according to onemileatatime, Etihad, the national airline of the UAE, has lost its 5 star rating. This has been reflected on Skytrax website. When visiting Etihad page on skytrax, it shows that they are 4 star airline.
I guess this comes as their standard of quality is down.

Source: https://onemileatatime.com/etihad-loses ... ar-rating/


Your thoughts?

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

xwb777 wrote:

according to onemileatatime, Etihad, the national airline of the UAE, has lost its 5 star rating. This has been reflected on Skytrax website. When visiting Etihad page on skytrax, it shows that they are 4 star airline.
I guess this comes as their standard of quality is down.

Source: https://onemileatatime.com/etihad-loses ... ar-rating/


Your thoughts?

Their check to Skytrax got lost in the mail...

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

xwb777 wrote:

according to onemileatatime, Etihad, the national airline of the UAE, has lost its 5 star rating. This has been reflected on Skytrax website. When visiting Etihad page on skytrax, it shows that they are 4 star airline.
I guess this comes as their standard of quality is down.

Source: https://onemileatatime.com/etihad-loses ... ar-rating/


Your thoughts?

I check on airlinequality.com that the quality is fall down more than Southwest or JetBlue. Should I say that Etihad is the American Airlines of Middle East? Because I think their service looks similar to what AA have.

Part of EY's cost cutting measure. Less expenditures on public image

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

More like a bounced check/cheque.

AirFrance744 wrote:

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

While I would believe there are certain ratings that are "brought" (b/c it's good for advertisement), the airlines still have to be at least to certain standard to get those ratings. There's no denial that the 5-star airlines definitely have some of the best services. Now, the ranking...yeah, that's very subjective (I mean, the difference between #1 and #2 is so small, but hey, it's good for bragging rights).

But yeah, ultimately, Etihad had definitely been cutting cost. The trip reports on EY I've seen recently here reflects that - they just can't match up with EK and QR.

The cheque bounced!

AirFrance744 wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

The Skytrax ratings have little to do with customer reviews. We've noticed here for years that those airlines that enlist Skytrax consulting suddenly shot up in the ratings.

Seriously, the ratings are worthless. Any consumer review site is better.

Lightsaber

AirFrance744 wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this?.

No firsthand evidence but I've seen many secondhand references that Skytrax also runs a consulting arm to 'assist' airlines to improve their performance.

Personally I find the whole single ranking quite bizarre. You can get a very different experience depending on class, route, aircraft type etc.

lightsaber wrote:

The cheque bounced!

AirFrance744 wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

The Skytrax ratings have little to do with customer reviews. We've noticed here for years that those airlines that enlist Skytrax consulting suddenly shot up in the ratings.

Seriously, the ratings are worthless. Any consumer review site is better.

Lightsaber

Yes I recall one example of Kingfisher Airlines being awarded the 5* ranking in just it’s 3rd year of service ! I believe that’s when the creditability of Sky Trax began to be seriously questioned by many people.

They probably realized that they can't compete with EK/QR and thus there's little need for them to continue paying for the five stars?

In our travel company, there has been discussions on our message boards about EY's service decline so I'm hardly surprised by their downgraded ranking.

The fact that they give BA 4* is enough to destroy Skytrax’s credibility in my eyes.

SQ789 wrote:

xwb777 wrote:

according to onemileatatime, Etihad, the national airline of the UAE, has lost its 5 star rating. This has been reflected on Skytrax website. When visiting Etihad page on skytrax, it shows that they are 4 star airline.
I guess this comes as their standard of quality is down.

Source: https://onemileatatime.com/etihad-loses ... ar-rating/


Your thoughts?

I check on airlinequality.com that the quality is fall down more than Southwest or JetBlue. Should I say that Etihad is the American Airlines of Middle East? Because I think their service looks similar to what AA have.

Well, it appears AirlineEquility and Skytrax are one and the same; so, no surprise there...

lightsaber wrote:

We've noticed here for years that those airlines that enlist Skytrax consulting suddenly shot up in the ratings.

Couldn't it be that they offer superb consulting services and that's why the ratings go up?

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

My first thought as well. Even a 4 star airline is being a bit generous.

