This day 2years Back-365

ETIHAD AIRWAYS NEED TO BE APPRECIATED

My son and family were returning to Toronto after attending his Brother In Laws Marriage at Coimbatore from Chennai on the 27 th of June  by the Lufthansa flight starting at 1.15 AM and reaching Toronto at 4.oo PM Toronto local time after a 4 hour transit at Frankfurt  on the same day that is the 27 th of June .
With my daughter also settled in Canada and my son s Formal New House Grehapravesam fixed on the 13 th of July , self and wife made a rather late decision to accompany them and spend time with our children in Canada .
The hitch was that there were  no seats available in the Economy Class and the Business Class rates were forbiddingly high .
We booked our tickets by the Etihad Airways for the same day the 27 th of June , starting from Chennai at 4.55 AM and reaching Toronto at 4.15 PM local time with a much shorter transit time at Abu Dhabi .
We had envisaged that both my son and we too  would be reaching Toronto almost at the same time with a gap of just 15 minutes .
We saw our son and family take off by the Lufthansa flight and waited at the Airport for our Check In by the Etihad Flight .
There was an  announcement over the public address system to the affect  that there would be a delay of almost 4 hours in our departure time  as there was a delay in the arrival of the incomming  flight from Abu Dhabi .
There was utter confusion as passengers had onward flights to catch at Abu Dhabi for the US , Canada and  Europe .
We were assured that alternate arrangements would be made for us on arrival at Abu Dhabi .
There was no way we could contact our Son or Daughter over the phone and inform them of the delay in schedule as the Airport Wifi does not support Whatsapp . The information was passed on to them by our relatives at Chennai .
The reputation of Ethihad Airways with respect to its Baggage Handling was not very encouraging.  Numerous cases of missing/late arrival of  baggage were doing the rounds even as we were waiting for our flights to depart .
We arrived at noon local Abu Dhabi time and were greeted by a host of  officials of Etihad Airways .
They expressed their regret for the changed schedule and handed us
1 ) Boarding Passes Ex Abu Dhabi to Brussels at 2.15 AM on the 28 th .
Boarding Pass Ex Brussels to Toronto and reaching Toronto at 1.00 AM local time on on the 28 th .
2 )Individual
  Hotel accomodation inside the Airport for the 12 hours that we needed to  spend before we could catch our flight to Brussels .
3 ) Free lunch and Dinner Coupons at any restaurant of our choice inside the Airport .
The Indian Restaurant came in very handy with excellent food .

Etihad Airways had looked after us very well and deserve to be complimented for the care taken to minimise the misery as much as possible .
That there was a break in what would otherwise have been a 15 hour non stop direct flight from Abu Dhabi to Toronto which now had  a stopover at Brussels which was a welcome added bonus .
My son was there to pick us up at the Terminal 3 of Toronto Airport as he was aware of the changed travel plans on the Etihad Airways Website.
All Around , a very good job done by the Etihad Airways which does need to be lauded  .