Etihad Airways

AUH-JFK direct on a Boeing 777 3-4-3 seating in economy class. Had window seat on the right side of plane. Major problem is that when the person in front of me reclined I could not reach my carry-on underneath his seat. The service was very good and inflight entertainment the best I've ever seen in economy. First meal was excellent but second merely average.

Have flown Etihad 4 times from LHR to BKK and will not be using them again I really used to enjoy Etihad but have noticed that their service has dropped to a charter airline and in Abu Dhabi you are treated like cattle when transferring to your next flight it's just chaotic with rude security personnel. The planes look old and tired and the food is below standard will prefer to pay more next time and fly Thai Emirates or Singapore Airlines.

EY 394 DOH-AUH and EY17 AUH-LHR both on 24/01/14. Doha to London via Abu Dhabi with wife and 2 children. We loved both sectors. Had a bad experience last year but this time - faith was restored. Excellent cabin crew staff - polite friendly and efficient excellent food and very clean toilets. Only areas of improvement would be food quantity and most of all - the E-box inflight entertainment system. A larger variety of movies needed along with more up-to-date releases. Great airline - look forward to the return to Doha next month.

Economy from Dublin to Abu Dhabi First to Sydney January 4th. First flight delayed 60 minutes. Chaotic check in. Very poor service onboard and food one notch above discount airline. No beer or wine offered. 777 plane tired. Second leg to Sydney delayed 2 hours. Excellent service by the staff but first class not up to Cathay Thai or Emirates. Lounge very overrated. Again food onboard was average despite the onboard chef who was very attentive. Will use other carriers in the future.

MXP-AUH-PEK INC-AUH-MXP. 3 of the 4 legs on 330-200 with latest business class product. Excellent seat perhaps a little narrow but flat and comfortable for seating and sleeping. Entertainment system very good service excellent very friendly and professional staff. INC-AUH on 340-500 with older business class (the old turquoise seats but recovered with the new stripy fabric clever move Etihad). More cramped and less room but still good for sleeping. No privacy separation between the 2 buddy seats in the middle and if you are not travelling with your companion then it would be embarrassingly close with a shared armrest. Food very good indeed and good wine selection. Would travel again with Etihad. Only negative comment the business class lounge at AUH is overcrowded as it the airport generally. I hope there are plans in place for improvement.

PRG-AUH-BKK and back in December and January 2014. As the leg from Prague to Abu Dhabi was served by Czech Airlines my comments refer only to the Etihad part. Abu Dhabi Airport needs to improve on signs and information monitors. I guess when switching planes within short time this will be a huge problem. On board the staff were friendly and caring except for the request to increase the temperature. The majority of the passengers were freezing sitting down covered with all available blankets and some even using their winter jackets! This happened on both flights. The food was OK just average airplane food. The entertainment system works well although the screen quality is poor. We usually prefer a long leg without the need for a stop in the middle of the trip so we are unlikely to be re-using this service.

BRU-AUH-BKK and return in Dec/Jan 2014. Outbound: BRU-AUH: A330 with nice seats good entertainment (this was good on all flights) a good cabin layout friendly crew decent food. Transfer in AUH was a disaster with cramped and chaotic boarding change of gate from T3 to T1 with no announcement. AUH-BKK: B777 with 10 seats per row very small seat pitch extremely cramped. We had paid for exit seats with extra legroom but even these seats were extremely narrow and very uncomfortable/hard. My E-box control would not fit into its socket in so it was just hanging down next to the seat food terrible unfriendly crew. Homebound 20 days later: BKK-AUH: Check-in in Bangkok smooth and friendly same B777 as outbound I think since the e-box control in my seat would still not fit into its socket and was still just hanging down next to the seat. Very friendly crew in our section but the one in the other aisle was not. Sandwiches and breakfast (late night flight). Transfer in AUH again chaotic and disorganised with unfriendly a very cramped boarding lounge bus transfer to plane. AUH-BRU: A330 nice and comfortable plane one hour late probably due to chaotic handling of bus transfers onboard crew friendly. For some reason it was freezing cold on all our Etihad flights and despite promises by the crews to raise the temperature this was not done. Passengers had to sit with two blankets and take extra clothes out of their suitcases. All in all we were really disappointed with Etihad and there is truly a marked decline in standards since just a few years ago.

Heathrow-Brisbane via Abu Dhabi. This was the 3rd time I've flown Etihad and I could have cut/pasted my complaints from the last two flights. No seat booking with online check-in with code share despite the fact it was Etihad planes on all legs (sold as Virgin on the AD to BNE leg). My inflight entertainment on the first leg wasn't working so I asked for my system to be reset. After several attempts I finally convinced one chap to have a go at resetting it and it worked! Seats are Ryanair-esque reclining so little they might as well have not bothered. Abu Dhabi airport is as chaotic as a market bazaar. No signage small departure screens tucked away from view blank faced overworked staff. On the leg back we were made to sit on the floor while we waited for the gate to open (an hour late). Finally allowed in the departure lounge. Finally told to board the plane bound for London not by the conventional method of a public address system but by a small lady hollering seat numbers at the other end of the departure lounge. Chaos ensued as everyone rushed to the front and the queue again stretched down the gangway. They get a point for landing the plane at the right airport.

JNB-AUH EY601 (A330) Seat: 36A 11/12/2013: Check-in and Boarding was smooth. Seat configuration of 2-4-2 so was seated a row after family as I wanted the seat with the view. Seat is equipped with IFE (E-BOX) headphone jacks a variety of charging docks (USB Power plugs). 10 mins before push back the Captain announced that the flight was experiencing a problems with its power source and a restart of power unit was required. This scenario caused the push back to be delayed 30-40 mins. The front camera in the Flight Map could be used to view the terrain in-front and below during and after take-off. E-BOX had a selection of Movies Audio Live TV (CNN and some news channels) TV (nice documentaries) games etc. There was a decent collection of movies (multiple languages) and documentaries although not as big a variety as ICE on Emirates. The headphone jack on 36B wasn't working so my co-passenger had to move to another seat which gave me 2 seats to relax. Snack and beverages were served 30-60 mins after departure. The main meal was served 2hrs after departure. There were 3 options between Lamb Chicken and Pasta choose the Lamb had good portions and Appetizer and Dessert. Completed a movie and caught some sleep the mood lighting was good. The seat was a bit un-comfortable for a long flight (8.5 hrs) but due to the vacant seat next to me I could relax a bit. There was ample leg room. A light snack with coffee service was served 2 hours before landing. At AUH plane had to circle in the holding pattern for a while to the delayed arrival. Landing was smooth and taxi to gate +-10mins. The connecting was displayed on the IFE. Was taxied to T1 for connecting flight. Overall impression of the flight was good and pleaseant crew were hospitable courteous and attentive although would have expected beverage and cafe service top-ups after lunch. Toilets were clean and maintained by crew. Flight is recommend.

Flew Manchester to Sydney 18/12/2013. Flight OK apart from 1 hour delay in Abu Dhabi sitting on runway. The return flight on 04/01/2014 was nothing short of a nightmare checked in at Sydney with Etihad partner Virgin Australia. Flight to Abu Dhabi was superb service etc very good. Our cases booked right through to Manchester but told to pick our connecting boarding card up in Abu Dhabi. On arrival the problem started we were told our flights did not show on their system and we were basically cut adrift by Etihad in the middle of the night. Told to pick up our cases from a deserted luggage hall at 3am then had to find the Etihad booking desk managed to book tickets for myself and my wife. The help and assistance we had from Etihad was zero.