A couple of days ago I finally had the chance to visit Etihad's new first class lounge in Abu Dhabi. The lounge opened in May 2016, after substantial delays. While I used to fly Etihad all the time, I've been making an effort to review more new airlines lately, so this was my first time…
Continue reading: Review: Etihad First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@Lucky, great review, thanks! When we flew last year March JFK-AUH in F (apartment), AUH-DEL in J (highest cabin available), we were not permitted in the old First class area of the premium lounge (and were not granted a complimentary spa treatment). Is this a new policy that you can access the F lounge when connecting to a J ticket? If so, awesome! That was really annoying before.
I can't believe they serve Parker's Heritage Collection bourbon. It's impossible to find at retail and goes for $400-500 a bottle on the secondary market. Can't wait to visit and try it.
"There are no escorts, true priority queues, golf carts, etc."
No true. Fly Residence then----you have your own butler.
We spent almost 7 hours in the lounge before our flight to Melbourne (where we were the ONLY guests in dust Chas :-)) ). About 4-5 hours we were the only guests in the lounge. It was just an incredible experience. We had a great time at the bar and were served individual cocktails based on the ingredients we asked for. We had dinner and lunch at the restaurant and both times were served in a highly professional manner. Can't wait to get back.
@Luxky, you didn't mentioned the cigar lounge. Did you miss it?
@VirtuosoEric I also couldn't believe that they served the Parkers. It's the 8th Edition, which is the Wheat Whiskey. So,technically not a bourbon. But still nice to see something different than Woodcord.
Fdw
I have been very disappointed with the Etihad First Class lounge. The fittings are fine but the service is atrocious and the staff probably the most unhelpful jobsworths I have encountered.
The main issue I have is their completely inflexible attitude towards what time you have to leave the lounge and stopping service before that. On A380 flights they list boarding as 75 mins before departure (seriously? 75 minutes for the grand total of 8 passengers in First Class to board???) and they won't provide you table service unless you have 30 mins before boarding starts. And there is no self service buffet any more for a quick snack (eliminated as part of the cost cutting). So if you want even a quick bite, you have to arrive 2 hrs in advance or else they send you to the old Premium Lounge to use the buffet there.
At the end of the day, I have always left the lounge more stressed than when I entered it which is never a good sign. I prefer just going to the old Premium Lounge directly now where it may be a bit more crowded and less fancy, but I can still grab a quick bite and a drink within 2 hours of departure.
I didn't find food to be gourmet there. Visited two times on my way to MLE and back.
Emirati Palace menu and the next time ala carte.
I'm not foodie, but probably tasted enough in my life to tell the difference.
The service was good. Massage sadistic, put that in my other post on Etihad.
In comparison food in A380 F Apartment was way better than in the lounge. Both in outbound and inbound flights.
@ Lucky There are weights in there. At least there were when I visited last summer. Those white and clear discs are them I believe. Unless I've been using them the wrong way lol 😉
@lucky good review, props. Sucks they have no nap rooms , it the bar is the tits.
I flew SYD-LHR F on Etihad a couple of years ago and noted that they listed an old New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a Hunter Valley Pinot Noir which to my way of thinking is silly as the NZ sauvignon blanc style should be younger the better as most have a 2 year shelf life and its far too warm to grow Pinot in the Hunter Valley. I believe these to be gross errors of judgement and ignorance.
On your list above they have a Nautilus Estate 2013, so 4 years old and now a Pinot Noir from South Africa who famously grow Pinotage because they know its too warm to grow Pinot Noir so it would appear they have the same fool in charge.
As a Platinum, I must have been in the lounge around fifteen times. My biggest source of irritation is the discontinued buffet during breakfast and dinner timings. Even with time on my hands, I sometimes don't want a full dining experience and would much prefer helping myself to this and that from the buffet. I spoke to the F & B manager about it and he gave me an email address to complain to. Needless to say, I just got a standard generic response and nothing since then. The manager did tell me that many people have complained especially those with a tight connection where they are basically advised to go to the business lounge. That is very poor service in my opinion and not worthy of a first class product. Quite simply, it's cutting costs and nothing else. I find the service hit and miss and more often than not the staff are busy gossiping amongst themselves. On one occasion, ten minutes after entering the lounge, nobody acknowledged me so I went to the bar and made my feelings known. The quality of the food is generally good and as a beer drinker I can't complain.
@ Melissa -- In case the title of the post didn't make it clear, the review is of the First Class lounge & experience, and not the Residence lounge & experience.
@ VirtuosoEric -- Indeed, they changed the rules since the lounge opened, fortunately:
https://onemileatatime.com/etihad-first-class-lounge-access-policy/
Hey lucky
It seems that they have removed the top shelf stuff from the alcohol menu vs my previous trip there last year in July. I noticed a few stuff gone, see these 2 pages of the menu - https://imgur.com/gallery/6PtWj
No more - Evan Williams 23 years old, Elijah Craig 18, Chivas 25, Yamasaki 12, Hennessy paradis, Martell Creation...
Also- did you not go into the cigar lounge where they were giving free top shelf cigars? Or is that gone now too... :O
I was just there 2 weeks ago and arrived 5 hours before flight to Melbourne. We got the private room as they are first come first serve. The food was excellent and I liked the 2006 bollinger grand Annee ( better then the billecart on the flight). Spa is great but a full massage like Thai lounge in BKK would be nice. Ground service once you leave the lounge is about the worst for first class I have experienced. Boarding is unorganized and just a big mess.
