Etihad Airways B777-300ER (three class)

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    AUH-BOM, EY204, B777-300ER, Business Class, 10A

    This is the last leg of my return trip from US flying JFK-AUH-BOM

    Arrival at the airport:
    Flying in from JFK, we were to be on the same aircraft for our onward leg to BOM. However, we had to deplane and go through security before proceeding to the same aircraft (via a detour to the lounge). The airport in the afternoon was completely empty and walking through security was a breeze as opposed to our experience on the outbound leg which was very chaotic in the morning.

    The lounge:
    The main Etihad lounge at Abu Dhabi airport is massive, and with it being practically empty, there was a lot of option to park ourselves anywhere. The food buffet was also excellent with a huge variety of choices. They also have a six senses spa, which is free for the first passengers and chargeable for biz class. The lounge was impressive.

    Boarding:
    As we reached the gate, the boarding was just starting and we again were the first to board. It was the same Jet airways aircraft which we had flown in from JFK, but with Etihad crew this time. A greeting was missing this time as we boarded and we made our way to our seats in row 10. I again took the mint lemon juice before departure.

    The seat:
    This Jet B777-300ER aircraft has 30 flat bed seats in a herringbone layout of 1-2-1 with direct aisle access. I found this to be the worst seat of the 4 sectors I flew on Etihad on this trip. My son had taken the window seat this time and my wife and I were in the middle seats. It felt very exposed and I could see the passenger directly behind my son more clearly than my wife or my son. It just felt awkward. This was my first time on this configuration and I didn’t like it much. I didn’t try the bed position on this short 3 hour evening flight.

    The IFE:
    Similar to all the other Etihad flights I have already reviewed and hence not going into details.

    The food:
    Orders were taken and we were served our pre-booked vegetarian food. The food was average, but the service seemed hurried and lacked friendliness. It seemed very robotic.

    The service:
    The flight attendants just seemed to be hurrying along to get the meal service completed. It was hurried and robotic, with almost no human touch. While it was a short 3 hour flight, don’t see the need to hurry through the service at all. The attendants somehow seemed hassled and didn’t give a feeling that they wanted to be there. Nothing went wrong, but the warmth was missing.

    We landed at BOM on time and cleared immigration in a jiffy. However our bags took a while to come on the belt and ours were amongst the last ones. This time the priority didn’t work, which was a bummer. Finally after a half hour wait at the belt, our bags did come and we were out to our waiting Etihad chauffeur. Since we had done some shopping and had an extra bag this time, the Mercedes E class couldn’t hold all out luggage. Etihad was prompt to assure us that they had another car handy and it came in about 5 mins. So we traveled in the first ‘E’ and our bags followed in the other ‘E’. Also we had some fragile luggage, which we mentioned to the manager who was organising the second car, and he sent one person to bring that bag with him in the cabin of the 2nd car. This was superlative service.

    Verdict:
    After being spoilt by our experience in first class on the JFK-AUH leg, this leg was a letdown, both in terms of the hard product and service. However the chauffeur service was great and they handled it beautifully.

    In summary, while there were a few misses in the entire journey of four legs, I would rate the overall experience as very good, and would definitely fly Etihad again.

    Review courtesy of Seatplans.com. Original review by user PrakashMehta can be found here

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