Etihad Airways, Brussels call center

[Atlantis]

@airtrotter: I think the market is really big enough for both Etihad and Qatar. But maybe with these new route, an expansion of Etihad to BRU is further away now. But I'm sure they can operate both to BRU with good performances.

Which expansion of Etihad? They are flying now 6 times a week to BRU with A330 equipment. Loads are very good so the only expansion could be an additional flight on Saturday but certainly not a bigger a/c at this moment or near future.
But the Etihad team in BRU is growing and that is also important. But these are movements behind the scenes.

[regi]

@airtrotter: I think the market is really big enough for both Etihad and Qatar. But maybe with these new route, an expansion of Etihad to BRU is further away now. But I'm sure they can operate both to BRU with good performances.

Which expansion of Etihad? They are flying now 6 times a week to BRU with A330 equipment. Loads are very good so the only expansion could be an additional flight on Saturday but certainly not a bigger a/c at this moment or near future.
But the Etihad team in BRU is growing and that is also important. But these are movements behind the scenes.

The Ztihad team in Brussels is growing?
Now you make me angry, not you personally, but the experience.
Last year during July and August the office of Etihad ( do they have an office, really?) was manned ...by 1 uncompetent, overworked, overstressed lady.
I have been in August to Connections who phoned in my presence at 10h15 to the "office". They tried 5 times after each other , each time waiting for 5 to 7 minutes. I left the travel agent, utterrly disgusted by this cheap mentality of Etihad.
In the afternoon, Connections phoned me up and said that eventually they had been switched through after almost exactly 1 hour - they had kept the line open with the speaker on.
This is my own personnal experience, no exageration. Just ask the travel agents what they have to do to get somebody on the phone at Brussels.
The remark from Joker travel is that they rather don't phone to Etihad , and if the customer doesn't mind, rather make another booking to avoid that they would have to contact the Brussels office.
So coming back to the growing team. Can we assume now that they have...2 persons in "the office" ?

[Atlantis]

Hi Regi,

I will give you tomorrow the exact number of employees. But the team, Benelux, is already quit big

[regi]

Hi Regi,

I will give you tomorrow the exact number of employees. But the team, Benelux, is already quit big

even worse if the team is big. I was at the Connections office when they tried so long to get through. 1 year ago, that is true. But has the situation improved?

[regi]

Hi Regi,

I will give you tomorrow the exact number of employees. But the team, Benelux, is already quit big

even worse if the team is big. I was at the Connections office when they tried so long to get through. 1 year ago, that is true. But has the situation improved?

By the way: I had a similar experience with BA in Cape Town. Couldn't get through. So I phoned the BA office in Belgium, the phone was picked up immediately and I could make my confirmation without waiting.
It probably depends on location and on the office.

because I am wicked I shoot again at Biman:
A friend in BKK tried to reconfirm his flight to Brussels by phone. It didn't work. So he went to their office on my advice. ( in those days somewhere around Sukhumvit, now it is on Surawong ) He was told in the office that he had to phone them, not come to the office because it is another department. He was quite angry and used the desk phone from their own office. Some desks further, the phone rang , but differently than an outside line. So it was picked up immediateley. He did his reconfirmation and gave the phone back to the secretary. She was not even embarrased about this "Faulty Tower" experience.
If you don't believe such a stories, fly Biman. Just once, that will be fine.
Okay, coming back to Qatar: let us hope that they have learned the lesson from their colleagues and have less growing pains. I am looking forward to use them to Cape Town. Imagine, straight from Brussels , with a short transit at Doha.

[Atlantis]

Hi Regi,

I will give you tomorrow the exact number of employees. But the team, Benelux, is already quit big

15 employees

[regi]

Hi Regi,

I will give you tomorrow the exact number of employees. But the team, Benelux, is already quit big

15 employees

And how many of those 15 will pick up the phone?

I will do the test several times this summer and let you know the result. The test will be simple: I phone their office and note how long it takes before the phone will be picked up. Simple.

[regi]

Just did the test ( according their website the office is open till 12h30 and I phoned at 12h20 )
First minus:
It is all computerised.

Secondly, you are asked your language. But surprise surprise: in a country where the majority of the inhabitants is Flemish, and where the office is legally in Machelen ( Machelen belongs to the province Vlaams-Brabant and is hereby a part of Flanders and not Brussels ) , you cannot choose for Dutch.
English, French and something I did not understand very well untill I heard the word "arabia". So Arabic I suppose.

Third:
I choose English, and than for reservations, and it continued and continued untill...I had to put in a number of a flight.
How can I know the number of a flight I still have to book? Is that not the purpose of this telephone?

First conclusion based on my own facts:

• despite having 15 employees, nobody takes up the phone anymore during office hours.
  there is no chance to speak my own language
  the computerised telephone system is customer unfriendly and not informative.

Qatar Airways: if you want to know the weak spots of Etihad, I just gave you some ideas.

Etihad? You are the weakest link. Bye bye.

[fretn]

Just did the test ( according their website the office is open till 12h30 and I phoned at 12h20 )
First minus:
It is all computerised.

