Used Etihad airways to travel from Manchester to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi. Travelled 3 legs on Boeing 777 and the inbound to Manchester on a 787 Dreamliner. Very smooth take off and landings. For airline food the quality was pretty good and good service

I entered into the web for the check in for me and my wife, completed the process and what is my surprise that I encounter the plane completely empty but we had assigned seats A and K on the same row. That means my wife is seating on the other side of the trip, although there is plenty of spaces free.

If we want to sit together we have to pay 30 euros to change the seat (for four trips) a total of 120€.

Totally unacceptable.

One of the worst experiences. The ground staff was extremely rude. one of the attendants told me " I am not here to help you" when asked for a minor help. Paid extra $1000 to travel through Etihad, but never again !
The food served during the flight was completely frozen.

During bag drop we waited for almost 45 minutes in family area and the staff when i ask for supervisor help just lied that they didn't keep us waiting and my wife is pregnant and ask the supervisor to help us no to carry ang heavy bags as we have only bags on the flight i just made it one bag to be dropped in the bag drop he refused and i told him the reason that my wife is pregnant he insist that i must divide it to small bags and she has to carry them otherwise to pay 230 AED for the bag i had to pay these amount . I was really angery. I will never use Etihad ever again

I used to love Etihad (except when codeshare with Virgin) and travel 2 or three times a year NZ to Ireland and return.Flights are good, food ok and I have had my share of upgrades.Luggage allowance generous but the more I travel the less I need it. Have Lounge access and showers between long flights a lifesaver. Unfortunately with seat charging comes seat choosing and the colours and therefore prices are indistinguishable on my iMac screen and there is no progressive cost so you get to the end of a website booking with $500 extra cost. Gave up and booked via agent, which is annoying waste of time. Have 100k+ air miles. To purchase air miles they are US2¢/mile. Purchases on shop site are typically around 100k for an item (cellphone, vacuum cleaner, camera) available at $US500 not more than. 100k miles@US2¢ = $US2,000 ! Further I have never had a response to Etihad Guest Email enquiry, they are simply ignored. Phone service good but wanted 91,000 air miles for one segment economy upgrade to business class ($US1,823 equivalent). Unfortunately what is apparently intended to achieve loyalty is having the opposite effect and I predict the break to another airline is about to occur despite the fact that the amount of travel gives me lounge access. I regret that very much as I consider Abu Dhabi the friendliest airport in the world (and I have been to lots) and the airline better than Singapore Airlines and as good as Air NZ (both long-haul experts).