AirFrance744 wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

You hit the right spot. Lots of people here claiming that skytrax ratings are bought, I have never seen evidence in the 15 years I have been reading aviation news. I have only seen people consistently disagreeing with the ratings, but they often forget you have to look at the whole package: just because you had a bad or good experience in Economy does not mean the whole airline is rubbish or excellent. In general, I find my airline experiences to match with skytrax ratings, with a few exceptions.
Etihad's downgrading makes sense, as in their newest announcement, they significantly downgraded their product, especially on their narrowbodies.

zakuivcustom wrote:

But yeah, ultimately, Etihad had definitely been cutting cost. The trip reports on EY I've seen recently here reflects that - they just can't match up with EK and QR.

I've seen this to be most evident in their catering. I follow "Simply Aviation" on Youtube. Two Austrian friends who fly all over the world on various airlines and aircraft (without the huge budget that Sam Chui enjoys) and their trip reports on numerous airlines are always top notch. I also follow their instagram so as to follow their trips as they happen (don't have to wait until the whole video comes out months later) and they were not very positive about their most recent trip on Etihad. https://www.youtube.com/user/AustrianA330/featured

Wednesdayite wrote:

The fact that they give BA 4* is enough to destroy Skytrax’s credibility in my eyes.

Possibly - they’ll be bouncing back shortly though, at least when it comes to long haul.

sounds fair to me. Etihad have been cost cutting lately so it seems fair that their skytrax rating has been reduced

A little bit sidetrack but it's not just Etihad which got a star downgrade from Skytrax

https://skytraxratings.com/airlines/tur ... nes-rating

Apparently, Turkish Airlines also got its rating downgraded. Worth noting that they decided to pull themselves from Skytrax World Airline Audit last year

https://onemileatatime.com/turkish-airlines-skytrax/

Not sure what's going on at Skytrax nowadays.

Jetty wrote:

lightsaber wrote:

We've noticed here for years that those airlines that enlist Skytrax consulting suddenly shot up in the ratings.

Couldn't it be that they offer superb consulting services and that's why the ratings go up?

Nah. Who believes in coincidence?

They are the judge, the jury and the executioner: we audit you you score bad (according to our internal notation system), we bring our consultants (at great cost), we give you a great rating when you're done.
That's called Conflict of Interest.

AirFrance744 wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

Do you expect people to show you a bank payment slip as proof? Get real.

The ranking itself proves that the ranking is biased.

I'm pleased with tripadvisor where the ranking is based on the reviews.

The fact that they still had 5 stars the last couple of years, doesn't do Skytrax credibility any good.

I used to be a frequent flyer with EY between 2007 and 2013. The first few years were more than okay, both in Y and J, good service, nice fares and decent hard product. At some point, can't remember when exactly, but clearly linked to management decisions, the decline in service started and pushed trough more and more. I switched back to CX and SQ in 2013 because I just had it with less and less every flight, downgrading on meals, amenities, status perks, ... Besides that they had an increasingly uninterested staff and one seriously horrible place to transfer: AUH. The only airport I know where even the airline's dedicated lounges overflow with people.

Last year I took another flight with them Europe <> SE Asia. It was a very last minute booking for the whole family, mid summer, and frankly they were the only ones that offered a feasible fare. First flight was on the A380 which was okay but nothing more. The other flights were on A332 and B773. Rating worth 2 stars max. I was shocked to see that the hard product was still the same as 10 years before (F,J,Y). It was already due for replacement in 2013. No idea where they found the flight attendants, but it most have been a truly dark and unhappy place. AUH hadn't changed one bit except handling double the amount of passengers in the same cramped place. No way this could be 5 stars.

I can compare with 3 of the current 5-stars airlines and I can tell you EY had / has no place in that list even if they have things like 'The Residency'. Fares might be low (at least on the routes I check), a little more money can buy you a whole lot better.

AirFrance744 wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

I mean .. just remember how LH got theirs, it all makes sense.

lightsaber wrote:

The cheque bounced

Bounced cheques are a serious offence in the UAE

WayexTDI wrote:

Jetty wrote:

lightsaber wrote:

We've noticed here for years that those airlines that enlist Skytrax consulting suddenly shot up in the ratings.

Couldn't it be that they offer superb consulting services and that's why the ratings go up?

Nah. Who believes in coincidence?

