Etihad Drops First Class To Washington, Adds It To New York

Well this is a fine how do you do. I’m currently booked on both AUH IAD & AUH LHR in March (on the same day both using AA miles - 100K & 67.5K respectively)
I intended to do another shower then fly home to IAD on the upgraded BA B777.
But if I’m losing the DreamLiner First Class directly home,
I’m torn. I really like the AUH IAD Dreamliner flight <3

You're bang on about the new Etihad management team. They are all young, and come from a diverse group of airlines. It is a refreshing change from the old-boys club that is the usual ME3 management.

I was at CAPA, and was really impressed by both their CEO Antonoaldo Neves during the keynote, and the CRO Arik De in a panel. It seems like they know what they are doing, and have a clear sense of direction.

Driving a consistent F product in JFK is a smart move as pax can then mix and match flight times and this drives premium traffic.

I just heard that they are bringing back A380 to JFK. I wish them well... I have a fond memory of taking my family of 4, spliting half over 2 days so we can all enjoy A380 apartment suites from SYD to AUH and that was when they provided free limo service and then on to AUH to IAD with 2 in F and 2 in J on a 787. We had two seperate limos show up at our hotel in AUH because we had seperate reservations! that was wild. I know we will never be able to repeat that but I am monitoring the A380 return to JFK situation. If I can have one more opportunity to fly the double decker.. and an apt suite at that, I would be all set.

IAD taking a bit of a hit lately when it comes to premium aircraft. First lost the A380 on Emirates and now first class on Etihad.

How is it competing in NYC? Qatar competes just fine in NYC with no first class.

Having worked in airline planning before, I can tell you that nobody ever made a decision based on "prestige", especially for multimillion dollar decisions based on the one you mention. It's a popular notion amongst armchair CEOs, but not amongst the people actually in charge of multimilion dollar decisions. IAD has traditionally had a very demand for First Class, especially on middle eastern routes. New York, while "prestigious", actually is a pretty low yield market outside of some high profile markets such as London. Lots of competition, and lots of seats chasing low yield customers, such as those traveling to India.

The reason that it would most make sense, to me at least, for Etihad to be making this decision is because they want to have product consistency - both airplanes with F class. EY has very few planes with F class, so DC is sadly the sacrifice to keep F on both services in NYC.

Read what he says - the change doesnt happen until April. You're traveling before that.

I disagree. Clearly, EK and EY both don't see F demand in IAD, and think they are better able to generate premiums at JFK.

This is a lot of hogwash. F demand out of IAD is quite weak. You can see it with AF's lowest upgrade offers from any US hub are from IAD. EY routinely released huge amounts of award availability out of IAD.

Meanwhile airlines that operate true F class out of JFK or EWR have strong demand, particularly AF who is full in F almost every day despite 3 flights w/ F cabin a day.

Seems like a smart move by EY.

I've used F on the AUH-IAD flight on a few occasions the past two years. It is always full. But I imagine that could be the points crowd in a lot of cases. As well, with diplomats shuttling back and forth. Further, it's popular with Johns Hopkins surgeons who are flown in F to perform surgeries in the UAE.

My take on this move is that this is preparations for a formal announcement that Etihad is joining SkyTeam. With the recent AF/KL announcement, an A380 to JFK, and now shifting F on the 787, we are seeing Etihad prepare to line up with connections to/from Delta there.

The A380 is normally seasonal there. The reality is that the 777 they use is not the end of the world, it's at least with the new F seats.

Regarding the recent shake-up of Etihad partner awards, might it have been in anticipation of this service change? Alternatively, might it have been related to a strengthening of its relationship with Air France (to the detriment of others)? Just speculation.

EK still flies an airplane equipped with F to IAD. It's not the A380, but it is their new 777 with, what Lucky has said, is their best F class product.

Pre Covid it was a lot stronger. Hasnt rebounded yet, I guess, so the product goes up to NYC

Now here's the thing that interests me the most. How does Etihad manage to replace 8 F seats (2 rows) with 76 additional coach seats in their 787-9?

Remove FC completely (along with the two lavs that are right in front of FC but behind doors 1L and 1R), move the entire biz. class section forward (including the section behind doors 2L and 2R), including into the section that was FC, and then move up seats in the back of the plane to where there used to be business class seats.

The A380, to my knowledge, was not previously seasonal from IAD. I took the flight last December and it was on the A380, which would now be flown on the 777. It may be seasonal moving forward but that is not set in stone as Emirates only stated the move was "temporary," whatever that means. Also, although the Emirates 777 has the new F, I think we all agree that the the business class is a huge downgrade. I had another trip plan in Emirates J for January but cancelled after the swapped and moved to Etihad instead.

with F class
https://seatguru.com/airlines/Etihad_Airways/Etihad_Airways_Boeing_787_900.php
No F Class - the business class cabin is before second door
https://seatguru.com/airlines/Etihad_Airways/Etihad_Airways_Boeing_787_900_V2.php

Wow, a gain of 9.5 economy seats for each first class suite. I wonder if there is less galley space on the 2 class planes as well?

i have flown both the A380 AUH-LHR and the 787 AUH-IAD, and its a spectacular service, and the 380 seat is amazing. Hopefully as Etihad gets more planes it can add back F to IAD, its always full when i am on it. ( 4 times)

Etihad should have first class on their A350-1000s. Seems like that would be more logical than the smaller 787. The A350-1000 also seems like a better fit than the 787 for larger markets like JFK. There’s quite a big size gap between the 787 and A380 that has no first class on it.

Do you really think it is about the F cabin rather than with the increase in economy capacity due to the A380, they don’t need such big economy cabin on JFK route and send it to Washington instead?

This was the dumbest move by Etihad. I fly FC from Washington and it had a good demand. Washington is a much better airport than JFK. Eveyone does not live in filthy city like New York. They just made it harder for a lot of people to fly FC. In fact their business class seats are very uncomfortable. Washington being a capital would’ve had a good demand to fly to Abu Dhabi. If they felt that JFK has a growing demand then they should’ve added another 787 with FC.