Ethiopian Airlines’ latest reply to my appeal to honor a $763 r/t business class ticket from Bangkok to Toronto is another attempt to stonewall.
This whole exercise is becoming more for sport rather than seriousness. I’m about to pull the plug on this. But I just cannot yet.
As planned in my previous post, Here’s the letter I sent last week:
Dear Zerihun,
Thank you for your note. I regret that the three choices are not satisfactory. Looks at the loads for the flights booked, departing on 22 May 2017. They are wide open in business class. Why is not an option simply to honor the booking?
Why has the Norwegian Sales Office in Oslo stated that you will honor the fares as booked in business class?
Can we please work together to find a better solution?
Thank you,
Matthew
The following response just arrived–
Dear Matthew Klint,
Thank you!
Again we are apologizing for the inconvenience it may cause you. As your ticket was done with wrong fare calculation we can only offer you the mentioned options.
Regards,
Addis Girma Ms
Obviously, I am talking to stone wall.
The question now — go to Bangkok or not?
Part of me wants to go, just to see how this might play out. I would show up at the ticket counter with a printout of my confirmed ticket. Although there is a slim chance it will be honored, it might be fun even if the answer is ultimately no.
What do you think?
Take them to small claims court.
I am not a lawyer. This is not intended to be legal advice.
Hi Matthew, an even worse case scenario: they let you board in business for the outbound segment, then deny boarding on the return trip. Getting home would not only become a major inconvenience, but potentially quite expensive. Unlike US airlines which are still working on damage repair from recent negative press, Ethiopian has little reason to care about bad PR. If you have a Plan B for the return, however, it might be fun to see how it plays out.
Agree with David. Most people rarely hear or even know about Ethiopian. Bad image is least of their concern. There’s no bargaining chip in your negotiation.
Go for it!
P.S. Loved your Mother’s Day posts. 🙂
It might be fun to play around with them, but do you have a Plan B in case you’re denied boarding in BKK? Like a couple of others said, I highly doubt ET will show much interest in helping you out with your predicament.
+1
@IR15H I agree. If Matthew really wants to have fun, he should sue them. I think that’s everyone’s pipe dream. But what is the correct choice of venue?
Let’s put another perspective on what fun means:
-ruining a ticket agent’s day (who had nothing to do with this);
-holding up the line for other paying customers.
All within that stressful 2 hour window prior to departure. Isn’t travel stressful enough for the rest of the population?
All for fun? In the name of consumer rights? Tough to make a case for the latter when you look at how they’ve reached out multiple times with options. Never mind you might be “stranded” in BKK; I’m sure we all have enough miles to burn in cases of emergency. Let’s think about the other 200+ people trying to just get where they need to be in a smooth fashion.
Sue them!!
When customer made a mistake i.e. mis-spelled, wrong date etc. they charge hefty especially low-cost airline (even full service one). But when the airline made a mistake, they try to dodge away. Is that seem fair? no, go for it!