Etihad Unveils Routes For New Boeing 787s

We flew ORD-AUH-NRT (with a stopover) on our honeymoon on the A350 and 787 respectively and I genuinely preferred the old 787 seats. The A350 was nice and new with better tech, but felt 1: commodity (everyone has reverse herringbone) and 2: far less spacious. The 787 was a bit worn out but the concept of the seat is superior in my opinion. Both great flights, though!

My flight from AUH to JFK on 3/13 had a seat map change. It was showing staggered, and now what seems like herringbone. New plane or do they have a 3rd variety?

@ ekartash -- Great catch, thanks! I just updated the post to reflect that. Lucky you, you're on one of the first long haul flights with the new jet!

Etihad is also starting a new route to Boston from Abu Dhabi on March 31. Do you know if the new planes will be used for that route too?

Rather a shame about Washington losing first class. My wife and I flew it a few days ago and while the ground experience pretty much sucked the flight itself was superb in first class.

@Ben - Maybe do a comparison of products between the 787-9/787-10/A380 hard products?

I'm flying IAD-AUH in First Class in a few weeks. Can you explain the ground experience? What about it sucked? Which lounge did they have passengers use? i know the Etihad lounge is no longer there, but what about it sucked?

We flew the other way so you may be okay. We had arrived on Qatar and had about seven hours to kill. Unfortunately we had to gather and recheck luggage. We hit some problems at security because they didn’t want my wife to carry on a few hundred dollars worth of silver wire (my wife does silversmithing) and my wife didn’t want it to vanish from our checked bags so she REALLY wanted to carry it on. We hadn’t hit this problem in BKK or DOH so it just felt like they were just hassling us for no good reason. Finally we gave in.

After that we proceeded to the business/first class lounge, which was very easy to find. We were beat and desperately needed a nap but the first class area - in their brand new custom terminal - doesn’t have nap rooms and despite all sections of the lounge being pretty much deserted, every one of the eight rooms was taken. I was stunned that their entire airport only has eight nap rooms but that’s how it is. At that point I figured I’d go with a nice luxurious shower before our 14 hour flight. The shower area is in the first class section. I was ushered to one immediately since the lounge was empty. I wasn’t asked about amenities but I figured they would be in the shower room. Nope. There was one towel and one pump dispenser of soap. No toothbrush, no comb, no conditioner, nothing. Also the shower rooms were kept in the mid 80’s, which I personally think is way too hot.

I caught a little breakfast afterwards while my wife tried to sleep a little. The breakfast was fine. After a while we went to the other terminal for our pre-clearance for the USA.

Both of us really disliked the ground experience but conversely adored the actual flight. As long as you don’t have an extended connection time you should be fine. Feel free if you have any more questions or concerns.

Having flown all of the ME 3 (and Oman) in F the past year I can assure you that the ground service on EY is perfectly fine. While the lounge options are poor in DC that's just the nature of IAD. Lounge in AUH has historically been wonderful. I have not used the new F lounge in the new terminal as of yet, just the J lounge, but I assume it's as fine as the old terminal. No, EY F is not the bling of EK, but it does the trick and I find it a far more personal experience.

This is fantastic news for DC. That's a trade off I can live with and really shows EY thinking through the process of keeping IAD flyers happy in spite of losing the F cabin. Looking forward to its arrival!

Agreed, great news for IAD (and JFK).

Thank you for your comments. I've flown EY F a number of times and have always really liked it. Agree with your assessment of it vis a vis EK. EY use to have its own lounge at IAD that I thought was good but it's been a number of years since I flew EY out of IAD (pre Covid) so wasnt sure what they are using now at IAD. Regadless, I have access to the Capital one Lounge at IAD which i think is great. And of course the service on EY will be wonderful. Looking forward to a great trip.

@Ben - What happened to my comment? Are negative experiences not permitted?

Now all we need is just to find partner award space

"Starting March 4, 2024, Etihad has scheduled its new 787-9s to fly between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Munich (MUC) on the EY5/6 frequencies on select days"

I was actually booked on EY 4 and 5 from/to MUC in April/May and today got a notification about a schedule change - with the only change being the flight numbers changing to EY 128 and EY 125 (with otherwise identical schedule).
According to the seat map, EY 125 (the former EY 5) should be the one getting the new cabin, matching your information just with an updated number.

Sad to lose a sweet ride home from Abu Dhabi to IAD. I really enjoyed the DreamLiner in 2K
It’s Why I flew last month last minute and again on planned trip next month.
Cool to get new amenities

I've heard that Etihad will also open a new direct route from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Denpasar (DPS) around April this year also using the 787's but I don't remember which variant.

Keep checking with American. Last month I got award space AUH LHR FRA ON THE A380 by calling AA. EY showed no Guest Award, but AA showed availability but ticketing online wouldn’t work. I call and CSR Yolanda found and ticketed my Shower in the Sky. All for 62,500 AA miles

Little EY ground service. Use Lufthansa Senator lounge but not LH First Class portion. You’ll survive 😉

they were supposed to. They have withdrawn the service and it will no longer operate.

Oh - So Lufthansa lounge is now Etihad's lounge? That's fine and I like that lounge.. . Though I wish they were using Air France, as that's across the way from the Etihad gate. Alas, first world problems. I'll survive.