My first Etihad flights and just to be different you get the summary first. Permissions asked and obtained to use names.
The End.
Whoever is training the cabin crew at Etihad is doing a fantastic job.
The words customer aware, fun, smiley, helpful, keen and proactive are appropriate for all the cabin crew I met on all three legs of my long haul London to Australia.
Add to that the simply wonderful London lounge at Heathrow, the ambience, the booze and food offerings there and on board and it will not surprise that this journey has been the best of my flights to Australia, in fact the best of my flights to anywhere. MY EK FIRST experience of a year or so ago was special but this added fun and banter into the equation.
And should any of you fly Etihad and have the excellent Ismadi Wakiri, Joseph Darwin, Khwanklao Romyanod and the absolutely exquisite Chonlatee as crew…….well, from the first wonderful all-encompassing smile you will have a fantastic time.
And now back to the beginning!!
I cannot stay away from Australia, I love the place and this trip, the 7th in my Adventure Before Dementia Series would feature my 31st long haul in the last two years and goodness knows what the number of OZ domestic flights is.
I opted for Etihad because the prices were good, the feedback was excellent and because, following a status matching promotion they were running, they had matched my EK gold card with one of theirs.
The booking procedure was easy. I chose my economy seats for all six legs at the time of booking, before actually paying, so everything was sorted in one go. I had a couple of contacts with customer service and my calls were dealt with speedily and professionally. One featured re-ticketing, following a flight time change; the new tickets were already in my email inbox when I put the phone down.
A week before departure I received an e-mail from Etihad inviting me to bid for an upgrade on three of the four flights……the London to Abu Dhabi was full and for the purposes of this the Abu Dhabi – Singapore – Brisbane is seen as one flight. Anyway, I bid the minimum for that outbound leg. 48 hours out from my flights my online tickets showed I was flying in business. YAY.
So, off to the airport. Heathrow Terminal 4 was a breeze, no queues anywhere. I checked in at the Etihad Diamond (First) counter and then went straight to the First and Business Lounge, opposite Gate 10.
I spent three very happy hours in the lounge. It is fabulous. The food and booze offerings were excellent and featured a new champagne to me, Andre Roger…it was delicious. There are choices of buffet and a la carte, full service, a bar, business room, childrens room, a spa etc etc etc. And all in a lovely relaxed environment with fabulous proactive staff. The only things missing were such as disinterest and laziness.
The first flight.
Somehow I poured myself onto the first flight, the EY18 down to Abu Dhabi. This was on an Airbus 340-600, I had a window seat 19K. It was fine.
Having had two main courses (actually the same one twice – Chicken Kabsa) in the lounge and two puds…a triple chocolate thing and then a key lime pie in a shot glass, I ate nothing on the flight….I was stuffed. The crew looking after me were desperate…..”surely we can get you something”….”just let us know”….”are you sure”. It was lovely. But I was fine, I watched Gravity on the IFE then went to sleep. The economy menu looked ok and the food looked good. I shall sample some on my return.
After a smooth flight we arrived at Abu Dhabi a few minutes early. The cabin crew blocked the aisles to ensure the F and J passengers got off first. Abu Dhabi…..goodness me, the development. When I flew out later I got some idea of the scale of the airport and its growth, think of anything you can have at an airport and several of each of them are currently under construction there.
Terminal three, where I was based, didn’t have the full on duty free bling of Dubai so was less intimidating.
I, surprise surprise, wandered off to the business lounge. This lounge, for a home hub, was disappointing. It was just too busy. However this is a temporary issue because, rest assured, several new ones are being built…and there is another lounge in Terminal 1.
The lounge had all the right stuff….food and booze offerings and a spa, it was just crowded. Apparently the gradual roll out of the Etihad lounge network is under way, using the CDG and LHR model. Here in Australia a dedicated Etihad lounge is to open in Sydney in May and I guess Brisbane will follow, for the moment there are sharing arrangements with such as ANZ.
Abu Dhabi
Cool Control Tower
The second flight, AUH to SIN.
So after a bit of scoffing and some coffee and some internet it was off to the gate for a short bus ride to my plane for the next bit of the journey.
This was on a two class A330-200. This has a J cabin of 22 pods….2 in the centre at the front followed by 5 rows of 4 in a 1, 2, 1 formation. The 1s alternate between next to the window or next to the aisle. The 2s are either cosied up to each other (ideal for couples) in the middle or are next to the respective aisles. I had 9A, a window seat.
The décor is brown and cream. I shall add photos later. The lack of centre overhead baggage compartments made the cabin seem roomy and airy.
It was on this flight I had the aforementioned Madi and Joseph looking after me. And in a full cabin they treated everyone, whether four year old child or aged long hauler, with the same warmth and charm.
It was simply wonderful from the first welcome on board smile and glass of fizz, in fact from start to finish. The food offerings were amazing, I had had high end restaurant quality food in the Heathrow lounge and got the same onboard, everything was nicely presented, looked great and smelled and tasted delicious. The wines were lovely too with a splendid OZ shiraz and then a delicious Tokaji with pud. Photographs will follow.
The style of service was…..I keep using the same words…..smiley and proactive and fun. I got the feeling, actually on all of the fights, that nothing was too much trouble. I liked that Joseph ( the Food and Beverages Manager) asked me how I would like to be addressed on the flight, I liked the minutiae of whether I would prefer still or sparkling water. I also liked that when they served me the wrong one (the wrong water..FFS ..that would be a first world problem), they noticed and changed it.
So I ate well and I drank well. And I chatted. This was a seven hour flight and the sky map was the only thing I had on the IFE throughout, the earphones remained where they had always been, in their sealed bag. This plane did have onboard wifi….about US12$ for two hours, so I did regale Facebook chums with photos of food and the constantly refilled wine glass. OOOH, and I also posted on here. The seat to bed conversion was easy, otherwise known as pressing a button, so I also wasted some time sleeping!!!
I spoke to Madi, the Cabin Manager, about the Etihad style of customer service and he said that their training focus was easy to explain, customer satisfaction, in whatever class, is key. They want people to get off a flight wanting to get back on.
Oh, so many people could learn from that and I hate to mention her again but that dreadful VS FSM, and her lazy disinterested cabin crew I had in December, would have got what she deserved, the sack. She didn’t, of course, which says a lot. However, I doubt that her style of customer service would have been tolerated on EY.
My only worry after this wonderful flight was that I had, by a fluke, got the Etihad A team and from now on the only way was downhill. I was wrong.
The flight details were that we left AUH about 45 minutes late due to ATC issues over Oman. However we arrived in Singapore a few minutes early.
The third flight, SIN to BNE.
We had just over an hour in Singapore before rejoining the cleaned plane and its new crew. The first bit of banter about the seat being still warm with the wonderful Chonlatee, as the champagne was poured, meant that I knew this was going to be more of the same, David was in such a happy place.
And so it was. This was an overnight flight, leaving Singapore at midnight, so more sleep was involved. However I still managed to eat well, drink well, more fizz and more of that delicious shiraz and still have fun.
We left Singapore 15 minutes late and arrived in Brisbane 10 minutes early. Passport Control was a breeze although the E-reader decided it didn’t like me at the photograph stage so I was sent to a queue reserved for those the E-reader takes against.
My suitcase was in the first six bags off the plane, and customs told me to go straight to the exit whereupon I set off to Qantas to check in for my domestic.
And finally.
The onboard product is the best I have ever experienced. And I understand why Etihad service wins awards.
And Madi, I got off wanting to get back on. So well done you, mission accomplished.
Regards,
David.
Last edited by HWVlover on 22 Apr 2014, 10:33, edited 12 times in total.
