Etihad TR / Business Class / Mlian - Abu Dhabi - Melbourne

[pauly7]

Hi all
Well despite being a member here for a long time I have never done an official TR! Usually because when I travel I’m normally working frantically, preparing for what to do when I land. I also normally fly the more established carriers which have been trip reported to death. So a mini break to Europe for a holiday presented this opportunity to review Etihad and there isn’t much around here on them so hopefully this will help some people.

FLIGHT THERE:
QF MEL-SYD-SIN-FRA / BUSINESS
767 / 747 / 747

I won’t review this flight because QF has been reviewed to death on here A brief summary: Dom J & F lounges, exceptional as always, Crew were fantastic – in particular the SYD-SIN crew who could not do enough for the cabin. AVOD great, food excellent – again just another great QF flight, I talked to the crew a bit about QF International, they were positive actually about all the upcoming changes, they think some of the routes that were being flown were ‘silly’ and ‘often empty’ and they are very much of the opinion that FRA will be either changed to Berlin or discontinued when the Emirates tie up is announced as QF ‘will need the planes to fly to Dubai’. Their words! Anyway, a great experience, all on time, no complaints.

 

[pauly7]

FLIGHT BACK:
EY Milan – Abu Dhabi
A330

AIRPORT / LOUNGE

Not my first time on Etihad and they aren’t my airline of choice but when I booked my flights a lot of other carriers had already sold out sky high pricing. Feeling a bit budget conscious at the time I couldn’t bring myself to part with an extra couple of grand to fly a tier 1 airline so Etihad won!!
Arriving at Milan Malpensa airport I had been pre warned it was a bit of a dogs breakfast and to minimise any time at the airport. So I did and rocked up 1.5 hours before departure (EY cut off is 1 hour).

No F out of Milan so straight to the Pearl Business class counter where there was a queue of about 2 people. Now I don’t know about others here but I cannot believe how slow check in agents are in Europe (in general) at airports. Forget any sign of a modern and efficient QF like next gen check in – it is painstakingly slow and as a consequence many calls are made for flights departing ‘soon’, people try and leave queues, push in etc etc. Anyway my wait in this queue was 15 minutes but after a few weeks in Europe I’d been conditioned to it.

Express pass given to get through security which was helpful given the crowds, but no express pass for immigration which was packed. Another queue for about 20 minutes – a lot of people seemed to be getting grilled by the Italian officers but when I finally got there no issues for me.
EY has a shared lounge in Milan with about 30 other carriers it seemed so I expected nothing and got exactly that. The SEA lounge was filthy, floor was stained, food was very very plain (made me long for a QF Regional lounge) and seats uncomfortable. Luckily the air con worked more than the airport terminal which was a nice break, but I left after about 10 minutes to go have a look at all the planes.

 

[pauly7]

FLIGHT

Flight was called, no priority boarding lanes or announcements so an absolute scrum developed to get on. In no hurry I sat back and watched people shove each other to get an extra few minutes on the plane Quite a lot of upgrades at the gate which I heard were for ‘operational reasons’ so assumed flight had been overbooked. Upgraded pax did not get catering in the their upgraded class interestingly.

2 EY staff were watching the check in progress like hawks and managing 2 things – upgrades and cabin baggage. They were absolutely ruthless with cabin baggage and made several (very unhappy) people check bags into the hold. Good on them in my opinion, I wish DJ and QF would be tougher in Australia. Then they hit an Asian tour group….. Carnage!! Tears, stamping feet, protests but the EY duo held firm and sent A LOT of shopping bags into the hold – was quite funny to watch.

Was one of the last to board and had the wonderful feeling of turning left once I got on and was shown to my seat by a girl who turned out to be the CSM.
Being one of the new A330’s – I was happy to score the new J seat which is a big improvement on the old blue seat for a couple of reasons. The tv screen is much closer and clearer to the seat and is touch enabled. The data and power ports are much closer to you. There is much more storage. The avod has more loaded onto it and it much faster. I had rung EY a few times to get a private window seat (7A) as you can’t select seats online – EY needs a completely new website IMHO.

 

[pauly7]

FLIGHT

EY block the AVOD until after they do their safety demo (annoying) and before they do the demo they play ads non stop (very annoying). I learnt everything there is to know about EY, Abu Dhabi and their tie up with Air Berlin through all their ads. Got the book out and read instead. Drinks and hot towels offered up with menu. Grabbed a water. EY don’t hand out amenities kits either, they come round with a tray and you say what you want. Given everything is in a black plastic bag it is kinda hard to tell, but I only usually want a couple of things so it was fine for me. I know some people love their amenities – EY is not for you!