They are the judge, the jury and the executioner: we audit you you score bad (according to our internal notation system), we bring our consultants (at great cost), we give you a great rating when you're done.
That's called Conflict of Interest.

The conflict of interest is why Skytrax ratings are suspect. I haven't found their rating correlate well with anything customers care about.

Lightsaber

janbrubel wrote:

No idea where they found the flight attendants, but it most have been a truly dark and unhappy place. .

I have a picture of Burgens. (I have young kids).

So how did they have 5*?

I think Abu Dhabi is finding out:
1. Running an operations business is hard.
2. Running a service business is hard.

Lightsaber

lightsaber wrote:

WayexTDI wrote:

Jetty wrote:

Couldn't it be that they offer superb consulting services and that's why the ratings go up?

Nah. Who believes in coincidence?

They are the judge, the jury and the executioner: we audit you you score bad (according to our internal notation system), we bring our consultants (at great cost), we give you a great rating when you're done.
That's called Conflict of Interest.

The conflict of interest is why Skytrax ratings are suspect. I haven't found their rating correlate well with anything customers care about.

Lightsaber

I agree. It's just a sales tactic.

Which "airline ranking" was also suspicious in that it gave very low rating to WN because of a missing audit and the unfortunate death last year, while giving top ratings to an Asian airline (maybe Lion Air?) that was generally considered unsafe? I thought it was Skytrax, but am obviously wrong.

A lot of "Industry Awards" (regardless of the industry) are just bogus and more of a "I stroke your back you stroke mine" approach anyway.

Etihad has been cost cutting and it was a little unbelievable that it was a 5-star airline, whether by paying for services or not. You cannot be one of the best if you don't have, as an example, menus in Y. The choice of a meal is given to you when the cabin crew comes around and provides you with the options available. They used to have a nice selection of hot drinks that you could choose in Y, now it is only tea or coffee. Now there is nothing wrong with their service, but I doubt frequent flyers who has seen the cuts in action would think they are one of the better airlines out there. They are still good, just not at the top level.

I appreciate everyone's input on my question, thank you. While Skytrax's consulting services may actually help, it is incredibly easy to assume that it is just a payment for the rating (which it very well may be).

Waterbomber2 wrote:

Do you expect people to show you a bank payment slip as proof? Get real.

The ranking itself proves that the ranking is biased.

I'm pleased with tripadvisor where the ranking is based on the reviews.

Your comment makes it seem like it is not okay from someone to question what everyone believes, and instead I have to get real. I believe that I am being realistic in asking for evidence to support the claim. I really don't expect a receipt, there are other pieces of evidence that could be used to demonstrate the idea that the rankings are bought. In the future please don't attack the questioner, just use your words to prove or disprove the answer to what ever is being asked.

Turkish earning 3 star is laughable. But Hainan is 5 star

IAH airport has 4 stars. Theres no objective measure that gives IAH anything more than 2... and that's on a good day.

Says all one needs to know about the validity of these rankings.

I usually have a look to these kind of ratings just for "fun" n ease my curiosity....having said that apart from av geeks like us, who look at these ratings? Do normal people take this into consideration when buying a ticket?

Wednesdayite wrote:

The fact that they give BA 4* is enough to destroy Skytrax’s credibility in my eyes.

Also from the same people that rated HU as the 8th best airline in the world.

ITSTours wrote:

Turkish earning 3 star is laughable. But Hainan is 5 star

TK is indeed better than 3 stars. I mean, they can’t be worse than BA...

HU is not that bad, though. I would put them 4.5 stars IMHO. They are definitely better than CN3.

Definitely not #8 in the world, though, that’s definitely “brought”.

Antarius wrote:

IAH airport has 4 stars. Theres no objective measure that gives IAH anything more than 2... and that's on a good day.

Says all one needs to know about the validity of these rankings.

IAH may not be that good, but not that bad, either...ok, unless you are in Terminal A.

zakuivcustom wrote:

Antarius wrote:

IAH airport has 4 stars. Theres no objective measure that gives IAH anything more than 2... and that's on a good day.

Says all one needs to know about the validity of these rankings.

IAH may not be that good, but not that bad, either...ok, unless you are in Terminal A.

Honestly, D is the biggest dump. Definitely not worthy of a 4 star rating.

