Currently on the return leg of the Melbourne to Dublin trip. Economy Class, no Virgin or Etihad status after four years of almost no flying.
Experience with online check-in and seat selection and other extras were again deeply unsatisfactory. Basically no extras were available to us, and it looked like I had to pay to choose seats right up to physical check-in. Each time I tried to choose seats, either outside or within the check-in process, I was presented with charges. However, I just exited without paying them, and ended up being allocated those seats anyway. But it was an unnecessarily stressful experience.
Although this was perhaps partly contributed to by the aircraft, the experience from the outward leg suggests it's an issue with Virgin rewards. Expect a very basic flying experience.
The planes were very tired 777-300s. Dublin-Abu Dhabi, the plane had no USB power and only 110v sockets. Video screens are quite poor resolution.
Abu Dhabi -Melbourne there are USB sockets (and 110v sockets again!), but the same old video screens, and my touch screen's touch sensitivity is about a centimetre out - this makes for an extremely frustrating use of it.
These planes don't have a lot of the extras that Etihad advertise.
The one positive I can say about the flights was the 30kg baggage allowance thst inexplicably came with the Virgin reward seats. We've used it all... Also, my questions to Etihad's Twitter account were answered promptly (about the types of seats available), even if the answers were not to my liking.
My partner wants to try Singapore Airlines next time, even though they are less direct to Dublin. She entertained herself for a while reading terrible reviews of Etihad, I think on Trustpilot.
Experience with online check-in and seat selection and other extras were again deeply unsatisfactory. Basically no extras were available to us, and it looked like I had to pay to choose seats right up to physical check-in. Each time I tried to choose seats, either outside or within the check-in process, I was presented with charges. However, I just exited without paying them, and ended up being allocated those seats anyway. But it was an unnecessarily stressful experience.
Although this was perhaps partly contributed to by the aircraft, the experience from the outward leg suggests it's an issue with Virgin rewards. Expect a very basic flying experience.
The planes were very tired 777-300s. Dublin-Abu Dhabi, the plane had no USB power and only 110v sockets. Video screens are quite poor resolution.
Abu Dhabi -Melbourne there are USB sockets (and 110v sockets again!), but the same old video screens, and my touch screen's touch sensitivity is about a centimetre out - this makes for an extremely frustrating use of it.
These planes don't have a lot of the extras that Etihad advertise.
The one positive I can say about the flights was the 30kg baggage allowance thst inexplicably came with the Virgin reward seats. We've used it all... Also, my questions to Etihad's Twitter account were answered promptly (about the types of seats available), even if the answers were not to my liking.
My partner wants to try Singapore Airlines next time, even though they are less direct to Dublin. She entertained herself for a while reading terrible reviews of Etihad, I think on Trustpilot.
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