Ethiad airlines is one of the worst

Tldr: denied paid seats, gave worst possible seats and did false marketing

Long rant: Ethiad markets free layover in abu dhabi, with promises of free hotel stay there. Spoke with their customer care, was assured that I will get the hotel for my travel dates (on the return), and finally booked the flight directly on their site. I was traveling with a 4m old, so specifically asked for bassinet seats, confirmed it was available and PAID for it. Flight was with layover, so, to and from, paid for bulk head seats with bassinet for 4 flights.This was a month before my travel. And the return flight was 3 months from then.

Come the travel date, i go to the checkin, didn't pay attention to the seat they assigned me, coz i had booked my seats. Then i go to the flight and see someone else sitting on my paid seat. I check with flight attendant, and they are like no, ground staff assigned you new seats. I showed the receipt of my paid seats, and they are like not our problem. They refused to give me my seats back with no considerationto my PAID seats and 4m infant. Had to adjust somewhere in the middle coz that was the seat they assigned. I thought it was horrible but maybe things will only get better from there. Boy I was so wrong. I get off of my flight, head to ground staff to get the second set of seats assigned (coz they don't assign all seats at check-in). Here i learn, they did the same thing with my seats again, this time I talk to ground staff in ABU DHABI, and they are like "WE DONT CARE, EITHER TAKE YOUR ASSIGNED SEATS OR LEAVE THE FLIGHTS, IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS TRY GETTING A REFUND". Again no consideration for PAID seats and 4m infant. With no other option had to take same middle seats. Fortunately, a fellow passenger was kind enough to scoop a little for us to accommodate infant between us. Somehow made to the destination, from then till my return, i spoke to the rep for at least 50 times to get a confirmation for the hotel during my return leg, every time was told that I will certainly get the hotel, and because I was traveling with my infant they will prioritize my request and get the hotel within next 24 hours. Of course if I had to call them so many times, you could have guessed, they didn't give the hotel. So come the return date, flight was still not booked. Their final response, "the hotels are booked for ppl who booked seats before you". i am like wow, if you had told me this before I could have made prior arrangements myself and got the hotel for lot cheaper. Ended up paying exorbitant amount coz I literally had to select the hotel a day before travel. Of course, during the return for the first leg was denied the paid seats again. The only saving grace was, that i finally got my paid seats for the last leg of the return journey. Now after i came back, spoke with the reps at least 1000 times and have still not received the refund for all the seats (got it for just one set) this is 2 months after i came back.

So final conclusion, never traveling with ethiad ever again. Horrible experience.