ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  25 February 2008 by James Richardson   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

MAN to BKK via AUH Economy. Extremely cheap fares, with excellent service. Checked in online - no problems except BKK airport does not have a bag drop for online check in. Inflight entertainment system extensive. FAs attentive, however food choice on all four legs was limited - never got my first choice. AUH airport facilities are limited and only a two hour stop over outbound and 1 hour stopover on return journey. Due to their very reasonable fares, flight times, short stopovers, will use them again.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  25 February 2008 by B James   (UK)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

LHR-BKK. Comfortable planes, on-demand video service with over 70 films to choose from (though mine did have some technical problems on the way out, but fine on the way back), good food, on time, cabin crew were friendly and helpful.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  21 February 2008 by Marc Garside   (Australia)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

Sydney - London return. Picked up on time in a BMW 7 series. Sydney check in and fast track was excellent, flight to AUH very comfortable with good food and attentive staff. AUH airport a nightmare with unspecified delay due to fog. Told nothing apart from to stay in the business lounge, after 5 hours got nervous so walked to the gate to find the plane was boarding! I could have very easily missed the flight. AUH to Sydney service as good as the first leg - window seats are the way to go if alone, these seats are very private. Return trip to Sydney an absolute horror. The service was excellent and prompt but on both legs I was seated in the last seat of business class. I had 6 yes 6 screaming infants directly behind me in economy with only a flimsy partition and a curtain separating me from not only the sound but also the bright lights of the economy cabin. Yes, children scream and cry - I have my own, but my trip consisted of only 5 days and I needed to sleep. Etihad needs to look at keeping children away from business class.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  21 February 2008 by Stein Walle   (Norway)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

I have done 7 round trips with Etihad from Europe (LHR/FRA/CDG) to AUH, in Business Class. Onboard service is generally superb - however, as another user has commented on this web site, the Etihad ground staff is incompetent. My luggage has been lost upon 3 of my arrivals in AUH. One of these times was a Friday. As Friday is holiday in AUH the Lost Luggage Office is closed! Took me 3 days to get my belongings and service from Etihad ground staff was outrageous or totally absent.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  21 February 2008 by K Falken   (Germany)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Munich-Abu Dhabi-Bangkok return. Flights on time, friendly staff, food okay. Price was very low keeping in mind that I booked only 2 weeks before departure. On the way back, the Bangkok-Abu Dhabi flight was delayed for 2 hours, however the connecting flight for Munich waited for us.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  19 February 2008 by Aaron Lim   (Australia)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

BNE-SIN-BNE. First time flying with Etihad and first leg from BNE to SIN was excellent as it wasn't a full cabin, so got 3 seats to myself. IFE excellent and touchscreen. Food was average on both flights. Return leg SIN to BNE was terrible as I had 3 babies in front rows of my seat crying non- stop! Cabin crew on both flights were ok. They didn't seem motivated to work and look bored.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  19 February 2008 by Rohan McCarthy   (Australia)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

First

SYD-AUH, First Class. A wonderful experience - at an amazingly low price. Fast, friendly and efficient service at check-in in Sydney. A new trial "fast lane" at Sydney Airport made immigration and security a breeze. Etihad use Qantas Club lounge in Sydney (for First Class passengers), which is starting to look a little tired. Onboard flight attendant ensured absolutely every convenience was offered to me, while the purser even apologised to me that I'd fallen asleep before they'd had a chance to put linen on my bed. Five star wine (limited-range, admittedly, but they had everything in stock), food and amenities - I liked the onboard lounge for First Class passengers. Once transiting in Abu Dhabi, a few cracks started to show - I hadn't ever been offered a hotel room for the nine- hour layover, but was caught in the Catch 22 that, as I hadn't reserved 72 hours in advance, I couldn't get a free one. But the staff in the restaurant style First Class lounge ensured I had a relaxing facial and head massage while they sorted it out.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  15 February 2008 by D Davies   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

