planemad1 From UK - England, joined Dec 2010, 23 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 11356 times:
Being a regular visitor to this trip report forum I wanted to share a recent trip.
It began on a cold Novenber morning. The Etihad chauffeur service collected us from home and drove us to Terminal One at Manchester. After check-in we were directed to the Wilmslow lounge which was pretty hard to find amongst all the other lounges to be honest. Being hungry too I was gutted to find there was no hot food on offer. Plenty of croissants and coffee and a good view of the apron but no hot food. We stayed for about 30 minutes before deciding to go for a walk around the terminal.
Our ride for the first part of the journey to Abu Dhabi was to be A6-EYH.
As you can see it was full on both legs of the journey.
Now for the hard bit of the journey. Only another 16 hours to go.
As this was a night flight the lighting was not ideal for photographs so I didn't really bother taking many more. Apart from dinner that is.
Arabic mixed grill which consisted of a chicken kebab, lamb kofta, saffron rice and olive parsley sauce.
Movie wise there was a good selection. Inception, Cyrus (which I really enjoyed), Despicable Me, Jonah Hex and Just Wright starring Queen Latifah.
After what seemed like an eternity though we were almost there.
Bags were soon off and once we filled in our arrival cards it was plain sailing through customs and immigration.
eccc From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2009, 35 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 11047 times:
Really enjoyed the pics in your report. Was very interested to read it, as I'm flying with Etihad in Business Class to Sydney next April, though out of Heathrow. What did you think of the service and the seat? I've read slightly mixed reports about what people think of the seat, but I just wonder if some of them are being picky, or if you found there were disadvantages to the seat. How did the product compare to over C class products?
Anyway, thanks for posting - was a pleasure to read!
Service was as you would expect on-board. The seat was fine. I'm 6ft tall and could stretch fully flat in the bed position. Last time I flew there was with Emirates which wasn't fully flat. Maybe it has changed now, I don't know. But of the two carriers Etihad wins by a country mile.
AI151 From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2009, 303 posts, RR: 17 Reply 3, posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 10851 times:
First and foremost, welcome on board to A.net. Great pictures for a first TR however one thing I would suggest is if you could write more information about the flight; e.g. flight number, times, seat number, etc.
eccc From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2009, 35 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 10573 times:
Thanks for replyig - interesting that you rank Etihad clealry over Emirates. I did fly Emirates a couple of years ago, but in First, having stumbled on a superb deal on Expedia (think it might have been an accident, as the fare I paid was £2000 more expensive when I went to show it to someone else about a half hour after I'd booked my ticket!), but I really enjoyed Emirates. I believe they are fully flat in Business now. However, I have heard that Etihad crew are great, so am very excited about it - shame it's such as long wait! I'll be sure to post a report at the end of April!
Elevate From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2009, 144 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 8779 times:
A nice little report, thanks for posting.
Shame we don't see more EY trips!
Quoting AI151 (Reply 3): Did EK use the same lounge as well?
Emirates have their own lounge now at Manchester - which in my opinion is better than their DXB lounge! I took a few pics when I was there in october - i'll post them in my next EK report out of Manchester (should be online in early Jan).
Once again, thanks planemad1, keep them coming!
LondonCity From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2008, 1197 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 8728 times:
Quoting eccc (Reply 4): I did fly Emirates a couple of years ago, but in First, having stumbled on a superb deal on Expedia (think it might have been an accident, as the fare I paid was £2000 more expensive when I went to show it to someone else about a half hour after I'd booked my ticket!), but I really enjoyed Emirates. I believe they are fully flat in Business now.
In the depths of the air travel downturn around 2 yrs ago, EK was charging around £2,000 first class return for LGW-DXB-SYD-DXB-LGW. Fares ex-LHR were not a lot more expensive. That might have been the deal you booked.
As for fully flat bed seating ... EK's A380 has fully flat seating in J class but am not sure about the B777s because EK operates various B777 types.
9MMAR From Malaysia, joined Jul 2006, 2099 posts, RR: 21 Reply 9, posted (2 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days ago) and read 8289 times:
MAN-SYD via DXB with EK would probably get you 2 sectors aboard their A380s each way, all the way from your point of origin to your point of destination now. I think the J seats on EK's A380s should be fully flat as well.