Hi

I had a flight booked for today, 22nd June 10.40 am from Abu Dhabi airport (Etihad Jet codeshare - 9W 581). PNR - CHZXEV. Two of my colleagues were also travelling with me. When I reached the boarding pass counter, the guy at the counter number 24 said that there is some problem with your booking. So he consulted some senior female (Harpreet) colleague and she came, checked the system and said, "your booking is cancelled"!
We were shocked to know that, and I showed her the confirmed ticket printout with the PNR mentioned on it to prove that our booking is confirmed. She said "I can't believe on your paper ticket as anyone can make that on a computer and take a print"
Hearing this was like hearing someone say to me that I am a fraud trying to board a plane with a fake ticket. Then suddenly she said, "your payment might have failed while booking the ticket and thats why it stands cancelled". I said, "How come I received the ticket on my email with PNR if the payment was not done". She said,"It happens sometimes when you book it through a travel agent". I said," I have booked it on our own from Etihad website."
Finally she said," I don't know what has happened, but your booking is showing cancelled and I can't do anything"
All this while she was very rude in dealing with us and rather than having a helping attitude, she was behaving like she is the queen and we are beggars. It was enough mental torture for us as we had to board a flight for Delhi and we had all our business meetings lined up.
Then I also showed her the email, where I received a reminder from Etihad for the flight to prove that our booking is confirmed. She did not even believe on that. I also showed her that we have already chosen seats 10D, 10E and 10F and it was mentioned in our reminder email as well. All the time, we had horrible experience and went through lot of mental agony and felt like helpless.
It was only when I called one of my friends working with Etihad Holidays in Abu Dhabi and connected both of them on phone, Harpreet was ready to listen to us for the first time and finally she confirmed our reservation. However at the end we got seats 20E, 21E, 21F. On asking that how come we are not getting the extra legroom seats which we chose while booking on site, she said that those seats are for infants and we can't book those seats. (God damn! How can your system then confirmed those seats while booking online?)

The whole experience was a case of service denial by an established airline, for what we had already paid and had received confirmation email. Rather than being helpful, Harpreet was rude in treating us like helpless beggars. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PEOPLE NOT TO TRAVEL ON ETIHAD OR ELSE YOU WILL FACE SAME SITUATION. They were not accepting their responsibility.
I WILL NEVER EVER FLY ON ETIHAD DUE TO THIS BAD EXPERIENCE AND WILL GO TO CONSUMER COURT FOR DENYING SERVICES TO A CUSTOMER AFTER TAKING PAYMENT AND GIVING CONFIRMATION OF BOOKING! I NEED COMPENSATION FOR THIS HASSLE FACED.
God help this airline!