First time flying with Etihad to Australia. Routings good, connecting flight times good, gave you time to stretch your legs and look around. Leg room average unless lucky enough to get bulk head seats. Food nothing to rave about. Refreshment before landing a muffin and beverage, could have been more! The only time I have got off a plane hungry. Thank goodness for Costa in Abu Dhabi! In flight entertainment was good and for children as well. Thats if your lucky enough for your equipment to work - had 3 flights with faulty sound, which is very frustrating on a 7 hour flight. The camera showing the view from the plane was good, which my son enjoyed. I read a review about someone being covered in fluff from the blankets, they were right. I would fly with them again.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  15 February 2008 by J Ashton   (UK)

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Recommended:

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Cabin Flown:

Business

MAN-AUH-SYD : outward, BMW series 7 pick up on time and great service, check in and fasttrack at Man very good. Need to use better lounge than the Servisair. Good food and staff on outward flight to AUH. AUH lounge would be acceptable apart from the fact they allow smoking in the lounge. A lot of money is being spent to improve the airport and would rather transit at AUH instead of London. AUH to SYD was upgraded at gate to First class and could not fault the level of service! Return trip to AUH very good. AUH-MAN crew let the side down they seemed more interested in getting us to sleep. No meal offered after take off just a light snack, breakfast 2 hours before arrival. Service on this sector did not match the very high levels we experienced on the other sectors. Manchester airport let us down with our bags. it was the only airport where our cases got no priority over economy tickets. We waited 1hr for our cases!

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  7 February 2008 by Anthony Clark   (Indonesia)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

CGK-AUH-DUB return. This is my third trip with Etihad on this route. Once again checked in at Jakarta with no problems. On boarding given upgrade to business class to AUH and then on departure from AUH. Etihad seem to be trying hard to promote themselves and even though I really don't like AUH airport and the always interminable 4 hour layovers I will do anything to avoid transit in London. All I can say is give them a go, I'm in no doubt that they know AUH is a mess and whilst never can be another DXB, they will try to make it better soon.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  5 February 2008 by Mark Nuttall   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

MAN-AUH-BNE return. Overall I would rate as good value. Food ok, IFE excellent, planes clean and seemed pretty new. FAs seem on the whole new into role but trying hard. Would echo all the comments re AUH airport ,they need to sort out and quickly - it is as bad as everyone says.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  5 February 2008 by V Kahramanian   (Australia)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

SYD-AUH-SYD Business Class. Chauefur service to airport in a BMW 7 series. Pick up right on time and straight to the airport. Check in at the airport was 5 mins. Qantas lounge was adequare in Sydney. Flight to AUH was fantastic - cabin crew were great. Good food selection, comfortabe seats, friendly services. Luggage came out very fast at AUH and car took us to Dubai promptly. AUH to Sydney. Car was on-time from the hotel in Dubai to the airport in AUH. Record check in time. Took 5.5 minutes. Will admit the Business lounge in AUH isn't the best. Needs to be made a lot bigger, but I was happy to work on my laptop. Had a one hour delay, however we were notified in advance. Boarding fast. Consistent service on board. Priority tags worked effectivley.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  30 January 2008 by K Burnie   (UK)

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Recommended:

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Cabin Flown:

Economy

We checked in online only to find out when we got to the airport that there was no baggage drop, so that meant we had to queue for another hour as check in desks were not open. London to Abu Dhabi, plane was nice and clean, my boyfriends entertainment system did not work so they gave him a small portable TV to use. We were delayed for 2 hours once we got to Abu Dhabi - the worst airport I have been to - not enough seating for an international airport. On our flight to Sydney we were sitting about 20 rows from the back and they had run out of certain meals on the plane.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  30 January 2008 by Alistair Higgins   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

