Hmm. Seems nobody has more information than I have
I flew this route in J on EY back in December last year and the long legs to and from Sydney were both in the old configuration. The shorter legs to and from London were in the new config.
I flew again in June, this time a codeshare booking from VAustralia PE - so was on the 777 for the Sydney legs. The legs to and from London were spent slumming it in Y but I walked through the J cabin while disembarking and it was the new configuration for both legs on that occasion.
I get the impression the rollout has stalled. The only timeframe I could find published online suggested it should have reached 100% of their fleet by the end of 2010 - this obviously didn't happen. I've seen relatively recent trip reports indicating that the old configuration is still out there but other than that there's very little info making it luck of the draw.
Not that the old configuration is bad - but the new one is definitely more comfortable for me (at over 6'4") mostly due to the foot rest area being less fully enclosed. Also the older sea-green seats are f*cking hideous
Unfortunately I no longer have my BPs from the December trip and can't really remember my seat numbers well enough for that to be any aid when staring at the seat maps. I sat in an aisle seat in Row 8 on all legs, I think, but I can't remember the seat letter for the life of me.
Here is what I have found...
- AusBT's "best seats in business on
Etihad's A346" shows a seat map that has four rows in each business class cabin. Row 8 begins with seat A which is a window seat. Row 9 begins with seat C and is an aisle seat. Row 8 contains only A and K seats with no middle pair. As these articles are pure theory there's no real indicaton whether this layout corresponds to the old or the new layout.
The best seats in Pearl Business Class on Etihad's Airbus A340-600 - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller
- SeatGuru's only seat map for the A346 shows the same configuration as the AusBT layout above.
SeatGuru Seat Map Etihad Airways Airbus A340-600 (346) However...
- This trip report in the new configuration has five rows in the forward business class cabin. Row 8 begins with seat A, and is four abreast with seats D and G in the middle and presumable seat K on the other side. The author also mentions he seated himself in 9E (a seat not present on either of the above seat plans).
http://www.samchuiphotos.com/TripReport5/
- SeatPlans has a seat map showing five rows in the forward business class cabin. Row 8 begins with seat C. Row 9 begins with seat A.
Etihad Airways A340-600 (3-class new) - SeatPlans.com Overall this seat map appears to align to the seat configuration in the trip report above (which was in the new cabin layout).
- But I've also read (and can't currently find) a trip report for someone seated in 5A (which doesn't exist on the above seat plan) on an aircraft with the old configuration. So I am not certain there is a correlation between the seat map and the refit.
- For my own reservations I am being shown a seat map that doesn't differentiate between the forward and rear cabins but does have me in Seat 9A, a seat that doesn't exist on the SeatGuru/AusBT seat maps.
Maybe I should just phone
Etihad. It is possible I am over analysing this
