News24.com.au\u2019s report into Etihad Airlines’ complaint handling process for an aggrieved Melbourne couple has prompted a surprise shift from the airline.<\/p>\n
Passenger Ethan Watts was asked by cabin crew to restrain a violent passenger<\/a> mid-air but received what he described as a lacklustre response after attempts to contact the airline.<\/p>\n The Melbourne man and his partner, Emily Cornwall, were on the first leg of flight EY461 from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi on May 18.<\/p>\n He said a passenger had allegedly become violent at the back of the plane and was refusing to cooperate.<\/p>\n “Me and three other guys pretty much tried to restrain him and tie him to one of the chairs,” he told News24.com.au.<\/p>\n “He started swearing at me, calling us homophobic slurs. Started kicking at staff members, kicking at me\u2026 got to a point where he was threatening to rip people’s faces off.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But it was the lack of contact from the airline afterwards that prompted him to speak up.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “It was just the unwillingness to discuss or unwillingness to acknowledge it was quite a serious issue,” Ms Cornwall said.<\/p>\n The pair attempted to contact Etihad Airways multiple times for some form of compensation.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But one day after News24 aired the story about the airline’s handling of the complaint, an Etihad representative reached out.<\/p>\n “Got a call the day after the story went live. Got two calls actually – they were pretty persistent,” Ms Cornwall said.<\/p>\n “They wanted to stress they appreciated everything Ethan did on board and noted they upped their offer to $700 AUD worth of Etihad money.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “I reckon they saw it blow up. They were pretty quick to jump on it as soon as that happened,” Ms Cornwall said.<\/p>\n News24 has contacted Etihad Airways for a statement.<\/p>\n Read related topics:Flight Attendant<\/a>Flight Nightmares<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News24.com.au\u2019s report into Etihad Airlines’ complaint handling process for an aggrieved Melbourne couple has prompted a surprise shift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[48253,120287,120291,120275,120305,41445,120294,120265,49536,82182,108640,120296,120284,120299,120277,120307,43092,38970,120288,120267,120301,37726,120281,120271,120303,2419,17703,120266,120256,65763,54022,20839,17902,10948,120263,6668,22219,38042,38242,15840,120257,120268,120279,120258,105204,120282,120269,120309,120304,120293,48864,120272,120306,118582,65573,120298,120308,120289,120297,12722,10885,120260,27198,260,69812,120278,120286,120274,8173,65099,40807,31822,120264,7350,34917,77113,3733,42774,55539,26169,120273,53296,39946,51030,42128,42022,120276,40892,41076,36756,38263,40163,39545,120280,81019,120262,120292,41503,41212,120259,120295,52322,37068,59741,38553,43761,37720,120285,120283,120302,62078,120261,65389,120290,120300,120270,10601],"class_list":["post-78707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-s-report","tag-700-aud","tag-000-guest-miles","tag-23-hour-journey","tag-28-year-old","tag-41445","tag-a-50-usd-credit-voucher","tag-a-us50-voucher","tag-a-call","tag-a-choice","tag-a-chunk","tag-a-fresh-compensation","tag-a-lacklustre-response","tag-a-melbourne-couple","tag-a-melbourne-passenger","tag-a-mid-air-incident","tag-a-passenger","tag-a-point","tag-a-portal","tag-a-potential-emergency-landing","tag-a-serious-issue","tag-a-statement","tag-a-surprise-shift","tag-a-violent-mid-air-incident","tag-a-violent-passenger-mid-air","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-airline","tag-an-aggrieved-melbourne-couple","tag-an-etihad-representative","tag-arms","tag-attempts","tag-board","tag-cabin-crew","tag-compensation","tag-compensation-offer","tag-complaint","tag-complaints","tag-concerns","tag-contact","tag-control","tag-cornwall","tag-emily-cornwall","tag-ethan","tag-ethan-watts","tag-etihad","tag-etihad-airline","tag-etihad-airlines","tag-etihad-airways","tag-etihad-money","tag-everything-ethan","tag-faces","tag-flight-ey461","tag-fresh-compensation","tag-handling","tag-his-partner","tag-his-partner-emily-cornwall","tag-homophobic-slurs","tag-its-offer","tag-its-tune-offering","tag-kuala-lumpur","tag-london","tag-may-18","tag-me","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-man","tag-melbourne-passenger","tag-mr-watts","tag-ms-cornwall","tag-multiple-times","tag-news24","tag-one-day","tag-passenger","tag-passenger-ethan-watts","tag-people","tag-picture","tag-process","tag-report","tag-snapp-breaking","tag-some-form","tag-staff-members","tag-started","tag-supplied","tag-the-28-year-old","tag-the-airline","tag-the-aisle","tag-the-back","tag-the-chairs","tag-the-complaint","tag-the-couple","tag-the-day","tag-the-end","tag-the-experience","tag-the-fact","tag-the-first-leg","tag-the-guy","tag-the-increased-offer","tag-the-intervention","tag-the-journey","tag-the-lack","tag-the-melbourne-man","tag-the-mid-air-incident","tag-the-ordeal","tag-the-pair","tag-the-plane","tag-the-rest","tag-the-situation","tag-the-story","tag-the-tackle","tag-the-unwillingness","tag-their-24-hour-journey","tag-their-experience","tag-their-offer","tag-three-other-guys","tag-three-other-men","tag-two-calls","tag-watts","tag-weeks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}