News24.com.au’s report into Etihad Airlines’ complaint handling process for an aggrieved Melbourne couple has prompted a surprise shift from the airline.
Passenger Ethan Watts was asked by cabin crew to restrain a violent passenger mid-air but received what he described as a lacklustre response after attempts to contact the airline.
The Melbourne man and his partner, Emily Cornwall, were on the first leg of flight EY461 from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi on May 18.
He said a passenger had allegedly become violent at the back of the plane and was refusing to cooperate.
“Me and three other guys pretty much tried to restrain him and tie him to one of the chairs,” he told News24.com.au.
“He started swearing at me, calling us homophobic slurs. Started kicking at staff members, kicking at me… got to a point where he was threatening to rip people’s faces off.
“They did decide to try and move him. From there that’s when he wriggled free and ran down the plane. He was then tackled on the plane. I had to run up the aisle and assist with the tackle and that’s when he ended up biting a chunk out of one of the guy’s arms.”
The 28-year-old said he and three other men were doing what they could to keep the situation under control and that the intervention avoided a potential emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur.
But it was the lack of contact from the airline afterwards that prompted him to speak up.
“At the end of the day I was happy to help and if they’d ask me again I’d do it again. It was more the fact we had to reach out to them,” Mr Watts told News24.
It was the first leg of their 24-hour journey to London, and the ordeal left him unable to sleep for the rest of the journey.
“It was just the unwillingness to discuss or unwillingness to acknowledge it was quite a serious issue,” Ms Cornwall said.
The pair attempted to contact Etihad Airways multiple times for some form of compensation.
Weeks later, they were offered a choice of a $50 USD credit voucher or 5,000 guest miles, which they could access by logging into a portal.
But one day after News24 aired the story about the airline’s handling of the complaint, an Etihad representative reached out.
“Got a call the day after the story went live. Got two calls actually – they were pretty persistent,” Ms Cornwall said.
“They wanted to stress they appreciated everything Ethan did on board and noted they upped their offer to $700 AUD worth of Etihad money.”
The pair have welcomed the increased offer but say the experience has left them questioning how complaints like theirs are handled and escalated within the airline.
“I reckon they saw it blow up. They were pretty quick to jump on it as soon as that happened,” Ms Cornwall said.
News24 has contacted Etihad Airways for a statement.
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