Secondly, you are asked your language. But surprise surprise: in a country where the majority of the inhabitants is Flemish, and where the office is legally in Machelen ( Machelen belongs to the province Vlaams-Brabant and is hereby a part of Flanders and not Brussels ) , you cannot choose for Dutch.
English, French and something I did not understand very well untill I heard the word "arabia". So Arabic I suppose.

Third:
I choose English, and than for reservations, and it continued and continued untill...I had to put in a number of a flight.
How can I know the number of a flight I still have to book? Is that not the purpose of this telephone?

First conclusion based on my own facts:

• despite having 15 employees, nobody takes up the phone anymore during office hours.
  there is no chance to speak my own language
  the computerised telephone system is customer unfriendly and not informative.

Qatar Airways: if you want to know the weak spots of Etihad, I just gave you some ideas.

Etihad? You are the weakest link. Bye bye.

[cnc]

i think those people have more operational work todo then play call center and to do the work of a booking agent

[regi]

i think those people have more operational work todo then play call center and to do the work of a booking agent

downgrading me from luxury economy to normal economy is something that had to be dealt with between the booking agent and Etihad. Result: nada.
Your thinking was wrong.
And so many things go wrong at Etihad that booking agents are no longer willing to sell Etihad tickets because the problems are not sorted - because there is no response by phone, email or fax.

By the way, if you state that the staff is there just for operational issues and not for booking, can you explain me why their phone number says it is for reservations? ( the work of a booking agent )
http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etih ... fices.aspx

Reservations and Ticketing: +32 2 714 58 30

Don't bother, I just wait for Qatar Airways.

[luchtzak]

I have split this topic, please refrain from Qatar Airways discussions in this topic

Other topic => viewtopic.php?p=234185#p234185

[ThierryD]

downgrading me from luxury economy to normal economy

What kind of class is Luxury Economy? I have never flown Etihad but I always thought they offer Economy, Business and 1st class (the latter on some routes only)!
Or do you mean the new configuration of Etihad's 777-300 ER which is of course worse then before (3-4-3 instead of 3-3-3)?

[regi]

downgrading me from luxury economy to normal economy

What kind of class is Luxury Economy? I have never flown Etihad but I always thought they offer Economy, Business and 1st class (the latter on some routes only)!
Or do you mean the new configuration of Etihad's 777-300 ER which is of course worse then before (3-4-3 instead of 3-3-3)?

No no, they offered a special seating in economy ( Coral Plus I think ) whereby you had more legroom, 1 seat less a breast . It is comparable with Eva Evergreen Deluxe or the BA Economy Plus.
You did not pay more for those seats. But the system was that the first people who booked got the seats.
What happened: especially to get those seats we booked 11 months in advance and had to pay immediately. It was all confirmed. Etihad was not the cheapest option. But we took it especially to get those seats for still a rather low price.
Suddenly, Etihad announced that the 2 airplanes they had leased with that seating configuration, were given back. Those flights would end April 2009.
You can imagine that I as a customer asked the booking agent to sort it out.
Cancelling and rebooking wasn't an option, because I had booked in economy. And the prices were rising in the mean time.
There was not 1 kind of compensation for this. Despite they had my money already 11 months in their hands.
To make matters worse, the return flight shedule was suddenly changed, forcing us to have an extra stop at Geneva, waiting for 4 hours for our connecting flight to Brussels with Swissair.
For me it was quite simple: I could have booked those 5 seats 11 months in advance at another airline for +- 150 euro less. That is a 750 euro price difference.
I did not even ask for financial compensation. Just something very simple such as entry at the business lounge in Abu Dhabi or Geneva. All demands were not responded ( the unreachable desk person ) or if it was answered (after return from my trip, what a joke) it was "no"

[ThierryD]

Thanks for the explanation Regi, you have a reason to be upset!
It seems like I shouldn't regret my decision to fly Eva Elite (CDG-TPE-CGK and back) next January!

[regi]

Thanks for the explanation Regi, you have a reason to be upset!
It seems like I shouldn't regret my decision to fly Eva Elite (CDG-TPE-CGK and back) next January!

It will be fine. All my friends who took it ( from AMS) were happy about it. It is formula that is affordable, which allows you to get some real sleep during those long flights, thanks to that little bit extra space.

[Flanders]

I had a very good experience with the Etihad call center. Just called them regarding my reservation to BKK.

I didn't chose seats during the booking process because there were no window seats available on all of the 4 legs. Also, me and my gf would like to sit next to eachother, which turned out to be an impossible option during booking.

So I called the Brussels office. Had to go through 4 or 5 menu's. And indeed, no option for dutch speaking callers so I chose English. I Immediately got a friendly operator, gave the PNR, and things were fixed in less than a minute! She also forwarded the confirmation with seat numbers to my mailbox. Excellent service!

So, things might have changed!

Greetz,

Flanders.

[tolipanebas]

As you've opted to be served in English, you were probably forwarded to a callcenter somewhere half across the globe... If you insist on being served in Dutch, it still takes ages to get in though with Etihad, just as before.