Etihad Airways

AUH-BKK. Morning flight. Smooth check in at AUH airport. Security check as always long queues since AUH airport has not been able to catch up with the growth in pass anger numbers. Boarding chaotic and unorganized. Flight departed an hour late due to heavy traffic. Seat the usual hard and narrow affair. The very busy FA's tried their best but they were clearly understaffed on this full flight something I've noticed on another flight a month ago. What really upset me was the "breakfast" they served. I opted for the Asian option beef congee. It was about 100 ml of rice soup with a drop of Soya sauce and a few pieces of ginger. Beef could not be found. This was the most disgraceful meal I ever had on a flight and I fly a lot. Etihad claims to be the world leading airlines but I wonder who voted for them certainly not y class passenger.

AUH-DUB return J class. Limo pick up on time and friendly check in a breeze the one negative thing I find with this review is AUH airport and this is not Etihad's fault. The place was manic lounge is not up to the mark place packed looks shabby too small. Queue for the flight no Biz class lane had to fight to get to the front all biz passengers totally confused whilst Y class Pax gave dirty looks as we were finally let through to board first. On board all great staff food wines seat and on time. Return lounge in Dublin is fantastic very comfortable fine dining staff professional. Again return staff great food and beverage super etc. Arrival fast track and into limo in 20 minutes. good job just sort out AUH airport.

To be perfectly honest two of the four flights by Etihad were ok. However the other two were so bad that they are hard to forget. The cabin crew on these two trips were mostly indifferent and disorganised. The seats were hard narrow and uncomfortable and with two tired children crying as well due to the huge delays it all added up! We had a bassinet seat and were told on the phone that we could use a bassinet but when we got there they said the baby was too big. The baby never got fed on any of the trips without asking and literally begging. After one hour and 40 minutes after adult meals were served and asking six times we were given tinned baby food! Buzzers elicited no response. After a huge unexplained delay with no food or water for the children we were allowed on the plane. The food situation was disorganised and haphazard-the food was awful. The missed connections were covered but there was more waits for hotels and transport etc. After all the fuss we got about 2 hours sleep before our connecting flight the next day. The two trips that were better were shorter (6.5 hours) and had less people on them. On both these trips we got help from an excellent nanny and some good service from that person. On one of these trips we got champagne but this was after my finger got jammed in the TV. Food was bad on all trips-seats were poor and the baby not catered for at all.

Disorganised ground staff and process particularly at Abu Dhabi. Late departures poor lounges/terminals/gates at Heathrow and Abu Dhabi. Chaotic boarding. I had not flown with Etihad before. Won't fly again. Qantas a much better flying experience. Food service outside of meals on 7 hour flight was poor - I had to ask three times for a cup of tea. Staff polite but uninterested. Disappointed.

Flew SYD-AUH-GRU-AUH-SYD. My SYD-AUH flight was operated by Virgin Australia and was an excellent experience that I will not comment on here. The other three flights were operated by Etihad which were fine enough. AUH-GRU and return was on an A340 - the planes felt a little old but there was plenty of space compared to most economy seats I've been in. However AUH-SYD was on a B777 with quite possibly the worst economy long-haul seat I've experienced. The plane was nice and new and the IFE was excellent but the 3-4-3 layout meant the seat width was very narrow and uncomfortable even for a skinny guy like myself. It was hard to walk up and down the aisles to get to the bathrooms due to lack of space - kept bumping into people and I'm glad I wasn't sitting in an aisle seat otherwise I would have been extremely annoyed by this. Virgin Australia use a 3-3-3 layout on the exact same plane and it was very comfortable. Etihad need to learn something from their partner.

Very disappointed. Flew Singapore to Brisbane in July and from the moment we were ushered from the very average lounge to the gate (only to find flight delayed 1.5hours) things went downhill. Seats extremely small for business class. I am an average size western female and found the business class space tight in comparison to other airlines. Champagne served immediately. After discussing our need to make a tight connection in Brisbane with the cabin crew we were assured each time we enquired (3 during flight) that our daughter would be bought through from economy so we could exit quickly that the ground crew had been notified and that there would be ground crew to assist us to make connection. None of this happened! We fly on average twice per month and will not fly Etihad again!

AMS-BKK 17 July 2014 with a stopover in Abu-Dhabi. Packed madhouse on the EY 408. The flight EY408 - Abu Dhabi- BKK was just cancelled and merged with EY 404. The reason was that both aircraft's were half full. Packed accordingly and left 3 hours later. Originally I had carefully selected window seat 52A but had now been put down in the middle on seat 47E. Cabin layout seats was 3-4-3. Seats are so tight. After hours of waiting I discovered my suitcase was not on the plane! My luggage was supplied one day later to my hotel.

I flew back from Bangkok to Manchester via Abu Dhabi on 16th/17th July. Firstly my outgoing journey to BKK was pretty good - I have no complaints other than the usual for me not enough leg room (I am 6ft 3) however I am yet to fly with any carrier that I wouldn't say this about. The return journey was okay initially the flight left BKK on time and arrived in Abu Dhabi as scheduled. We boarded the Abu Dhabi - Manchester flight about 30 minutes late and were removed from the aircraft because of a 'maintenance issue' about 20 minutes after embarking. We were then told we could 'show our boarding pass to any of the restaurants in the departure lounge and we'd be able to get some food and a drink. Attempting this proved impossible I was told I needed a voucher from Etihad and wouldn't get anything unless I did. So a 25 minute queue for the voucher. Back to get some food. Oh the voucher only entitles me to what? A doughnut and a coffee! A 6.5 hr delay and this is all that was offered I was pretty disappointed and felt like this was in contradiction to Etihad's excellent reputation. We were eventually boarded on a flight some 7hrs later and whilst on-board the crew and staff were very attentive and professional. They provided a great service however the huge delay put a dampener on my return trip.

AUH-DUS return. The started on a rather bad note as the limousine did not show up. Calling the call center is a waste of time as they are rude and never call back. I took a cab and rushed to the airport. I had to fight for my taxi money but got it back. The flights were uneventful the usual long but very narrow sleeper beds well presented but not very tasty meals and the overworked and understaffed crew in C class. Etihad is an ok carrier but cannot be compared with its South East Asian competitors.

We had 3 flights with Ethiad (Australia - Europe - return) and the staff were miserable - we felt we couldn't even ask for a glass of water outside of the food service. There was no pre-boarding for families with kids which a few years ago for us was invaluable (with SIA of course). Our last flight Abu Dhabi to Perth today was over booked and an employee stood at the gate and announced "boarding now" so it wasn't done in seat order - absolute chaos. A family of 4 with kids under 3 was sat 2 and 2 on opposite sides of the aircraft. Abu Dhabi airport is chaotic and officious (although the Premier Inn for an overnight stay when we had an 8 hr layover outbound was the highlight and very good). The aircraft spent ages taxiing after landing (outbound and inbound) with no communication from the cockpit and likewise our last flight left an hour late with no announcement as to why. The attendant call button is very loud and seems to sound continuously throughout the flight - why can't the volume be turned down or the staff rely on a light? The temperature kept going from hot to cold and back again - very unpleasant. Overall not great and we won't go again - what you see on the advert is definitely not what you get.