First

First Class (Pearl) London to Sydney. Staff on plane very good, as was food, cabin and inflight entertainment. Everything ground side was an absolute shambles. 2hr delay on outbound flight due to mechanical problem (can happen to any airline). Everyone kept at gate including business and first class passengers with no updates provided. 2 of 4 limo transfers were misbooked by Etihad resulting in wrong pickup locations and/or time. On return leg there was 15hr delay at Abu Dhabi airport. 9hrs of this was due to airport being closed (understandable) the other 6hrs was due to Etihad having no aircrew to man their planes (this is at their home airport, so really inexcusable). New York bound passengers had had their flights cancelled two days in a row, so many New York passengers had been at airport in excess of 48hrs waiting for onward connection, which Etihad seemed completely incapable of booking (Etihad was unable to provide hotel rooms for the majority of these passengers as well). Only one stewardess manned the lounge for the majority of the 14hrs I spent in it, and had no information to provide. Lounge very crowded with no seats available and includes a smoking section which contaminates the whole lounge. No announcements made in lounge to go to gate, so aircraft was prepared for take off with no business or first class passengers yet boarding. Only by luck did people find out that plane was ready for takeoff. Arrival at Heathrow was followed by another 1hr30min wait for luggage as Etihad had forgotten to arrange for unloading of aircraft at Heathrow due to late arrival. A ticket in Diamond (first) at peak time is about 2/3 the price of business on other major carriers. If everything goes smoothly you'll be fine, but the airline is incapable of dealing with the slightest of problems, and their ground crew are understaffed and incompetent.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  27 January 2008 by Andrew Marshall   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

MAN-AUH-BKK Business Class (Pearl) return. Great car for the pick up and return. New Airbus MAN-AUH, and 777 AUH to BKK. I had seat 7A, window very private with no one at your side. I must admit the staff were better on MAN-AUH return than AUH to BKK. For the price, service, flat bed, limo service and Etihad frequent flyer programme I will use this airline again to Bangkok. AUH airport isn't great but there is work going on to improve it.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  21 January 2008 by Beverley Mitchell   (UK)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

LHR-AUH-KUL return in Business Class. LHR-AUH sector planes and staff generally better than the those on the AUH-KUL sectors - space between seats on AUH-/KUL sectors was smaller. Toilets good did not appear to be checked during the flight. Cabin ambience good with mood lighting on the LHR-AUH sectors. Good check-in at LHR was good with access to fast track at Security. SAS Lounge at LHR is not the best and only served snacks. Excellent food on all sectors, plenty of choice. The seats are very private, although the aisle seats are not quiet so. Every other seat is aisle either for window or centre, the 2 seats in centre are excellent for those travelling with a companion. The AUH Lounge is small and feels crowded when busy, and can seem quite smokey. Washrooms are limited, ie the is only 1 cubicle in each ladies. Access to MH Golden Lounge in KUL, so excellent. IFE good on all sectors, although choice and flexibility on LHR-AUH sectors was better. They do turn the IFE off at least 1 hour before landing!

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  21 January 2008 by H Gray   (UK)

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Recommended:

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Cabin Flown:

Economy

LHR-AUH-BKK Flight was delayed 2 hours, but given a meal voucher for £5.00. Plane clean, entertainment system really good, plenty of movies, music, games to play. Touch screen did not work very well nor did the control. Food average, was quite lucky because our connecting flight was delayed to wait for all passengers like us who were delayed at Heathrow. AUH to BKK pretty much the same, had a bus from the plane to the terminal, and the bus driver got lost on route! BKK-AUH had a choice of 3 meals as before, they ran out of the one I picked, after serving only about 20 people. AUH-LHR : Abu Dhabi airport is so cramped. Entertainment system didn't work properly they had to re boot the entire system. at first my brothers system wouldn't work, one of our reading lights kept flashing on and off. Food was worse than ever and not particularly warm either.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  6 March 2008 by Allen Barker   (UK)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

BKKLHR Business class. Lie flat beds the best I have encountered. IFE excellent, on demand. Food big improvement on a year ago now up to business class standards and wide choice of wines. Only negative is Abu Dhabi airport, crowded and business class lounge poor, still only one hour between flights so no real hardship. Superb value for money.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  4 March 2008 by K Roberts   (UK)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

BNE-SIN-AUH-MAN check-in excellent, no IFE for 15 hours from BNE-AUH, apologies given but nothing else. Food awful especially for kids even though ordered special meals, ran out of choices too early. AUH airport awful and too small especially in the middle of the night. Hot breakfast choices into MAN left a lot to be desired as well. Aircraft cramped on AUH-MAN sector. Staff were okay. Think price of tickets is the only good thing about this airline.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  2 March 2008 by Arvid Bader   (Germany)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

