Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky and fellow travellers!

I have an issue and am hoping that that I can crowdsource some wisdom from this more experienced group here.

I am booked on Etihad First Class next May 2020, courtesy of Singapore’s OCBC Voyage credit card promotion where you pay business and fly first. I am already ticketed, everything is paid for, and I am trying to arrange for my Premium Stopover of 2 nights with the bank’s concierge. This is done via the OCBC Voyage concierge together with their designated travel agent.

The Etihad Premium Stopover programme lists the eligible hotels on their website ([URL=’http://static.etihad.com/website/stopover2017/Stop_Over_Form.aspx’]http://static.etihad.com/website/stopover2017/Stop_Over_Form.asp) [/URL]but unlike the regular stopover programme, there is no way to check for availability for your dates – the site basically asks for your booking details and choice of hotels etc and you’ll have to wait for someone from the Etihad Stopover Programme team to get back to you. The concierge offered to handle this for me so I gave them my choice of hotels and waited for a response.

It is useful to note that I had researched on all the 8 hotels and made my choices based on location being my first time to Abu Dhabi and also how much it would cost to upgrade for club access (I had emailed all 3 hotels directly to inquire) – Rosewood, Jumeirah, and Ritz Carlton.

I later heard back from the concierge team the response from the Etihad Stopover team that my choices are all “not available” and they can offer me Shangri-La (which had really dated rooms and certainly not what I want). I double checked and my 3 selected properties were selling every kind of room types on my travel dates. So I told the concierge this and asked them to push back to the Etihad team about this. I am still waiting to hear back from them.

But meanwhile, I would like to get some sense if it is me or is it not possible for all my 3 preferred hotels to be not available when i am booking 7 months out? I read through the T&C and it does say the availability is subject to properties’ allocation but I find it hard to believe that only 1 out of 8 (Shangri-La) is available so far ahead.

I had no luck with my direct email correspondences with my 3 preferred hotels – they were more than happy to tell me the room type which is eligible for the programme and the costs to upgrade for lounge access but stopped short of committing to availability when I asked them explicitly.

I have thus ran out of avenues to check if the Etihad Stopover team is telling me the truth.

I cannot help but feel this is somewhat of a conspiracy or marketing flub – the availability of the hotels are not transparent at all and they may just be trying to stuff me into Shangri-La for reasons only known to them. Or is it because I am only paying business fare instead of the full First Class fare – in which they could have easily stated upfront on to avoid any miscommunication if it is indeed so.

It will be helpful if anyone can advise of their experience with the Premium Stopvoer Programme and any advise on how to push back (and if I’m actually reasonable to do so) will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

Hi,

I am sure that is a frustrating situation, and while there may be some game playing involved, I think you are unfortunately stuck with what they are saying. Someone else who has used the service may know better, but I feel like they are offering you accommodation at a 5-star hotel, even if it wasn’t your first choice.

If it is any consolation, I personally think TripAdvisor has some genuine reviews, and the Shangri-La is the 11th best hotel in Abu Dhabi… which is pretty impressive.

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 67199, member: 1436″]Hi,

I am sure that is a frustrating situation, and while there may be some game playing involved, I think you are unfortunately stuck with what they are saying. Someone else who has used the service may know better, but I feel like they are offering you accommodation at a 5-star hotel, even if it wasn’t your first choice.

If it is any consolation, I personally think TripAdvisor has some genuine reviews, and the Shangri-La is the 11th best hotel in Abu Dhabi… which is pretty impressive.[/QUOTE]

Thanks alot Ricky for your inputs! Shangri-La is not too shabby by all means as its still 5-stars but I guess I am just frustrated by this process and how reality turned out to be versus what their pitch is. Thanks again!

Could be that the Etihad stopover program is only allowed a limited subset of rooms at each hotel, even if they are available for sale via public channels.

Lucky also had issues getting a hotel via the stopover program [URL]https://onemileatatime.com/abu-dhabi-hotel-etihad/[/URL]