Etihad 787 Business Class Review - EY 462 AUH-MEL

[yld200]

With no real plans over Christmas, my wife and I decided to take a trip over to Dubai to spend some time with my sister so I thought I'd try to put together a short review of the flight.

I tried searching on the forums while researching my flights but couldn't see too many posts about Etihad. Some might find this helpful as an alternative to EK.

When searching for flights there was some decent availability in J for 3 pax for both MEL>AUH and AUH>MEL over the Christmas period and into January. Without having enough points to do J return we opted to fly there in Y and take the return in J.

MEL>AUH in Y cost us 56,000 VFF points each + $189 each for the 2 adults and $124 for the 3 yo.
AUH>MEL in J cost us 104,000 VFF points each + $430 each. No discount for the little one.

All flights were booked on the 14th of December. Departure was on the 23rd and return flight on the 5th. EK also had some availability around those dates however the higher taxes are difficult to justify.

I didn't really take any photos of the Y flight, so the less said about it the better. I will mention one thing though, we did use an inflatable footrest for my son which worked really well and helped him get some good sleep. According to the Etihad website, these are allowed. None of the crew really took notice or said anything to us. When researching on EK, they clearly state on their website that these devices are not allowed.

Abu Dhabi airport opened up the new international Terminal A late last year. All EY flights operate from this terminal. Next to check in counter C, there is a dedicated Business and First check in area. We arrived at the check in area around 7.30am and it was very quiet with only 2 agents working with a few more in a huddle getting ready to get going. The check in area was open plan with no real lines and they also had juice, water and coffee in the back left corner. Once you check in, you can walk straight to a dedicated passport control straight into security.
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The business class lounge is located just behind Gate C27 and has 3 levels. There is a separate First class lounge entry before Gate C27. The entry level has a large dining area which was serving breakfast with a decent selection of hot and cold foods. There was also a bar area serving alcohol.
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The second level had more of a quiet vibe with lounge chairs, a smoking lounge, games room and kids play area.


The top floor had a large bar and some more cold foods.


I did see there was a spa on the ground floor, but I didn't enquire about it's usage, whether it's paid or has some complimentary services.

 

[yld200]

On board the 787, the seating has a staggered forward and rear facing J cabin. We opted for Row 5 seats E & F and H. The middle pair are forward facing with H being rear facing but close enough to be able to help out with my son in the middle seat.




Seat Controls. You can set the firmness of the cushion which seemed to intermittently deflate and re-inflate, you could feel it happening. It wasn't just my seat, my wife could feel it too.


Amenity Kit

 

[yld200]

Headphones - slightly noise cancelling.


Menu



Soup and Mezze starters:


Pasta and Steak

Dessert

 

[yld200]

Once we took off, the food service immediately began with orders taken before take-off. I asked for mine to be served later so that I could help feed my son and make sure there was an additional pair of hands and the crew was accommodating.

Straight after food service, the cabin lights were dimmed and there was no further service on the flight which I thought was odd. You could request items from the all day dining options, but there was no pro-active checks or prompts from the crew.

Overall a pretty smooth flight, comfortable and nice food.

A few other notes:
- I would recommend staying away from the rear facing seats in Row 5 especially for a night flight. Occasionally I would feel a bump coming thru my seat when crew were pulling out or pushing trolleys in the galley. The thumps and bumps would transfer through to the seat. The A and K seats offer much more privacy and are the traditional forward facing.
- No PJs offered. I don't know if they are on other flights, but didn't see any handed out to anyone.
- There were no obvious faults with the soft product but it lacked a proactive approach that you might get from SQ or EK. For my experience, there was no effort to keep drink topped up when empty. I only drank sparkling water so I can't comment on how they managed alcohol top ups.
- Apart from the strange sensation of the seat cushion deflating / inflating, there were no real issues with the hard product either. I thought the seat was comfortable, the blanket nice and I managed to get an hour nap in which was a bonus.

 

[I love to travel]

Thanks not often you see a EY report

 

[stm1sydney]

If you only had one hour's sleep, was that because the bed was uncomfortable or noise levels high?
C'mon, share your Y experience MEL-AUH!

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks I’m also interested in EY since Seat Son moved to Abu Dhabi. Although it will be hard to give up WP privileges with QF/EK.

 

[yld200]

If you only had one hour's sleep, was that because the bed was uncomfortable or noise levels high?
C'mon, share your Y experience MEL-AUH!

