Etihad Stopover Holiday experience & precautions

 While I have already written about my findings about Etihad stopover holiday in an earlier post, this post lists my actual experience, findings and precautions you should take if you're planning to take Etihad Stopover Holiday

1. Etihad Stopover Holiday is NOT Free. I paid 8000 INR extra for 2 people.

While Etihad claims stopover holiday is free, it is not. Ticket price goes up slightly once you select Stopover holiday option. In my case, I could have booked ticket to Cairo on Cleartrip for 28k. But since Stopover can be booked only on Etihad official website, I had to use Etihad.com. At Etihad's website ticket price was 30k, 2k more than cleartrip and moment I select stopover holiday, price shot up to 32k+ per person. Effectively I paid 8k INR more for 2 people for 2 night stay, which is lots of money!

2. Hotel availability is NOT guaranteed

Etihad doesn't check hotel availability while booking your flight tickets. You've to pay for flight tickets first and then go to different website to check hotel availability. If your flight is 4-6 month ahead, you've high chance a room will be available, else you will be told sorry, NO rooms available.

This is bad UX. Etihad should either check hotel inventory upfront, block a room along with ticket booking or at least give an option to reschedule the flight or cancel and take full refund if rooms are not available.

Internet is full of complaints from guests who paid for stopover holiday but couldn't get rooms.

If no rooms are left you've to either spend 2 days inside Abu Dhabi airport or book a hotel at your own expense even after paying several thousand extra to Etihad.

3. Only Hotel room. Breakfast NOT included.

We got only room at Premier Inn Abu Dhabi airport. Breakfast was extra 62 AED per person per day, or about 1500 INR. Thankfully hotel allowed us early check in as room was available, didn't make us wait till 12 noon check-in time.

Etihad holidays should consider providing room with breakfast- that is deemed standard worldwide. There is no other shop or restaurant around Premier inn. Either buy at in house restaurant or go to airport/city. Found one coffee shop nearby.

Hotel I stayed in, Premier Inn Abu Dhabi international airport was standard. Nothing exceptional, no complaints. It was right next to terminal 3, but terminal 3 feels like a ghost terminal with no human or vehicles in sight. All operates seem to happen from Terminal 2, which is 7 kms from Premier Inn hotel.

4. No way to book single room for 2 people.

Once we book a room, no way to manage it.

I booked for myself and a family member through 2 separate PNRs. So we got two separate rooms. I offered the hotel to take back one room if they can give us complementary breakfast. Hotel refused. It is a loss for everyone

• Loss for us, as we've to spend extra on breakfast
• Loss for the hotel, as they could have sold the second room for about 600 AED per night, 6 times our breakfast cost. They had to send back walk in guests stating "no rooms available"
• Loss for Etihad holidays- they've to unnecessarily pay for 2 rooms, guest experience is compromised as well
• Loss for walk in customers who wanted a room.

5. You're completely on your own. Don't expect any help.

There is no helpdesk at Abu Dabhi airport for Stopover holiday guests to clear their doubts.

The Premier inn hotel we'd booked is right across the runway but about 7 kms by road. The hotel had a free airport shuttle. This information was never communicated to us. At 1 AM I was thinking if I should walk 7 km or take a taxi, as public buses start after 5 or 6 AM. Eventually some people told us about the hotel shuttle, which operates like once an hour.

Abu Dhabi tourism has some free shuttles. Again this information was not shared with us. I read about it in inflight magazine. These free shuttles usually start late in the day like 10 AM, mostly cover a few resorts, hotels and some attractions. They won't go to many of the attractions so are less reliable, but still can be used if it suits your plan.

Etihad airways asked for our feedback after the flight. Etihad holidays didn't bother. So Etihad holidays team doesn't seem to care about feedback.

6. Transit visa cost extra

If you don't have visa to enter UAE, you will need transit visa. UAE transit visa will cost around 2k to 5k depending on duration. Min is 48 hours transit visa which is cheapest. But if the gap between your arriving and departing flight is 1 min more than 48 hours you've to apply for  96 hours transit visa, which costs 3x more. So select your flights carefully and save a few thousand rupees.

7. 2-3 days not enough for Abu Dhabi

While you can get a glimpse of Abu Dhabi is 2 days, it is not enough to explore fully

• Yas Water world, Ferrari world needs 1 full day each
• BAPS Hindu Mandir is away from city, will take half day
• Other major attractions like Louvre Abu Dhabi, Heritage village etc are far from city. Grand Mosque, palace etc need half day

Thus it is better to plan a 4-5 day trip to Abu Dhabi + Dubai if interested - you will get return ticket for 15k, than trying to visit everything over a stopover holiday.

Etihad Holidays experience Summary:

• Try Etihad holidays if you are booking tickets 4-6 months in advance for a good chance of getting rooms
• Assess if the extra cost paid (ticket+ transit visa etc) is worth. If you feel planning a separate dedicated trip to Abu Dhabi is better you can plan for the same.
• Try to select a hotel in city center to save on travel time and have alternate options for breakfast 
• Don't expect any help. Do your research and plan well.