IMO, LGA, EWR, PHL and IAH form the holy quadfecta of worst airports in the country.

JD power is another “pay to use” award. Partially why they have multiple categories

Anytime I'm back in the US and I hear the words "JD Power" I laugh and giggle. But yes I have no doubt EY stopped paying. It's a game EK used to play and as I've commented in threads before, not only did EK admit internally they bought many awards when they started their aggressive expansion, but I met the person who cut the cheques... A group picture of him is on the DXB airside photo montage too!

Skytrax is a joke. They gave Lufthansa 5 stars for its planned new business class seat with direct aisle access even though none have it currently. How does that even make sense?

Again do people seriously put this ranking in consideration when buying the ticket?

I don’t think so.

I doubt anything has changed much at the pointy end of Etihad planes, but Skytrax will stick to what they do best, Fairytales.

Just flew with them, and it was dreadful. Meal service is now just the “main course” dish, no appetiser, no desert, just a frankly disgusting single dish, that was no larger than before. No wonder, because they now push their BOB product heavily, and constant announcements for pay options that not a single person I could see, availed of. Pre arrival service was just a drink. No alcohol offered at any stage. They don’t even deserve 3 stars. Never seen an airline fall so fast in terms of quality. They need to stop the “premium” marketing, because it’s a lie!

zakuivcustom wrote:

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

More like a bounced check/cheque.

AirFrance744 wrote:

I have seen many many posts over the years suggesting/claiming that airline ratings from skytrax and others are "bought," but where is the evidence for this? It's not that I don't trust you and the others who have posted this, I'm just looking for data to support this.

While I would believe there are certain ratings that are "brought" (b/c it's good for advertisement), the airlines still have to be at least to certain standard to get those ratings. There's no denial that the 5-star airlines definitely have some of the best services. Now, the ranking...yeah, that's very subjective (I mean, the difference between #1 and #2 is so small, but hey, it's good for bragging rights).

But yeah, ultimately, Etihad had definitely been cutting cost. The trip reports on EY I've seen recently here reflects that - they just can't match up with EK and QR.

I think you need to duck on that one mate. It's time for empathy for an airline that has provided excellent service and made some mistakes in terms of investment and cooperation with other airlines. We need Etihad to survive not dive. So why not change the tone of the remark to one more solutions focused? Of course Etihad has been cutting costs. It needs to in order to survive given the amount of money it has sunk into defunct airlines. But the Etihad airline in itself has not been a disaster. Quite to the contrary. So let's not let the overly cynical tone turn to a beat-up. Let's turn it around and start exploring what they need to do to get things moving in the right direction.

I also can't make sense of the rankings. I have some flying on NH and TG in F and J coming up. All products I have flown before. And I can't even understand how they come up with what should be more of an objective rating like hard product/seat. Safe to ignore these ratings.

NZ321 wrote:

It's time for empathy for an airline that has provided excellent service and made some mistakes in terms of investment and cooperation with other airlines.

Some mistakes you say? Etihad arguably had the worst investment strategy of the 21st century, even including companies outside the aviation sector: they managed to invest in exactly those airlines that went broke within 5 years after investing billions in each of them. The only airline that was missing in their portfolio is WOW Air.

moa999 wrote:

Or failing to sign the check/cheque.

Interesting comment and it might well be true.

Or somebody else wrote a bigger cheque.

ITSTours wrote:

Turkish earning 3 star is laughable. But Hainan is 5 star

And Skytrax is probably a joke as I think today.

Turkish stopped paying Skytrax for 2 years thats why they dropped. Even Josh Cahill a german youtuber who is chosen best airline channel in 2018 who tries different airlines to fly around the world said this after his recent trip with TK from Beijing: "They are without any doubt Europe's Best Airline. (great consistency). Its actually a disgrace of Skytrax also known as Scamtrax to name Lufthanse Europe's Best... seriously? My LH flights are constantly lame, rude and the food... oh dont even get me started.."

I trust his review more than a bought, inconsistent, subjective rating company like scamtrax.

AFAIK, Etihad Airways didn't signup for brand image management contract because it would cost a fortune to pay for six barely surviving (some dead now) airlines.

Editing/deleting bad reviews is hard work, not cheap.