It was a day flight departing AUH at 0955 and I'm not really one who can day nap very long. It was more of a food coma short afternoon nap kind of scenario

 

[yld200]

Thanks I’m also interested in EY since Seat Son moved to Abu Dhabi. Although it will be hard to give up WP privileges with QF/EK.

It's a decent option for J rewards with velocity. I have also seen some comments around J sale fares to Europe from MNL (Airfare of the Day -Business Class- ETIHAD Manila to Barcelona from $1,810)
I think there might be a discussion somewhere on AFF too.

 

[yld200]

If you only had one hour's sleep, was that because the bed was uncomfortable or noise levels high?
C'mon, share your Y experience MEL-AUH!

Y was a different beast on a 14 our flight with a 3 YO.

With my VF Gold, we did get access to the House lounge at MEL which was a struggle initially. When checking in, the agent didn't say anything about the lounge and I asked when she handed over the boarding passes. She looked at the screen and said, oh you are gold, you do have access to the lounge. When we presented at the lounge, the dragon said you are not on my Etihad list so no access for you! I asked her to follow up with Etihad and she eventually agreed and got the approval to let us in. The whole thing was very inefficient and slow - took around 10 minutes to be let in and she held onto our boarding passes to 'process' our access.

On board, it was a typical Y experience in a full cabin. With a 1600 departure, dinner was served shortly after takeoff. Chicken, veggie or Beef option for dinner. I had the chicken which was ok by memory.

I can't remember if there was only 1 more additional service or 2, but there was another sandwich meal later in the flight which came with a kitkat. I didn't get much sleep and mostly stayed up watching EPL on the live TV channels which was good.

 

[jase05]

Thanks I’m also interested in EY since Seat Son moved to Abu Dhabi. Although it will be hard to give up WP privileges with QF/EK.

I do love the EY product and as a VA Plat I’ve always felt I’ve been really well treated by them. Just little things like welcoming me by name and sending us to the First checkin counter at AUH. I can’t recall having a bad meal on a flight and found the seats in the 787 comfortable and as such get plenty of sleep. The 777 seats are horrid though and should be avoided.
The old F lounge is one one of my favourites so I can’t wait until March to try out the new F lounge

 

[SCM]

I'm taking EY J to Europe next month, thanks for the review.

One question, do they have anything like dine-on-demand, or is it pretty stuck to a schedule?

 

[yld200]

I'm taking EY J to Europe next month, thanks for the review.

One question, do they have anything like dine-on-demand, or is it pretty stuck to a schedule?

My experience was that it was all scheduled. I asked for mine to be served an hour later which they accommodated for me but I'm not sure if you asked for service say halfway thru the flight. There was a much smaller, restricted all day dining menu (see post #3). I ordered the steak sandwich from the all day dining around 7-8 hours into the flight which took around 15 minutes for them to get ready.

 

[stm1sydney]

found the seats in the 787 comfortable and as such get plenty of sleep. The 777 seats are horrid though and should be avoided.

Y or J? (I can imagine the 777 Y seats would be horrible at 10 abreast but should I also avoid 777 J?)

 

[jase05]

Y or J? (I can imagine the 777 Y seats would be horrible at 10 abreast but should I also avoid 777 J?)

I don’t like the 777 J seats and avoid them if possible.

 

[SCM]

Couple of more questions.

1) Simple - how was the wifi and was it free?

2) I checked my seat assignments after your advice, they are all indeed window forward, but I noticed that the vast majority of the seats on all 4 of my flights are not allocated (well I guess maybe many are sold but just the customers haven't picked the seats?). My question is, if I choose a middle seat and the one next to me ends up being free, assuming they are the inwards ones, do you think they will let me use the seat next to me as a double bed? Or is that not an option on their 787s and 777s?

 

[yld200]

Couple of more questions.

1) Simple - how was the wifi and was it free?

2) I checked my seat assignments after your advice, they are all indeed window forward, but I noticed that the vast majority of the seats on all 4 of my flights are not allocated (well I guess maybe many are sold but just the customers haven't picked the seats?). My question is, if I choose a middle seat and the one next to me ends up being free, assuming they are the inwards ones, do you think they will let me use the seat next to me as a double bed? Or is that not an option on their 787s and 777s?

1) The onboard wifi is for their chat package with an Etihad guest account. You can use this for WhatsApp. Was good enough to be able to chat. I didn't use the surf package which is paid @ around $10usd

2) Etihad 787 middle pairs do not convert to a bed - so not an option.