Rescheduled flight, Etihad cancelled ticket

[Ozymandias]

This was nearly an thread asking for advice, but now it's just a story to be shared.

About a month ago I booked a one way business reward from BNE - SYD - AUH - LHR for August 2023 with Velocity points, flying Virgin to SYD then Etihad from there. All smooth sailing initially, was immediately able to manage my booking on Etihad's website and select my seats.

Then, just before midnight on Wednesday, I got six texts and two emails from Etihad to say my flights had been cancelled - no further details were given, though they recommended I call them to rebook. Lo and behold, when I checked my booking only the Virgin flight to SYD was showing on Etihad's website (oddly, the Virgin booking page still showed the flight to Abu Dhabi).

Yesterday morning I called Etihad to ask what was going on, and while waiting on hold I searched their flights to find out whether they were still flying at all. Turns out they were, it's just that the SYD - AUH leg was shifted 50min earlier, and the AUH - LHR leg had an aircraft change from an A350 to an A380. This information though was more than I could get out of the Etihad phone rep - they were friendly though entirely unhelpful. They couldn't say why I'd been cancelled rather than just rescheduled, and nor could they say when I would automatically be rebooked (or even if I would be at all). They said guest services were still working through the operational change and that I might get rebooked in anywhere from an hour to a week, but I'm also not sure they understood my questions.

In any case, I wasn't content to leave it there with that level of uncertainty, so I called Virgin. After being assured it wouldn't mess up my booking, within 15min I was rebooked onto the new flights and my BNE - SYD leg was moved earlier to leave a comfortable transfer window (incidentally, this might be part of the reason why my ticket was cancelled - with the new flight it was only an 80min layover). I then went to select my seats on Etihad's website but got an error message, so had to do that via live chat instead.

A slightly more stressful experience than I would've liked, but all's well that ends well. On the plus side, I've not yet had a chance to fly on an A380, so I'm chuffed Etihad are bringing them back.

Out of interest, is this similar to anyone else's experience? If there's a schedule change, do Etihad just cancel your flight and make you manually rebook everything? I've only had rescheduled domestic flights before, but they've always offered alternatives rather than outright cancellations.

 

[Thibault]

I would assume that VA is 'owning' the ticket and will follow their SOPs with schedule changes/time change on award partner itinerary.

The EY booking engine would be only configured in default for their own ticket stock and offer the same options for all ticket holders in case of schedule change/cancellations that will unfortunately fail - as they do not 'own' the ticket but would work for 607-issued tickets.

I booked EY 607 tickets and two EY*VA flights were cancelled - I was rebooked automatically on the next VA service between BNE/SYD and BNE/MEL.

I only had one schedule change on a EY segment and everything was done automatically.
I would assume that as soon as it involves an other airlines - especially when it isn't on their ticket stock, a manual process is involved and some delay can be experienced.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[luxury-lizard]

I had something similar happened this morning - received multiple texts and e-mails saying my flights SEZ-AUH overnight layover then AUH-MEL (on EY) then MEL-SYD on QF had been cancelled. This itinerary was a J class booking made with AA points. On checking it seems the SEZ-AUH segment is not operating that day (March 30) - looks like a real mess - however I plan to cancel the whole award in any case as I've had second thoughts about the whole trip,

 

[Scarlett]

@Ozymandias
You have effectively ‘purchased’ a VA ticket with your VFF points, so it’s VFF that has to solve any problems for you. Although EY may have sent emails to you, they can’t really help you as it’s not their ticket, which I guess you found out during the call. I’m surprised whomever you spoke to didn’t point you back to Velocity. Maybe they didn’t know who VFF were, but then same would be the case for thousands of ‘agents’ for EY the world over…

Heartening to hear that you were connected to a competent VFF agent and that they understood what had happened and fixed it. This stands out as a relative rarity this year.

Alls well that ends well hopefully and enjoy summer in the UK/Europe!

 

[Pele]

I had something similar happened this morning - received multiple texts and e-mails saying my flights SEZ-AUH overnight layover then AUH-MEL (on EY) then MEL-SYD on QF had been cancelled. This itinerary was a J class booking made with AA points. On checking it seems the SEZ-AUH segment is not operating that day (March 30) - looks like a real mess - however I plan to cancel the whole award in any case as I've had second thoughts about the whole trip,

Can i ask why you are canning the trip to SEZ? I went there a few years back and thought it was tops, would love to go back.

