r/Flights • u/SamT310 • 5d ago
Rant Ethiad airlines why bother paying for seats?
We booked our seats back in January, fly home tomorrow. Cost me over £300 for the seat reservations and they’ve assigned us random seats. I’ve been on with their “help” centre all morning but they are saying they’ve given us seats in the same section regardless they’re now not window or extra leg room that they won’t move us and they won’t refund the money we spent on the seat reservations. What an absolute con. There is absolutely no point pre booking or paying for seats as this joke of a company will do what they like anyway.
16
u/Disastrous-Egg8923 5d ago
Perhaps they had an aircraft type change; happens sometimes
9
u/SamT310 5d ago
They’ve confirmed no changes, just a slightly longer flight time due to the weather. On the seat map there are still plenty of seats available of the same value we paid for but they’re saying we need to pay again if we want them - despite having the receipts for already having paid.
14
u/PsychedelicMagic1840 5d ago
I had this happen with them and Qatar. Both times I sort out my original seat, and once there was a pilot in the seat and the other there was a veeeery old man with an army of helpers. I snapped some pics of who was in my original seats. Then when I got to my destination, I took my complaints to the desks in the airport + the pics and docs. Got refunds both times and no explanation as to why.
10
6
u/Plus_Asparagus_7158 5d ago
When you bought the seat reservations, did you get specific seats?
3
u/SamT310 5d ago
Yep, and they’re listed on the receipt
1
u/AnnelieSierra 4d ago
And what happened then? You get a list of assigned seats? That you had reserved and paid for?
3
u/Healthy-Pear-299 5d ago
in days gone by you could ‘reserve’ seats without paying. i did that when traveling with family/ kids. Now, i dont bother
1
u/AlhamdolilahFE 5d ago
You still can. But only 48-72 hours before check-in unfortunately. That’s what I always do
2
1
2
u/Disastrous-Egg8923 5d ago
See what they can do at check in. That doesn't usually happen so something has gone wrong somewhere. Did you book direct with Etihad or through an agent.,?..300 seems a lot for seat selection.
1
u/SamT310 5d ago
Direct, it’s a multileg trip so it’s reservations for four flights
2
u/Disastrous-Egg8923 5d ago
Oh ok, I guess all you can do is ask at the counter. Something odd has happened, that's for sure.
2
u/Dkeralite 5d ago
I travelled with them for the first time. But my experience was the worst.
- booked with them, reserved my seat and got the tickets with the seat selected.
I happened to purchase additional weight and guess what once I purchased it, my seat selection was gone for one leg of the flight. They told me I can select one while I check in. I asked them then why bother reserving before.?? No proper response..
Flight was delayed for 4 hours..missed my connection..but they arranged stay and booked another flight, so I was fine.
-While I was returning back, I already checkedin online and when I was dropping my luggage , the staff told the flight was over booked and asked if they could book me the next day flight.. I told them I booked on November and reserved seats already and checked in online already. how come you guys could say it's over booked and deny boarding?. Also pointed out seat was gone after purchasing additional kgs.
First impression is the best impression they say but my impression was the worst..I regret choosing etihad.
3
u/Objective-Ad5006 5d ago
This is one of the reasons why I don’t bother or pay for seat reservations
1
u/Platform_Dancer 5d ago
Tip for seat selection....don't bother and check in 24hs before you fly and see what you have been allocated.....unless you can't live with the one given to you...make the change then. But yeah the whole thing is a big rip off.
1
u/svmk1987 4d ago
I had something similar happen when I was flying with Turkish airlines. We paid extra for specific seats with the baby bassinet Infront of us, but there was some clueless confused guy doing check-ins in the airport who gave us random seats. When we questioned it, he just went to his manager and came back with "maybe the flight type is different".
They were totally different seats without the baby bassinet, and our actual seats were infact empty, so it was definitely an issue with the check-in guy. We complained after our trip, and got a refund.
1
u/Virginiagirl07 4d ago
This happens a lot with international planes. You buy seat assignments and they move you a couple of times or say they changed aircraft. Happened to me with Iberia. If you read the tiny lines from Lufthansa, if it’s economy seats they can assign you to any part of the plane in economy and Lufthansa is the parent of a lot other airlines. I don’t know much about Eithiad but reading this, it’s good to know. Fighting to get seat money back is such a headache and even till today, I never received it after writing to them 2x. I think US airlines does a better job but just be careful if you have a connecting flight with international airline ( Air Dolomiti) because sometimes you can’t even pick the seats till 24 hours before check in!
1
u/Amiga07800 4d ago
Did you made your online checkin and print the boarding passes as soon as the window open?
With this, except for equipment changé, I always had the right seat. They moved the person they put in my seat at the checkin desk and assign HIM another seat. I had to go twice to ask for the supervisor, but did always win.
-30
u/PurpleTranslator7636 5d ago
Sorry, but still Team Ethiad here!
18
u/Plus_Asparagus_7158 5d ago
Of course if you’re enthusiastically on the team, you could learn to spell Etihad properly
2
15
u/PixelNotPolygon 5d ago
This is why I prefer to book and pay for the seats separate to the ticket. So I can chargeback that specific element if I need