Shocking Customer service,blame game for your money!!!

<p>I have been battling for Months with customer service from both Etihad Airways and Budget Air.</p> <p> </p> <p>My ticket was booked for Thailand over 6 months in advance and since then my situation with my other half has changed.</p> <p>Because of this I wanted to originally cancel my flight but then decided to move my flight as I had a friend who was willing to travel with me but however could not do so on the same dates .</p> <p>When I approached Budget air regarding my situation they told me I could change my flights as I please as I had purchased some special package which allows me to do so.</p> <p>However after paying for that “special package I was then told that it doesn’t apply to Etihad (which im sure goes against the consumer protection act ) and that if I want to change my flights I would now have to pay $65 as well as the difference which happened to be an amount of over R9000 which was more then my original ticket.</p> <p> </p> <p>After speaking with the helpful staff at flight centre who contacted Etihad on my behalf in front of me.</p> <p>It was established that if I decided to cancel my ticket, my Air “fare” was non-refundable but I could receive my taxes back which was an amount over R6000 .</p> <p> </p> <p>However after speaking to budget air a number of times who happened to have a completely different story on Etihad’s Airways behalf which was that’ Etihad refused to give my taxes back and that if I cancelled my ticket even though it was over 2 months in advance I would receive a measly sum total of R440 back(no idea how they got to that figure .</p> <p>And that they cannot move my departure dates around without paying the massive difference.</p> <p> </p> <p>I then contacted Etihad Airways again myself and received zero help or any customer service at all.</p> <p>I find it shocking that you get punished for booking in advance and it’s a complete blame game between the Agent and the Airline all in the hope that you cancel and they can now sell your seat twice.</p> <p>They could have obtained another passenger but will now lose 2 passengers due to their pathetic customer service .</p> <p> </p> <p>I would not recommend that anyone deals with Etihad airways or budget air as an agent as neither of them seem to know what customer service is or have any care for you as a customer.</p> <p>Once they have your money you will be lucky to get help for either of them.</p> <p>If something goes wrong or needs to be changed you can be sure that neither of them will assist you.</p> <p>I have had a similar issue with other airlines and received much better customer service as well as a much more satisfactory outcome due to the airlines understanding.</p> <p> </p> <p>DO NOT USE THESE COMPANIES !!!</p>