Should have had business class line in immigration. Food quality suboptimal
The staff were wonderful but the seats weren't very comfortable for a bigger guy like me.
Likes: on time departure, new plane Didn’t like:very poor quality food, very limited entertainment.no amenity kit etc.
The flight was delayed which cause me to miss my connecting flight in AbuDhsbi airport.
I did not have a good experience in both flights of Etihad. First of all, when I was booking the flight, there were two options. The first option was a cheaper flight with longer layover (9 hrs), or a more expensive flight with shorter layover (2 hrs). I booked the expensive flight with shorter layover because I wanted a more comfortable trip. A few days before the trip, Etihad informed me that the departure time of my first flight will change 7 hours earlier, leading to an 9 hour layover, without giving me another option nor reimbursing me for the extra cost. They didn’t even send me an apologetic email for this change. Regarding the flight experience, I would rate it as mediocre. This is mostly because the pilots of both flights did their best to give us the worst approach to airports that I have ever experienced. In the case of the first flight they had to aboard the landing and took off again right before touching the landing strip. The captain said that it was due to wind conditions but the second time the pilot followed the same direction as the first time to land the plane.
Seat selection screen while online check-in could include free seats to choose from and show the options before we proceed. Currently, it is auto-allocated and there are no options for free seat selections.
Long way to improve. Toilets not working. Bad handling when flight was canceled
Lovely crew - comfortable journey despite it being an older plane.
The business class experience is fantastic. The crew were polite but often unavailable even when I tried to call them! I even found myself bringing my used dishes and cutlery up to the crew because no one had come to collect it after over an hour.
It has been a couple of years since I flew with Etihad last, after having a unpleasant experience with them coming out of the pandemic. I can say that the experience has uplifted, but I can’t really rate the service. At Barcelona airport the service was great, with their dedicated Etihad staff very helpful. The onboard experience wasn’t great, not very personalised and it really makes sense why Etihad doesn’t feature in the top 10 2023 Skytrax awards. The crew just seemed to be inattentive and almost absent from the cabin. I felt that I had to keep getting their attention. Even after I’d finished my meal, an hour went by before I had to call them to clear the tray/plate etc.
