Etihad Airways

San Francisco to Delhi via Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways for the first time. It was an average experience. Flying time and layover time was the shortest for the route I flew. Abu Dhabi airport is unimpressive. Food above average, service average. Inflight entertainment was average. Seats were cramped and uncomfortable for a long haul flight. Ground service at New Delhi airport was terrible. They missed the one bag I checked in. Understaffed ground service crew took 90 minutes to finally document a missing bag report before I could leave. There were no follow up calls, it was impossible to get through every time I called. Finally got it 3 days after landing but the ground staff were poorly trained and highly unprofessional. Overall I would say Emirates is better in every respect. Etihad is cheaper but you get what you pay for.

Sydney to Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways A380. Cabin staff friendly. I'm a nervous flyer so having space, the ability to lie flat, large screens and noise cancelling headphone all helped make the trip more enjoyable.

Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. the seats are small and cabin crew seemed unmotivated throughout the flight. Very poor quality customer service generally. Bags damaged beyond repair and still waiting 8 weeks for a response. The airline advertises 'deals' and 'sales' but check before booking during these times. I have found on two occasions that regular ticket prices were actually cheaper than the 'specials' they promote.

For the price we paid the seats are woefully small. The fact they seemed to have overbooked the flight and the poor attitude of the staff will never encourage me to come back to this airline. The food is rubbish for such long haul flights and we had to get rid of our water before boarding (due to Australian rules) but we had no way of getting enough water onboard, and when we asked for more, the staff were very resentful of us asking. In the departure lounge, there were no announcements and procedures were very confusing without any direction. The inflight entertainment system had hardly changed since the flight that brought us to Abu Dhabi, 7 weeks prior.

Etihad Airways offer excellent business class service, but good experience was let down by use of a Jet Airways configured aircraft on the AUH-JNB-AUH sectors. The seats are all aisle facing so had a nice view of the opposite passengers bare feet and tv screen. The seats are narrow and very cramped with no storage space around. The crew struggled with the tray tables and tv screens. The seats went into the sleep position with ease but if you turned over you knocked your knees and elbows on the partition walls. Would travel with Etihad again but only on their own aircraft as my LCA-AUH-LCA sectors offered more space and comfort.

Dhaka to New York via Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. The food was sub-par, the aisles were very narrow to allow passengers to bring our bags, and the seats very uncomfortable. Unfortunately while boarding in Dhaka, none of the flight staff in the plane speak any Bengali. Although the politeness of the cabin staff and entertainment were positive.

We flew Athens to Melbourne via Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. Athens to Abu Dhabi was great, smooth check in and we were given the emergency exit row seats. The meals were tasty. We had an 8 hour stop over in Abu Dhabi and was not happy with the service there. Before we had gotten on the plane they searched our bags and made us throw all liquid out (even though we had already done this in customs). This meant entering the flight without anything to drink. For a 14 hour flight I like to stay hydrated so this was extremely frustrating. After take off I asked for a bottle of water. I was told I couldn't have one, I could only have a plastic cup that they filled a quarter of the way with water. Apart from our drinks with meals this was all we got. I rang the service bell and waited 1/2 an hour and got no reply even after pressing twice. I had to walk down the other end of the plane just to get another tiny cup of water. For 14 hours on a plane this is ridiculous and for the amount of money you pay for a ticket I would think you could at least be given adequate amounts of water. The flight went smoothly, although meals were rushed towards the end of the flight (don't know why though we had 14 hours to prepare for them) it was a fine, yet uncomfortable journey.

I flew Etihad Airways from Sydney to Abu Dhabi return by A380. I was amazed at the quality of service in the flight, food servings, IFE etc. But with the current state of Abu Dhabi airport (with jam packed terminal, unclean washrooms), it would be quite an achievement for Etihad Airways to get repeated customers, especially in economy class.

I booked an Etihad Airways flight through the Air Berlin homepage for my wife from Tokyo Narita to Dusseldorf via Abu Dhabi. And-to my utter surprise, they did it again. They completely messed it up. Hard to believe, but they did. It reminded me of last year when my wife was booked on the exactly same flight out of Narita and arrived 3 days after the scheduled arrival date in Dusseldorf. This time, during check-in my wife was told nonchalantly by the Narita Etihad Airways ground staff that although her flight data is stored in the Etihad system it cannot be found in the Air Berlin system. In other words: they will not let her take that plane for the simple reason that the link between the Air Berlin system and the Etihad system is missing. One of the staff told her that this sometimes happens and that she should call Air Berlin. What, are you kidding me? Anyway she called them and the Air Berlin call center staff told her that everything is fine and that maybe she checked in too early. Well it wasn’t ok and the Etihad Airways ground staff continued refusing to hand out a boarding ticket. Maybe one day I will write a book about what a lousy company Etihad is (if anybody hasn’t noticed yet). My wife had to listen to their Narita ground staff and later she was issued a temporary Ticket and had the privilege to board the plane for which I had already paid, after they let her wait for three hours. Last time when this happened I thought they are just a bunch of losers, but by now I think they are either completely incapable or they are doing this intentionally. Later my wife was told that she will have to check that the return flight on Saturday 10th is correctly listed in the Etihad Airways / Air Berlin system otherwise she will not be able to fly home.

Flew with Etihad Airways from London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi yesterday and it was one of the worst airlines I have travelled with. It was their first flight of the day out of Heathrow but was subject to a 2hr delay without explanation or apology. The staff were not very apologetic and the leg room was cramped. The food choices were awful and the wine selection cheap and nasty with only a medium dry white on offer : no dry white, rose or sparkling were available. The onboard entertainment was dated. To finish our experience we waited ages for luggage to arrive on the carousel. All in all a very poor experience and one we would not wish to repeat, but we have to fly back with them on Sunday