Finally the crew went through the safety demo and turned on the AVOD. At this point we took off. Smooth take off. Left seatbelt sign on for a long time (20 mins). Had a poke around the AVOD, system stable and easy to navigate. Didn’t have as much content as OnQ but that is to be expected from a middle eastern carrier –they had heaps of ‘world cinema’ and ‘arabic’ films though. More ads in front of each movie/TV show. Last time I flew EY you couldn’t fast fwd through the ads – now you can. PHEW! Headphones were good, a little small – on the ear rather than over.

Service on this flight was exceptional, I had the CSM looking after me who basically ordered my meal for me and made me try their new bread – which was served hot stuffed with mushrooms – very nice. She kept coming back and checking on me, seeing how things were, very pleasant – and memorised my name. I did notice I was getting special treatment though, not everyone was that’s for sure – but who dares wins! Overall EY’s food has let them down in the past and again it let them down again. The mushroom bread was great and the starter – a range of Arabic tasters was beautiful, but my main (Salmon) was really dry and tasteless and my soft Arabian bread pudding was like a rock. So catering was disappointing – again. They need to get onto this. Later I ordered a cheese platter (screams of horror from the VA J flyers!) and it was pretty sparse as well. Maybe VA is sharing their cheese platter tips?!

The seat was comfy though, the doona was thick and warm. Cabin was kept quite warm though so wasn’t really needed. Watched a couple of movies and dozed right into Abu Dhabi. A lovely thankyou and farewell from the CSM as I left, again by name. Great service.

 

[pauly7]

EY Abu Dhabi - Melbourne
A340
AIRPORT / LOUNGE

Arriving to Abu Dhabi at apparently ‘peak hour’ around 9pm mean parking in a standoff bay with buses waiting for us. It was 42 degrees outside so was glad to jump onto the bus just for the J pax (nice touch). All the Y pax were herded and crammed into a couple of other buses. Unfortunately the J bus broke down halfway to the terminal…. And the temperature rose almost instantly. EY were quick to get another bus down to pick us up which had to do a very interesting 7 point turn, almost hitting a QF Atlas Air 747 parked on the tarmac. It crossed all the safety lines and we were all a bit nervous and glad to finally get to the terminal.

Terminal was packed and had a 15 minute walk to T3 (? I think) for my MEL flight. Had about 1 hour for the lounge. Had to be rescreened for security for some reason and that had a 20 minute queue with no priority gates for J or F operating. Finally made it to the lounge and tried the whole ‘Im a Virgin plat please god let me into the F lounge’ but to no avail So relegated to the J lounge…. Was quite small, packed, fair offering of food, nothing really that special so I went to the spa that the J lounge shares with the F lounge and had a shower before coming back out and being told my flight was on last call even though the screen didn’t even say boarding!

Running to the gate, screened again, alongside some other pax from the lounge thinking we were late – arrived at the gate to find the plane had no’t even started boarding. Very annoying. Seems EY lounge dragons have been taking lessons from the MEL DJ lounge dragons on how to call a flight before its even boarding! Anyway, 10 minutes later a boarding call for business class was made and I got on the plane.

 

[pauly7]

FLIGHT

An older A340 greeted me –with the old J seats, pale blue style. These seats are comfy but far out the screen feels a million miles away – I’m so glad they have fixed this in the new J seats! Again in 7A which is my favourite (not too close to the toilets & still near the front for service). We were then kept on the ground for 1.5 hours because of congestion (lucky half the lounge ran for the plane!)

To be honest not a whole much really to report on this flight that differed that significantly from my previous flight so I’ll keep it short and sharp!

1) Food again was average. Starter was good (again) but the main looked like a Y meal slopped onto a J plate and dessert was very plain. I really really hope EY look at their catering long and hard. Soon. It is really their weakest link. Breakfast was simple but good – probably a little small but ok for me at that point in the flight.

2) Staff were good, efficient and unobtrusive but a little weak. The Captain left the seat belt sign on HEAPS during this flight – but the staff still moved about which was bizarre…. Surely if customers should be seated so should crew? In the end pax just ignored the sign which wasn’t that great – but I had to as well to go the bathroom. Crew didn’t enforce it anyway which just didn’t feel right

3) AVOD was slower to load and had less to choose from than the A330 system. OK though but I did run out of things I wanted to watch.

4) Cabin was really hot. A couple next to me asked a couple of times for the temp to be turned down but didn’t notice any real change. Didn’t need socks or blanket on this flight!

5) We had a sick person on board about 4 hours into the flight a call for any medical DR’s and paramedics was made. I was a bit terrified we would be diverted but we ended up making it to Melbourne where paramedics were waiting. The captain asked all pax to stay seated until they had assessed and removed the patient. Unfortunately we had some bogan Australian miners in J who got up anyway saying they had been travelling for 16 hours (as had most of the plane) and wanted to get a connection (as most of the plane probably did). They fought with the crew who were really quite insipid with them, should have just told them to STFD… I was ready to! Luckliy the sick pax was offboarded quickly and we weren’t too late Hope they were ok!

