[Anonymous]

[YOMAMASOFAT]

I flew CBR-MEL-AUH-ATH one-way in Business. I flew Qantas from CBR-MEL and got to experience the awesome Qantas Business lounge in Canberra. It was much better than their Sydney and Melbourne lounges. Other than that, Qantas is not good and if you can, avoid it unless you’re in business or premium economy.

They’re ok. I’m just ranting on about Qantas, aren’t I? Let’s talk about the greatness of Etihad, shall we.

At 1930, I got picked up by a van (Etihad limo service for 6 people + driver) and driven to Melbourne Airport for the flight to Abu Dhabi.

Check-in was quite quick, as the Business queue was deserted. I did have a bit of trouble at security (my CD wallet is lime-green and apparently looked like a liquid(hahaha!).

I was airside by 2100 and the first thing I saw when I entered the Air New Zealand lounge was “Is this a lounge or an economy class departure lounge?” The food was OK but there was nothing to do. Although my flight was supposed to leave at 22:10, I got called at 21:10. My family and I waited until the final call at 21:30 and then headed up to the plane.

As I didn’t know whether I would get the new or the old seat, I was very anxious to see. Fortunately, it was the new one.

I was in seat 12K at the very back corner of Business class. My family sat in seats 11D, G, H and 12E and F. Before take-off, I was offered water and a hot towel. I was thinking ‘How good’s this?, as I had only ever been on Qantas and Virgin Australia previously.

We took off at 22:04 and as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, the air hostesses came and took dinner orders. I ordered a veal cutlet and mashed potato. It was the best aeroplane food ever! Dessert was ice cream with a delicious biscuit on top. I then started watching “Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2” as I had not seen it yet. The E-box is easy to use and you can just fast-forward past the ads. About halfway in, i paused and started playing bkackjack against the AI opponent and won lots of “money” I then reclined the seat flat and slept for five hours on that super-comfy bed.

The service was very good, although my mother complained of a rude hostess (I was on the other aisle so i didn’t have to worry about that). About 2 hours out from landing, I got airsick (my travel medicine wore off) The purser was very helpful , as I went through 6 sick bags (poor me 🙁 ).

I arrived in Abu Dhabi at 6:00am and I used their awesome lounge. Some of these reviews say that there is only one shower, but there are actually 6 more in the spa. I had a shower there and had breakfast. I tried surfing the internet in the business centre, but Safari kept blocking my Facebook and Gmail (security). I gave up and fixed this when I arrived in Athens with Google Chrome. The food was very good (especially if you love fried stuff).

At 9am, a staff member who had taken us to the lounge (this was a surprise) took us down to the taxiway and instead of being bussed, we got driven in 2 cars (there were 6 of us after all!) to our plane, an Airbus A320-200.

I sat in seat 2A, a window seat, but as there were only 2 people in the cabin apart from my family, we moved around a bit. I ended up landing in seat 1A. The inflight entertainment was the same as the longer flight, which is good (*cough* *cough* Qantas). I watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and played more blackjack (i like playing it). the lunch wasn’t one of the best aeroplane lunches ever, but it was better than some food, such as Virgin’s food (and you have to pay for that!).

I landed in Athens at 1300, 25 min. ahead of schedule. I got through immigration quite quickly and I had to help heave 7 check-in bags and 6 carry-on bags to a minibus (not from Etihad, as they don’t do the limo service in Athens).

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