But Lucky, you are gay, and the UAE hates the gays OMG weren't you guys constantly harassed and beaten up on 3 separate occasions, how can you support a country like that, etc.
Yeah, I'm being sarcastic. I'll admit, I did expect to see more comments like that here, but oh well.
Back on topic, now that you've experienced all 3 of the ME3 first class lounges, how would you rank all 3 of them or compare them?
@Lucky "This lounge has a “real” gym. While the Admirals Club at DFW Airport has a tiny cardio room, this is actually a fairly legitimate gym"
No free weights equals no legitimate gym. Period.
Also, "especially unique" is not a thing. It's either unique or not. Maybe it's more rare or more special or more exquisite but unique is a binary quality.
--
Finally, it doesn't seem like this one is joining The Pier or AF Paris. Sounds like it's good but not best.
I was just there 2-3 days ago, connecting from MLE to JFK. My flight landed around 9-10pm and my outbound flight was listed as having a 3:40am departure. I wasn't hungry as I had eaten on the MLE flight, so I felt silly sitting at a dining table. I really could've used a buffet for something light. I didn't feel like alcohol at that hour either. In any case, by the time I was hungry around 2:00 and sat at a table to order congee, one of the attendants in the lounge told me that I was going to be late and made us rush out of the lounge. I didn't get my congee. This was my first time at AUH so I complied even though I had GE. I made it to the gate in about 30 minutes so I waited around at the gate until boarding. I wasn't in the mood to enter the Premier lounge at that time, so I just had a seat with the large crowd and waited.
Note that if you are in the case if connecting from F inti the highest non-F class available while they will allow access I was informed during my early-Jan visit that you do NOT get a free treatment. Apparently the computer will only allow it if it can scan an upcoming F boarding pass (or so they said).
A few other notes:
- they offered our group of 5 one of the private rooms without asking
- we found the service exceptional, but it may be because we seemed to have a person assigned to take care of us in the room
- we tried a few of the signature city cocktails and found them to be fairly universally disappointing - complex sounding descriptions with simple/bland tastes (for example, Mumbai is a more complex take on a bloody Mary, but tasted like a...bloody Mary - and not a very interesting one at that)
- they had a nanny who took our daughter off our hands in the play room while we were there, which was fantastic
Overall a mediocre experience - wouldn't go out of my way to go there again, but happy to return as our travel takes us there.
I am always amazed at the poor selection of beer offered in any airline lounge (except Cathay in Hong Kong). Your choices appear to be a myriad of "yellow beer" and Guinness.
Has no-one ever heard of a draft Yorkshire Bitter or a real Ale? Never anything tasty and yummy.
Just bland and tasteless lager or over the wall Stout.
In one of the private rooms right now. Can't say enough about how great the service is! Monika (if she's on duty, she'll treat you right), F/B Manager, offered me one of the private rooms and has been serving me essentially as a private butler ever since! She even had the shoe shiner come and pick up my shoes, as it closes in a few minutes. So...kudos to this lounge and their staff! I found the staff to be very proactive and helpful, not at all aloof. The wet shave rocked my world, as it always does. So...while not as architecturally impressive as Emirates/DXB or Qatar/DOH, I think you'll find it a special experience.
To add to the above, this lounge provides some special uniquenesses, or near uniquenesses:
-wet shave
-gym
-cigar lounge (with free cigars, I understand)
-most extensive selection of signature mocktails I've seen
Throw in the free shoe shine, great food (try the off-menu crab salad!) & the most attentive staff I've met in an F Lounge, & it's been a great experience.
Let's face it, every great F lounge has memorable parts to it; that's part of what makes them great:
-Emirates: Expansiveness
-Qatar: Sleep rooms
-Lufthansa: Porsche
-Cathay: Cabanas
-Singapore: Lobster-on the ground & in the air!
-Thai: Massage
I could go on, but you get the picture. Point being that Etihad has done just that: They've carved out a unique place for themselves in the F Lounge landscape, and a great one at that! Combined with their hard product-pretty much a slam dunk that their 380 F cabin is number 1 for commercial-I love Etihad! But gotta go, another signature mocktail is on its way...
Why would anyone want to spend more than 2-3 hours in any longe is beyond me. Oh and AUH airport is so small and easy to navigate that an escort/goldf carts are completely unnecessary.
I know that this a a bit off topic, but...I have a F award seat on a 77W from JFK-AUH using OZ miles in 3 weeks. Any chance EY would allow me on an earlier flight out of JFK which is A380 in a F Apartment either in advance or at the airport if I arrive on a paid connecting flight early enough? Or would I still have to go through OZ? Of course it seems that such seats rarely if ever appear under Etihad Guest as open on that A380 out of JFK...so I do not know if OZ would even see such a seat at the last minute. Do you have any thoughts or advice? Thanks
My experience at this lounge (and at check-in, for that matter) was underwhelming. I was there around 1 am (admittedly a busy time at AUH) and the lounge was completely packed.
I found out that a haircut wasn't one of the free services, so I paid for it. I was hoping to get some change for a large bill so that I could tip the stylist, but the people at the salon told me I would have to leave the lounge in order to find someone who could make change. Also, the lounge itself was super far from my gate.
On the plus side, the space itself is visually appealing, and I think the relaxation room is a cool concept.
Can I suggest using the "gallery" feature just for the menu? While I appreciate that all the pictures are laid out full-size, I don't think a majority of us actually read the menu. Thanks!