MUC-AUH-BKK-AUH-MUC. MUC-AUH excellent, staff friendly and service very good. AUH-BKK also good. Service late with the breakfast, so no coffee before landing. BKK-AUH less pleasant. Cabin crew quite rude and entertainment unit did not function despite being re-set twice at my place and other passengers. AUH-MUC friendly cabin crew. Entertainment ok and breakfast was good.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  2 March 2008 by Kris Proot   (Belgium)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

BRU-AUH round trip. Check in in BRU was swift and more than sufficient EY ground staf present at the airport to assist the pax (a lot of pax connect to India and always seem to come with excess baggage). The flight itself was on A330-200 and left on time and we had a very good service during the 6 hour long journey: nice longhaul economy meal with 3 choices for main course, ample rounds of drinks (without ever demanding for it) and shortly before landing an ice-cream. Personal inflight entertainment system is very easy to use and has an extensive choice of music/movies, however it broke down on the return flight, which can happen of course. The airport of AUH however is far to small for an airline the size of EY but construction works are underway to hopefully solve this. Check in itself in AUH is relatively uncrowded, probably because most pax come from elsewhere, but the tax free zone and the gate area where you have to wait for your flight are totally unsuitable: cramming 250 pax in an room suitable for 50 at most is simply not done, especially not if the busses which are supposed to take us out to the plane only come after 20 minutes! All in all Etihad is a pretty good airline however and they seem to be flying at rock bottom prices. Only final tip I can give you: avoid using their blankets, since you'll find yourself covered with yellow dust afterwards, unless you want to look like a chicken upon arrival. (it brushes off quite easily though).

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  2 March 2008 by Karen Hargreave   (UK)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

MAN-AUH-MCT return in Economy. First time we have flown Etihad. IFE broken on outbound flight for 12 passengers but staff very apologetic, and kept us plied with drinks. Also we were given a free gift of Business class toiletries. Return flight, good IFE - although not much choice in films. All staff very friendly and efficient. Seats have reasonable legroom. Excellent food and soft drinks served every hour during the flight Man-AUH.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  27 February 2008 by Oliver Smith   (UK)

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Recommended:

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Cabin Flown:

Economy

SYD-AUH-LHR. SYD-AUH was OK, except my entertainment unit didnt function despite being re-set twice. We booked a night at the Transit hotel and a later connecting flight to LHR. The Transit Hotel was comfortable and served it's purpose. AUH-LHR less pleasant. We had booked window/aisle seats when purchasing the ticket over 5 months prior, but SYD checkin staff has re-assigned us to middle seats with bassinette (we didnt want the bassinette). My wife could not feed our infant properly as she didnt have any privacy so it was not ideal. Food was good, especially the Harissa fish and rice from AUH to LHR. We found the cabin crew quite rude and not wanting to be there which was disappointing as the advertising for the airline suggests otherwise. Nice new planes and a very smooth ride, but the toilets smelt though throughout the whole trip and not cleaned. Not the best airline experience I have used, but not the worst. We paid AUD$2,200 for SYD-LHR for 2 adults and an infant, compared to $2,900 for VA which was the next cheapest, so all in all not too bad.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  25 February 2008 by James Richardson   (UK)

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Recommended:

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Cabin Flown:

Economy

MAN to BKK via AUH Economy. Extremely cheap fares, with excellent service. Checked in online - no problems except BKK airport does not have a bag drop for online check in. Inflight entertainment system extensive. FAs attentive, however food choice on all four legs was limited - never got my first choice. AUH airport facilities are limited and only a two hour stop over outbound and 1 hour stopover on return journey. Due to their very reasonable fares, flight times, short stopovers, will use them again.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS review :  25 February 2008 by B James   (UK)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

LHR-BKK. Comfortable planes, on-demand video service with over 70 films to choose from (though mine did have some technical problems on the way out, but fine on the way back), good food, on time, cabin crew were friendly and helpful.