Is Etihad abusing its power over customers?
Me and my wife booked two tickets with Etihad to travel to India to visit her family. Being a short trip, we only booked one checked lugagge on her ticket, and an Economy Basic fare for myself, without a checked luggage. At the moment of making the booking, the Economy Value (next tier) for me was only 30-40€ extra and it included a 30kg checked bag. We didn't choose it not so save money, but simply because it wasn't necessary. If it costs 30-40€ at the time of booking, it can't be too bad later on, right? I was even ready to pay 100-150€ for my luggage, already expecting them to charge a lot more for that later. But hopefully we wouldn't need it.
Our plans changed, and she had to travel for work right before our trip. So her ticket was changed to a different date. I then had to find a way to add a checked bag to my ticket, since we were no longer travelling together, and her itinerary had changed and couldn't take all our common stuff.
What would have costed us 30-40€ at the time of booking for a round long-haul trip, was now 539€. They were charging us 352€ for the outward journey, and another 187€ for the return, for a single 20kg checked bag. I couldn't believe it. Had anyone known these prices, they would have never booked the Economy Basic fare. Now they were charging 90% of the price of the fare just to add a 20kg luggage.
This is clearly an abuse of power and asymetry of information on their part, and sadly the first time I experience this with airlines, especially in intercontinental, long-haul trips where most airlines usually offer a checked back (sometimes two) as part of their basic ticket.
I contacted them through multiple channels (emails, calls, Twitter, live chats). I was contacted by phone by two representatives. The first one offered me a 23kg checked bag at 673€, noting that she couldn't offer the same price as in the website from her position, and that the website would be my best option. The second one promised he would help, but never called back, replied to the emails, or picked up my subsequent calls. I also politely ask for one of any exeptions: a 10 kg complimentary checked bag, any additional bag for a cost of 100-150€, an upgrade on the ticket fare paying the difference, and even a cancellation of the ticket. They couldn't meet any of these requests. The best they could do was a 539€ 20kg checked bag, or a 260€ 10kg one.
When I tried to formally write a complain to Etihad, they told me they don't have a process to accept customer complaints before they complete their journeys, so if I really wanted to, I could write a complain after my trip.
Writing this here for whatever is worth. Be careful when buying tickets with Etihad. And to share a story of a clear abuse of power by one of the biggest long-haul airlines.