 

[pauly7]

IN SUMMARY

Overall it was a solid tier 2 experience. EY is a good enough back up for me if my preferred carriers are not available. You just get the feeling they are a bit loose with some things – food being one of the big ones and I wish they would hurry up and refurb their older aircraft.

I like thier service style – friendly, professional but not in your face (as opposed to the subservient Asian service you can get on SQ et al). I think my A340 flight may have been understaffed so that may have impacted that leg. They seemed very rushed all the time. But my A330 CSM was a stand out. Lounges and airport facilities wouldn’t have any impact on any decision – all very standard.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly them, out of the middle eastern carriers I’d probably put them behind Emirates but roughly on par with Qatar. Overall I’d give them about a 6.5/10 (A340) and 7/10 (A330).

And finally to any EY lurker in case you missed it – fix your catering!

THANKS!

 

[JessicaTam]

Thanks for the report pauly.

In the top photo of post #6 there seems to be smoke in the cabin. As you haven't made mention of it I figure it wasn't; so what is the smoke like haze?

 

[pauly7]

Heya - it was just because it was 42 degrees outside so you get the reaction of very cold air hitting the very hot air (near the door especially). Someone who passed year 8 science will probably jump in and name it

Actually it was the thickest I have ever seen it on a plane, usually get it heaps in Dallas...... I had to keep swiping it away from face so I could read as we sat on the ground waiting for clearance....

 

[Must...Fly!]

Good read, thanks for writing. Don't hear much of Etihad really despite their increasing prominence. Not great to hear the catering is not up to standard, really should be equal top of the list with crew attitude/service and seat/entertainment...

 

[Sprucegoose]

Thanks Pauly7.

I mus say I am not rushing to make any reservations after that précis.

If the catering is not good enough then it is a longer flight. The food looked like it was just thrown on the plate....where's NP?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Also no priority boarding, I find hard to believe. It woud quickly appear if a prominent Abu dhabi chappie appeared!

 

[pauly7]

Also no priority boarding, I find hard to believe. It woud quickly appear if a prominent Abu dhabi chappie appeared!

Def no PB in Milan at all.

In Abu Dhabi there was a PB call but no separate queue (I could see where there would normally be a separate queue, just wasn't used by the crew).

Catering - I agree, pretty average and coming off the QF J flights a couple of weeks prior, really paled in comparison. I felt sorry for the staff plating up that stuff to be honest - though the bread was yummy and both tasters good.

 

[RB]

Def no PB in Milan at all.

In Abu Dhabi there was a PB call but no separate queue (I could see where there would normally be a separate queue, just wasn't used by the crew).

Catering - I agree, pretty average and coming off the QF J flights a couple of weeks prior, really paled in comparison. I felt sorry for the staff plating up that stuff to be honest - though the bread was yummy and both tasters good.

Great to read your report. I wrote a trip report for EY, Milan-Syd in 2011. I also found the lounge at Malpensa to be a total failure but we found the food & wine to be great-luck of the draw I guess.

 

[muppet]

Was a good read Pauly7, that's for posting it.
m

 

[jetlagger]

Thanks for the TR.. Interesting.

The lounge appears standard fare & the inflight meals & presentation for J look slightly underwhelming.

 

[mella2007]

Great report

I just flew a Y leg with Etihad from to AUH from ATH and noticed how strict the staff were on pulling people aside with their carry on. I also saw heaps of people with plenty of shopping bags who they wouldn't let on with them ...quite a laugh at the time watching

 

[pauly7]

Great to read your report. I wrote a trip report for EY, Milan-Syd in 2011. I also found the lounge at Malpensa to be a total failure but we found the food & wine to be great-luck of the draw I guess.

Unfortunately amongst all my travel friends flying them this year it is a definite trend now (poor catering) not luck of the draw. Interested to see what you think if you fly them again.

 

[pauly7]

Great report

I just flew a Y leg with Etihad from to AUH from ATH and noticed how strict the staff were on pulling people aside with their carry on. I also saw heaps of people with plenty of shopping bags who they wouldn't let on with them ...quite a laugh at the time watching

Agreed, I had a lot of fun watching people trying to sneak 4/5 bags past the eagle eyed EY supervisors!! People really did cry!

Must be an ongoing problem for them but like I said I am very 'for' them policing their own standards and wish DJ and QF would do the same domestically!

 

[jetlagger]

Agreed, I had a lot of fun watching people trying to sneak 4/5 bags past the eagle eyed EY supervisors!! People really did cry!

Must be an ongoing problem for them but like I said I am very 'for' them policing their own standards and wish DJ and QF would do the same domestically!

WOW! 4/5 bags ( carry on ) now that is really pushing the boundaries..:shock: I'm still astounded about the amount of cough that some people travel with in this day & age..