Etihad Airways

EY103 First Class from Abu Dhabi to New York. Even though Etihads logo and livery on the metal everything else is from Jet Airways including staff food beverage entertainment system seat and cabin design. Since I am a big fan of EY and didn't expect wet lease service the whole experience was quite disappointing. First of all the menu was all Indian dishes. The onboard chef was apologetic that there was no western food to offer. Beverages were also limited. Amenity kit is non-designer brand and in poor quality. PJ's are again non-designer brand and its material was quite hard and thick. The seat is spacious and fully flat in a private suite. The cabin design is not as swanky as the standard Etihad First class product. The crew were generally friendly but slow to fulfil service requests. Etihad should enhance hard product and service quality of this flight to the same level of the rest of their flights. First class lounge in Abu Dhabi is crowded but service and food is great.

This flight was Amsterdam - Abu Dhabi but I fly regularly from Abu Dhabi around the ME usually 2 or 3 times a month. In the air Etihad are usually OK. Nothing special but OK. On the ground they are one of the worst airlines I experience. This applies to the online booking process online check in at the airport departing and at the airport departing. It is very clear their management have never tried to use their website or travelled with the bulk of their passengers at the back of the plane. On the rare occasions when their website works at all it is usually wrong or fails later. Information at the airports is non existent and passengers are treated as a major inconvenience to the staff. The frequent flyer programme is appalling. Usually wrong often missing flights. When you try to claim lost miles you get an automated message saying they will respond quickly then wait months for anything to happen. Again it is obvious they don't want to provide what you are due. There is never any sign of management in customer facing roles just a group of people who have no power or responsibility. Finally they are always shouting about being the best airline in some poll. Who do they think they are kidding?

I travelled to Sydney from LHR and was upgraded to 1st class. Excellent seat cabin crew food and drink. For the return journey I travelled business class. The seat from SYD to Abu Dhabi was somewhat cramped. Only 4 seats across the width of the plane yet they had managed to clutter it with so much equipment it was a little uncomfortable. The A380 from Abu Dhabi to LHR was totally different and was a real pleasure. I particularly like the bar area where one can chat with other passengers. The service from the cabin crew on all stages of my round trip was excellent and the lounges were first class. I would certainly recommend Etihad.

MAN-AUH-BKK. 777-300. Reasonable priced flights no issues with delays or with change over at AUH. Food volume and quality was acceptable as was the IFE. However the seating was very poor we were in a row of 3 as a family and could not get comfortable. The seats had the wrong profile were too hard and too narrow and the leg room was shocking. Travel to Thailand and the US regularly and of all the airlines we have used these seats are by far the worst. Even Ryanair has better seat and we all now how much they like to cut costs. It would put me off travelling with them again however the key factor for us is price.

EY48/EY270 DUB-AUH-MAA. Traveled with family. The disappointing thing is we booked kids meal which were not provided on both legs. Cabin crew in DUB-AUH flight was not friendly and helpful. But the flights were on time and entertainment was not bad.

Travelled Lagos-Abu Dhabi-Jaipur-Abu Dhabi-Lagos in Dec 2014. Overall experience was OK. Abu Dhabi international airport needs serious up-gradation as it simply does not have enough seats to handle growing transit passengers. Flight from Abu Dhabi to Jaipur was done with a smaller and out dated aircraft. Return flight from Jaipur to Abu Dhabi was delayed by 10 hours and no accommodation was provided. Had to wait at the airport only and found it very hard to locate a comfortable seat. Check in gates changes frequently without any proper prior information. Boarding at Abu Dhabi airport was completely chaotic. Flight attendants were courteous although not very helpful.

JFK to Bangladesh. Flight from JFK to Abu Dhabi was acceptable. The crew were helpful especially since we were traveling with a 5 month old. Check in was a breeze the crew were great helping us take turns so that both me and my wife could have our meals while the other one kept the baby. The food was below par. The next leg of the flight from Abu Dhabi to Dhaka was deplorable. First of all checking in was annoying. Another thing that stuck out to me was yes they had a lot of multi-lingual crew members but if you are headed to Bangladesh it probably would help if someone inflight spoke Bengali. On our way back check in was again easy and that's the only good thing that I can say about our return flight. Inflight service was horrible on both legs of the flight. We were flying on Jet Airways not an Etihad carrier and the crew did not know the first thing about customer service. On the longer portion of the flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK after the first two hours of the flight all the crew had vanished and the only way you would see them is if someone rang the attendant bell at their seat. Overall I was very disappointed with the service.

EY203 / EY183 BOM-AUH-SFO. Both legs were disappointing. The BOM-AUH portion was on a narrow body aircraft seats didn't fully recline. Its competition flies more comfortable wide bodied aircraft. AUH-SFO was also a disappointment relative to expectations. This was essential a Jet Airlines flight - using its aircraft its staff (except for a few Etihad attendants) and its catering. The only Etihad part was the entertainment system which was fabulous. As a Jet Airways flight it was good - but my expectations were of an Etihad flight. Etihad has heavily promoted this flight in advertisements and on its website - what was offered was far different than what was being advertised. It was a Jet flight. The plane was configured in a "herringbone" pattern for business class - a configuration that i find claustrophobic for an 16+ hour flight. Its highly rated cuisine was not on board - there were no Arabic dishes offered. At Abu Dhabi you clear US customs and immigration. While this in theory is great in practice it is far from it. They request that you be there 90 minutes in advance of its scheduled departure. Unfortunately once you get past immigration you are stuck in a rather bleak boarding area with no shops or lounge only a small canteen. All-in-all a underwhelming experience.

BNE-SIN January 15 Economy Class. Smooth check in and quick boarding. Asked if any extra leg room seats available before/after take off and received bulkhead seats. Excellent service from crew. Food and beverages fine. Entertainment acceptable for 7hr flight. Left a little late and arrived early. All in all very good flight.

Overall very good flight experience (Between US-India-US). Staff very courteous and attentive. Vegetarian food was very tasty from Chicago to Abu Dhabi but bland from Abu Dhabi to LAX. Seating arrangements - above average. Lay over at Abu Dhabi while returning to US was 8 hours and no place to sit or relax for a quarter mile long line of gates. Rest rooms-very clean. Limited number of many midsize coffee shops.