going to the airport information desk and asking what gate/Terminal the flight would leave from. 1st and 3rd time said this terminal, 2nd said the other terminal - remember this was before flight was due to leave.
So becoming increasingly alarmed I went to the supposed gate an hour before departure to be told to go away as no flight to Munich was leaving from that gate that day. When I said I had been told twice it was the gate attendant pushed (roughly) through me and three other passengers from the same SYD flight we had arrived on. I don't bruise easily but then again do not expect to be gone through by someone like a Wallaby going for the try line.
Went back to Airport info people - Yes it is leaving from that gate. SO checked gate every ten minutes. Board still showed it as leaving from that gate and in fact never changed the time nor gate even 2hrs 45 minutes after departure time had passed. When asking about it the different staff got on the phone and said it would be changed in the next few minutes. It never did.
By then it was obvious that there were many flights on time that had not departed.
Checking back at the info every 10 minutes (now sending my wife and eldest daughter alternately) kept getting the same result.
Until it didn't at 2hr 50m when my wife was told we should have boarded the plane already at another gate that was not shown on the screen. What's more the screens around the terminal DID NOT SHOW the flight boarding. This gate we were sent to (this time at least) was on the lower level so given the change in message to "should have boarded" - we ran.
The sign to this particular gate sent you to a dead end, no door, no airline or airport officials, nothing.
We were not happy.
Our kids stayed put while I went one way for info and my wife the opposite direction. I had no luck, no English speaking workers to be found just all the duty free shops who were serving customers. My wife had more luck at a perfume counter where she was told, "Oh they closed that off nearly a year ago, you have to go through Gate XX security to get to it."
By this stage it was more like a "Basil Fawlty does Airports" training video. We ran according to the new directions which turned out to be spot on to see a near empty lounge with people on buses outside. There were close to 50 people queuing so we joined it and asked what flight they were getting on - the replies it had better be Munich.
Clearly some had come from the other terminal as they ranged from outraged at having gone through security at the other terminal (as the screen their suggested the gate was there still) only to be told (in a similar fashion but at this terminal) that they should have already boarded the flight. Meanwhile another dozen or so arrived in an equally happy state. BTW the queue for security at the other terminal stretched over 250m when we had started queuing their earlier in the day. They had turned off the travelator and were using it to extend the queue. Apparently the queue there had gotten longer.
The saga continued though. Most SYD issued boarding passes seemed not to work (funny that?) so staff were manually entering via a computer through what seemed around 50 to 60 key stokes with delays in between. With two staff working the queue inched forward slowly. I then saw and heard an anxious Etihad clad worker say that they could not go any faster as no-one knew where the key was to the other boarding doors, so they'd called the airport security repeatedly but they still hadn't arrived.
I thought "Thank God for slack airport security", or we'd have missed the flight most likely. Now despite three buses being full of passengers outside - they stayed there. A few minutes later (after the queue had moved forward about 4 people) airport security turned up and unlocked two other doors. Now being a pedant I wondered why the Etihad staff had not just used the readers at those two doors to process people and then walk them out the only open doors - there were plenty of Etihad staff standing around doing nothing?
Once the five of us were through I asked one of them why the delay and was told it was due to fog over Pakistan. Once all the buses were filled (no more in the boarding lounge) we were driven to the plane. It was not a short drive, close to 5 minutes but not knowing the airport well I could not be sure where we went but I suspected it was indeed the other terminal. The plane was parked away from the terminal as it was and we boarded up the mobile stairs.
On boarding (at the door) I asked why the delay and was told that there was a mechanical fault that had taken time to fix. Given over a dozen flights were delayed I thought that odd.
Once seated the pilot's welcome confused the issue more, apologising and saying that the flight was delayed due to late connections. At least we were on the right flight, changed plane though. Then subsequently the 2nd officer spoke saying that the delay was due to having to call in a new flight crew due to staff sickness which caused the scheduled pilot to be unable to fly as he would have exceeded his permitted duty time, so after the missing steward/stewardess had been replaced they then needed to call in a replacement flight crew which delayed things further.
Etihad did not cover themselves with honour to say the least.
For homeward legs I did get invited. See Part TWO
