From BKK to MUC - an Etihad catastrophe

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I know I should have told you about my bus ride to Bangkok earlier and in detail. But I was quite occupied and a little bit sad that I had to leave.

Now I will tell you about Etihad, the “World best airline” and the incredible disaster of my flight home which however ended most delighting (not going to tell you why J)

I checked in Friday, 4 p.m. local time in Bangkok. At that time the flight was delayed from 19:55 to 22:00. The flight should go to Abu Dhabi and then I would have had 3 hours for changing into the plane to Munich. I asked if the connecting flight would wait and the answer was “Yes Sir”.

The second unpleasant surprise was that the check-in-guy wanted 570 USD for my 10 kg over the allowed 30 kg of baggage (no – I did not pack a Thai lady into my backpack. Yes – I am taking my bicycle back to Germany/Spain). I told him that being an Air Berlin Silvercard member I was allowe an additional 10 kg, which he denied. Luckily I am a bright guy and took a picture from the Air Berlin website that proved my claim (although I am not sure if it actually did, since I did not book over Air Berlin) and suddenly my 10 kg were ok.

Then I (and the other passengers) were invited to the Novotel hotel for a dinner buffet, trying to make up for the delay. I took that opportunity, had a, hmm, boring dinner and went back to the airport where I spent the remaining hours reading, only to find that the flight was further delayed, until 23:something. So I took a long walk to the Etihad service counter and asked if the connecting flight would still wait but to be honest – I did not believe the confirming answer. I tried to get another water and this was the next bad surprise: since I had eaten in the hotel at 5 p.m., I was not entitled for another drink the next 24 hours. Well, thank you Etihad – one drink in 7 hours?

Next thing I realize that the flight was now delayed until 01:45 – still no water. And actually we were bullshitted because if the arrival is delayed at a time where the plane would have to be in the air for at least 2 hours already to match the first arrival time, then it means that the plane would have had to fly slower or fly some circles during the trip.

Anyway, boarding time finally… when suddenly all passengers to Munich were called to the counter and had to give back both boarding passes (to Abu Dhabi and connecting flight). After some discussions we were told that we were rebooked to a Thai Airways flight to Munich. At that I lost all my hopes to arrive in Munich with maybe only short delay. And it was where the complete chaos began. 15 minutes later we (about 40 passengers) were told that they would not rebook us and we should take back our boarding passes, only that the lady could not read our names and that there were two staples of passes that had to be checked. So after some minutes passengers took the thing in their own hands: two began reading names aloud and after 10 minutes we had our passes back and finally boarded.

I was quite hopeful that in Abu Dhabi somebody would be waiting at the gate to help the passengers with their connecting flights. After all this was not Ryan Air – it was Etihad; the opposite side of the scale. But no one. 300 passengers on a connecting flight and nobody there to help. After finding the transfer counter, there was a huge crowd, maybe 300 passengers waiting for help, each with several passports. All in all I was told that about 1000 passengers had to be rebooked. There were NO rows, no organization, no extra line for urgencies, families with babies or even the business class passengers. I stood there for 30 minutes and there was not even one person progress in “my” part of the crowd. Already my back started giving me some pain (standing is poison, sports help) so I decided to try to get some extra treatment and started looking for an Etihad representative. None of them was responsible for anything. Why would people that might have reached their connection flight have to wait 4 hours in line just to get the information that they could have taken a flight 2 hours ago?

Anyway, after a while I found the entrance to the Etihad transit office and suddenly was behind the counter – with about 50 other passengers in the tiny office. I remembered that I was in Africa – kind of – and needed to act. You don’t get things for free there, you need to act. So after 1.5 hours discussing with almost every single employee in the office, surrounded by more and more people getting angrier by the minute, finally one lady reviewed my boarding pass and said I should go to gate 30 without rebooking and try if the next Munich flight had a seat for me. I insisted in rebooking but was told that I could have taken the original flight and if I wanted rebooking, I would need to book a new flight. Bullshit. So that is the world class Etihad service?? After another 2 hours I was getting louder and saying the words “police”, “attorney”, “press” until the manager finally gave me a good chair to sit and checked my case personally. I was finally rebooked to the Munich flight at 08:55 which was delayed to 11:55 so I could still reach it (it was about 10:00). When I reached the gate, it was besieged by about 50 people with boarding passes for other Munich flights.

While waiting for the boarding (bus again) the employees disappeared one by one until only one was left, hopelessly helpless, no idea when to board or what to do. People shouting, getting aggressive, wanting to leave. There were people there, waiting for a connection flight for 2 days already, some in their 3^rd day of travel. Does not sound soo bad? Well imagine you don’t have your suitcase, no toilet things for women (like tampons), no food for your baby. And no one helping or even informing you, not to speak of food and water. The gate counter was surrounded by people. So passengers took it in their hands again – one demanded the last employee to go and get a supervisor which he agreed to after trying to reach one by phone and walkie-talkie for more than 30 minutes. He was accompanied (guarded) by another passenger and left the counter unguarded. People tried to use the computers and check them in themselves. Then after some time finally some Etihad people came. They were surprised by the cheering and shouting crowd and called for more security.

After a lot of discussion (why can’t they use their f….g microphone to tell people what they want? ) and shouting, boarding started. I was in the first bus, out among the first, within the first 10 on the stairs to the plane when boarding stopped. It turned out that this was the plane to Dublin, Ireland! The bus had dropped us at the wrong plane. I was calling for the people to keep the bus occupied so it could not go and leave us. So we reboarded the bus, doors closed and there we were again, in another type of prison. Many airport people on their mobile phones and hectic running around and after another 15 minutes the bus started again to another plan. It turned out to be the right one and it turned out that it had been ready and waiting since 7 in the morning and the crew had no idea why people did not board hours before (it was about 12:30). They also were not informed. In short: it was absolute chaos at Abu Dhabi, Etihad had totally lost the control, all flights late…

We waited another hour until everybody boarded, more luggage was brought and the plan had refuelled. So finally with 11 hours delay I arrived in Munich and only because I had fought for my boarding pass, otherwise I would still be in Abu Dhabi.

Now my luggage – do you really expect my backpack or my bicycle were in Munich? I hope I get them at all and next week. So long one pair of socks must be enough.

Thank you Etihad, for proving to be totally incapable, unorganized and helpless.

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Photos

Worth a hearty laugh
It could have been a perfect marketing gag. But it was only the Emirates bording sign

Crowds
at Etihad transfer counter

Gate blocked
Shout, shout, shout.. a bit louder

Back in the bus
Anybody wanted to go to Dublin?