Etihad Airbus A321LRs With Flat Bed First & Business Class Join Fleet

While not necessary for O/D flights on these routes, I think marketing the first row first class is great for connecting pax. When I fly Etihad first JFK-AUH-most destinations the last leg is ‘business’ whereas if they offered an elevated soft and ground experience it would be a stronger product, even if it is only a slightly improved seat.

@ JustinB -- Agreed, I think there could be merit to Etihad expanding its first class footprint. I think what's surprising is that the airline has elected not to install first class on most of its wide body jets, so this seems like an unusual place to start. But I also get the efficiency of doing this in the front row.

This "first class" concept is silly, particularly when you could have fourteen biz pax schlepping up to the forward lav and back for the whole flight. It's not particularly first class.

Yeah hopefully their new wide bodies have first - even if it is simpler like on their 789s.

I think they can "get away" with not having doors for the business class seats.

These are long thin routes, where there is less competition and those destinations are probably even lucky to be served in the first place. Makes sense to optimize for performance.

Etihad really wasted a chance to innovate with first class on a narrow body plane.

Not really. An experienced traveller would know the markets to be served by this aircraft aren't exactly 'hot spots' brimming with first class travellers (Phnom Penh is not in the same league as say...London or New York, in case you didn't know?) These seats are the right products for the markets they serve. No more, no less.

This plane will bizarrely be flying to CDG and ZRH, amongst others. It’s like Etihad have tried to create an aircraft that can fly to CDG and so has F but also Phnom Penh and so has a quite basic business class - it’s an odd concept. Connecting passengers largely aren’t going to touch this - if I have the choice of Qsuites or this to Phnom Penh or Phuket, I’m taking Qsuites. The market for this aircraft to me basically seems to be people who live in the UAE but can’t quite afford Emirates or don’t want to travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to take a direct flight. Let’s hope Etihad has sized that market correctly.

If the F and J seats are the same as on ITA (as mentioned here) then the row 1 seats are a BusinessClass plus at best. I recently flew on an ITA 321 seated 1A and at least on ITA I didn’t find this to be something special or worth the extra €€€. Certainly not a First Class product.

Airlines can keep upgrading premium seats on narrow-bodies, but the overall pax experience in economy will always be limited by the single-aisle layout. Space is tight, and with the galley and lavs usually at the back, it gets crowded fast.

Even up front, it’s not perfect—first and biz pax often have to share a single lav, which means queues form right next to seats. Not ideal, especially with galley noise and smells creeping in. There’s only so much you can do with that kind of layout.

These planes will also be flown to KRK (Krakow). You seemed to like Warsaw - you'll love Krakow.

How much more innovation can you do on a narrowbody plane?

Exciting product but I can't see the fist class concept working in the long run, a dedicated flight attendant working in the same kitchen preparing different meals? Iberia's A321XLR crew are already complaining about the tight kitchen space so can't imagine this being any better.

Also, does that mean if travelling with a baby that needs a bassinet , you're forced to pay up for first class? (or do economy).

You've hit the nail on the head. The perennial issue will always be the cramped conditions on single-aisle aircraft. That will never change. But on the subject of Iberia, their notoriously surly cabin crew would still complain even if the kitchen had all the size of a grand ballroom. They only become happy and animated when the flight ends, similar to TAP Portugal.

That dedicated first-class cabin crew position will surely be the most coveted crew position at the airline.

Only (a maximum of) 2 passengers to serve and spend the rest of the time reading a book in the jump seat, getting paid for it.

I think the decision to market row 1 as First Class is a stupid one which will likely be realised in years to come.

Firstly, as many others have commented it’s the exact same seat as Business Class with just a bit more space. ITA that has exact same seat markets the front row as it should be - row 1 of business class.

Secondly (and more importantly IMHO) it will dilute the First class product on the rest of the EY fleet. People commenting on here are likel6 to be aviation enthusiasts and so when considering airlines will look at aspects like variations between aircraft etc. The average Joe Public, not so much. Crucially, Ben has stated that these aircraft’s will fly the same routes as other aircraft. Can you imagine say, booking a First Class ticket Abu Dhabi - London outbound and Paris to Abu Dhabi on the return and have the A380 one sector and the A321 the return?

I mean we aren’t talking about trivial variations in the First Class product here we are talking about a gulf - the A321 doesn’t even have an ‘exclusive cabin’ and looking at the images not even a fixed divider.

Likewise, imagine the first time EY First Class flyer, long time EK First Class flyer. Decides to give EY a try Abu Dhabi to SIN and ends up on the A321. Never to return to EY again.

It’s a big risk and personally I don’t think it will be worth it for EY.

Agree with all of this and posted similarly previously. The question is if there are enough wealthy Emiratis on the Asia routes willing to pay a premium to be able to fly direct from AUH that they might actually sell one or two seats per flight this way. This aircraft should absolutely not be deployed to CDG or ZRH, though, if Etihad have any sense at all.

This is what all the crew did on my Apartments flight to London a few months ago anyway. You don’t need to be staffed on the A321LR to ignore the passengers in Etihad First.

"These seats are the right products for the markets they serve. No more, no less."

Wrong. Assuming you weren't born yesterday, you'd be better able to think "big picture" and remove your head from your hole.

I think they chose to market the first row as First Class because EY had extra space at the front, and they decided that they might as well market it as First Class. I'm sure they will be monitoring if this works or not, and are keeping their options open with potentially rebranding it as a Business Class Plus product. They already have First Class in their fleet, so the soft product investment is minimal. I assume their line of thinking was that they can earn more revenue by calling it First Class rather than a J+ product, and in turn offer a better soft product. Whether it works well enough for EY remains to be seen. I wouldn't be surprised to see J passengers being seated in those seats when the J cabin is full (and maybe they will still recieve the standard J soft product as well). Or maybe EY will market the cabin differently based on the route being flown (CDG is different than Phnom Penh). It does give them flexibility, which I personally think is somewhat smart of EY management.

Fake First Class. the most stupid move fropm EY management .
Coach Class mentality managers should never be in charge of premium products

They forgot to offer Premium Economy.

Maybe they didn't want to?

Strange and fake First Class. They should fly a real First class to LHR, ZRH, MXP, and CDG as well as JFK/IAD. This plane going to Phnom Penh and Phuket shouldn't have First.

Yes but this plane will fly to MXP, CDG, and ZRH, maybe even MUC. All are markets which need a true First Class.

Actually, they are always understaffed on narrowbody aircrafts (by choice of the management). Imagine Qatar has 7 crew on a 320, while Etihad has only 4 crew (5 on 321). That first class flight attendant works also for all other 14 business class seats, plus those 2 First Class seats.
No time to read a book and underpaid.

Having enjoyed EY’s A380 Suites on numerous occasions, we can attest to the impressive nature of that experience. Enjoying EY’s, F soft products, all be it in a J (type) seat, will undoubtedly be far superior to anything which any U.S. carrier could ever dream of offering.

Those who poo-poo the A321LR, F experience out of hand, quite obviously have never set foot on a real World Class airline.