stuartfaz
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
- Posts
- 524
Hey all,
Have just returned from my first trip to Europe. I went over for a month with family to spend Christmas with extended family we have over there.
Here was the original itinerary:
17DEC09 - MEL-AUH Etihad Airways EY461 Y
18DEC09 - AUH-LHR Etihad Airways EY19 Y
21DEC09 - St Pancras-Gare du Nord Eurostar 9006 Y
24DEC09 - Gare du Nord-St Pancras Eurostar 9087 Y
06JAN10 - STN-DUB Ryanair FR211 Y
06JAN10 - DUB-STN Ryanair FR294 Y
09JAN10 - LHR-AUH Etihad Airways EY12 Y
09JAN10 - AUH-MEL Etihad Airways EY460 Y
Didn't end up like this, as you will find out, but we shall start from the start:
Flight 1 of 6
MEL - AUH
Etihad Airways flight EY461
Thursday 17th December, 2009
Scheduled Dep - 11:15 Arr - 06:35
Actual Dep - 00:30 Arr - 08:30
I had checked in online earlier in the day in order to beat the queues, but when I rocked up to T2 I found that such a queue didn't exist. Perhaps I should stop showing up at T - 3.5hrs to takeoff. Ah well.
Went to a desk and handed over the print-offs expecting to just hand over my bag and be on my way, but check-in was pretty much identical to the process had I not done it online at all, to the extent where new BPs were issued. I'm not very familiar with international OLCI, but I didn't really get its benefit when there was no measurable time saving.
Went to the gate to find that the plane had been delayed to 00.00. We found out later that this was due to the incoming flight being diverted to Jakarta because of a medical emergency.
When boarding was announced, I was surprised to hear it was open slather as soon as they started boarding, as in there was no priority boarding for F/J/certain rows. I originally put this down to the fact they were trying to hurry the plane out to make up some time, but it caused a queue snaking around most of the gate area, and it took a long time to get everyone seated as people in rows further down were being held up by others putting their bags in lockers and so forth. To me it seemed very haphazard but we eventually pushed off around 00:30.
I had heard varying accounts about the quality of Etihad's inflight service, so I was surprised by just how good they were up in the air. They had a team of very attentive and courteous FA's, and the IFE system and food/beverage service were top-notch.
One gripe from this flight was that the flight crew took a while to notify passengers of the reason for the delay. On the ground the only reason we were given was 'operational issues' and the first account we got from the captain was a 'medical situation.' About 4 or 5 hours in, in another status update, did we get a full story.
We landed in AUH at 8.30, around 2 hours late.
Have just returned from my first trip to Europe. I went over for a month with family to spend Christmas with extended family we have over there.
Here was the original itinerary:
17DEC09 - MEL-AUH Etihad Airways EY461 Y
18DEC09 - AUH-LHR Etihad Airways EY19 Y
21DEC09 - St Pancras-Gare du Nord Eurostar 9006 Y
24DEC09 - Gare du Nord-St Pancras Eurostar 9087 Y
06JAN10 - STN-DUB Ryanair FR211 Y
06JAN10 - DUB-STN Ryanair FR294 Y
09JAN10 - LHR-AUH Etihad Airways EY12 Y
09JAN10 - AUH-MEL Etihad Airways EY460 Y
Didn't end up like this, as you will find out, but we shall start from the start:
Flight 1 of 6
MEL - AUH
Etihad Airways flight EY461
Thursday 17th December, 2009
Scheduled Dep - 11:15 Arr - 06:35
Actual Dep - 00:30 Arr - 08:30
I had checked in online earlier in the day in order to beat the queues, but when I rocked up to T2 I found that such a queue didn't exist. Perhaps I should stop showing up at T - 3.5hrs to takeoff. Ah well.
Went to a desk and handed over the print-offs expecting to just hand over my bag and be on my way, but check-in was pretty much identical to the process had I not done it online at all, to the extent where new BPs were issued. I'm not very familiar with international OLCI, but I didn't really get its benefit when there was no measurable time saving.
Went to the gate to find that the plane had been delayed to 00.00. We found out later that this was due to the incoming flight being diverted to Jakarta because of a medical emergency.
When boarding was announced, I was surprised to hear it was open slather as soon as they started boarding, as in there was no priority boarding for F/J/certain rows. I originally put this down to the fact they were trying to hurry the plane out to make up some time, but it caused a queue snaking around most of the gate area, and it took a long time to get everyone seated as people in rows further down were being held up by others putting their bags in lockers and so forth. To me it seemed very haphazard but we eventually pushed off around 00:30.
I had heard varying accounts about the quality of Etihad's inflight service, so I was surprised by just how good they were up in the air. They had a team of very attentive and courteous FA's, and the IFE system and food/beverage service were top-notch.
One gripe from this flight was that the flight crew took a while to notify passengers of the reason for the delay. On the ground the only reason we were given was 'operational issues' and the first account we got from the captain was a 'medical situation.' About 4 or 5 hours in, in another status update, did we get a full story.
We landed in AUH at 8.30, around 2 hours late.