In terms of the rest of the thread and my recent experience- my family have taken EY flights this month which were booked at the start of the year, some through Etihad Guest, some through Velocity. Every flight had multiple changes(no cancellations, just time changes the biggest about 4 hours), so many so that i didnt really bother checking too much until close to departure date. I did periodically check tripcase to see the tickets were still there and they were.

In the end we flew without drama.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Can i ask why you are canning the trip to SEZ? I went there a few years back and thought it was tops, would love to go back.

we had a mega trip booked for 2020 which included a cruise on Ponant from CPT to SEZ via Mauritius + land based hotel stays in the Seychelles - well we all know what happened - just days after flying to CPT Ponant cancelled all cruises due to Covid - we barely made it back to Sydney before hotel quarantine kicked in. Anyway after a few re-schedules we finally settled on an early March 2023 cruise from Mauritius to the Seychelles - with pre and post hotel stays in both Mauritius and the Seychelles, In the past few weeks we became "nervous" about the whole trip due to the ongoing Covid situation. We decided to just cancel the whole trip and wait until 2024. So the Seychelles is still on my bucket list.

If we had not already decided to cancel/postpone the trip the EY cancellation could have been a real disaster - if AA had not been able to find alternate award seats we would have ended up needing to purchase $10000+ paid fares.

 

[Ozymandias]

Forgot to say at the time, but thanks for your input all!

I now have a few actual questions for you that I've been mulling over (I was going to make another thread but thought I may as well post in my existing one).

1. My transfer window between the BNE-SYD and SYD-AUH legs is 2hr 25min. From what I can tell, this is a comfortable enough gap to account for potential delays and transferring between domestic and international at SYD - am I right?

2. I've selected seat 8A for the SYD-AUH leg on the 777 and seat 12A for the AUH-LHR leg on the A380. Is anyone who's sat in these seats able to comment on the quality of views I'll get? I'm particularly thinking about the A380 leg where the seat map suggests I might have its entire wing in the way, but having never been on an A380 I'm unsure if that's the case.

3. Am I right in thinking I'll only have access to the ex-Etihad-now-Swissport lounge at SYD? It looks pretty good but just want to make sure I'm not missing a trick. I'm VA Gold if that helps at all.

 

[Ozymandias]

Bump, anyone have any thoughts?

 

[serfty]

Bump, anyone have any thoughts?

Forgot to say at the time, but thanks for your input all!

I now have a few actual questions for you that I've been mulling over (I was going to make another thread but thought I may as well post in my existing one).

1. My transfer window between the BNE-SYD and SYD-AUH legs is 2hr 25min. From what I can tell, this is a comfortable enough gap to account for potential delays and transferring between domestic and international at SYD - am I right?...

It is tighter than you think - boarding will start 45 minute before scheduled departure giving you 1:40 to get between the terminals and pass emigration/security. VA suggest the T-Bus, but remember that goes every 30 minutes on the top and bottom of the hour.

More about transferring in SYD here (Select international, Sydney):

Domestic and international flight connections | Virgin Australia

Find more information on domestic connections or connections to or from Virgin Australia Domestic flights and International flights operated by Virgin Australia and partner airlines

www.virginaustralia.com

...
2. I've selected seat 8A for the SYD-AUH leg on the 777 and seat 12A for the AUH-LHR leg on the A380. Is anyone who's sat in these seats able to comment on the quality of views I'll get? I'm particularly thinking about the A380 leg where the seat map suggests I might have its entire wing in the way, but having never been on an A380 I'm unsure if that's the case.
...

Check here for seating advice:

Seating Availability/Allocation/Configuration Help Desk

>>>> ADDED 30 Sept 2010 > END OF UPDATE

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

...
3. Am I right in thinking I'll only have access to the ex-Etihad-now-Swissport lounge at SYD? It looks pretty good but just want to make sure I'm not missing a trick. I'm VA Gold if that helps at all.

You may not have much time, see Q1 answer.

I have moved your question here:

Lounge Access Help Desk

Background to this thread We have noticed an increase in the posting of questions regarding what Airport Lounges are available at specific airports when travelling on specific airlines. While one can be assured of access at the airline lounge when travelling on that airline (provided you have...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Ozymandias]

Just for information in case anyone has similar questions as I did:

• The transfer time at SYD was more than enough - had time to dawdle around the terminal before enjoying a couple of drinks at The House lounge (but the queues at security and immigration were both mercifully short, so YMMV)
• I was indeed directly over the wing on the A380 leg in 12A so views were limited, but I was too tired at that point to care tbh - terrible sleep on the 777 plus a screaming infant on the A380 leg