EY484 to Brisbane 31 October

[IrishPete]

I flew this in Business Class, after paying $1450 through the auction upgrade system. My first ever rear-facing seat, a slightly disorienting experience. And due to this layout, found myself staring straight at some bloke in the second row of Economy during take off and landing...

WHY do airlines have different products on different planes? Not the service so much, but the layout of the seat. The headphone socket was one of those triangular magnetic things, so no chance of using my cheap Sennheisers on which you can actually hear the audio properly.

And there was no mattress for the seat/bed, as there was in Business on the Melbourne to Abu Dhabi flight a month earlier.

And subtle differences between planes in how the inflight entertainment system works, and even what is available (I couldn't find the camera view on this flight).

I did not find the Dreamliner to be be quiet this time. I actually had difficulty sleeping due to the noise, and the earplugs and even the headphones made no difference. In fact, I could discern no noise-cancelling effect from the headphones (but they're too bulky to wear when trying to sleep, unless you sleep on your back, and for me that's not on; nor would it be for my neighbours).

 

[scwappy]

WHY do airlines have different products on different planes? Not the service so much, but the layout of the seat. The headphone socket was one of those triangular magnetic things, so no chance of using my cheap Sennheisers on which you can actually hear the audio properly.

You can actually plug your own headphones into these triangle sockets . I only found this out on my last flight where the guy next to me was using his own headphones. If you fly them again just take your own headphones and you should see the holes in the headphone sockets you can use

 

[EtihadAirways]

Dear IrishPete,

We are sorry for your disappointment. In order to look into this for you. Can we have your booking reference, Etihad Guest number or email address by direct message so we can ask our Guest Relations team to look into this for you.

Best Regards.

*Jiaqi

 

[IrishPete]

Dear IrishPete,

We are sorry for your disappointment. In order to look into this for you. Can we have your booking reference, Etihad Guest number or email address by direct message so we can ask our Guest Relations team to look into this for you.

Best Regards.

*Jiaqi

Thanks, but it's not serious enough to look into specifically on my behalf.

 

[IrishPete]

You can actually plug your own headphones into these triangle sockets . I only found this out on my last flight where the guy next to me was using his own headphones. If you fly them again just take your own headphones and you should see the holes in the headphone sockets you can use

Thanks. I did wonder. I had them with me, but it was very hard to see the connector, as it is tucked away. As the guy across the aisle from me had his own headphones but was using the Etihad ones, I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. What adapter is needed? Three-prong, or does two-prong work? Anyway, I think it will be a while before I face this First World Problem again...

 

[TomVexille]

Thanks. I did wonder. I had them with me, but it was very hard to see the connector, as it is tucked away. As the guy across the aisle from me had his own headphones but was using the Etihad ones, I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. What adapter is needed? Three-prong, or does two-prong work? Anyway, I think it will be a while before I face this First World Problem again...

Two prong works. The third prong is usually to power the noise cancelling without batteries.

 

[scwappy]

I had an adapter to make it a two prong, but pretty sure the guy beside me had only one prong and had stereo sound

 

[darraghk]

I kept knocking out my headphones from that stupid magnetic socket, a nightmare to reattach when you are in sleep mode.

 

[squeeze72]

I didn't like the magnetic prong either.
Top tip..to help with wearing them whilst sleeping i had my neck circular memory foam pillow and placed it on top of the ordinary pillow so the head phone went through the hole and my head rested on the surround. Not sure if i explained that correctly but found it really helped.
If it is true that my two prong adapter means i can use my in ear bud type headphones i will be a very happy bunny.