Etihad’s The Residence, available exclusively on their A380s, is already the most over the topproduct available in commercial aviation.
Continue reading: Etihad’s The Residence Now Comes With Concierge Servce
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Lucky, have you heard anything about EY opening up JFK-AUH First Aparments for award bookings? Looks nonexistent lately.
Lucky, have you heard about AA mistake fare from GRU to HKG? They're (or were) selling Y roundtrip for ~USD 150, and J for ~USD 500. I dunno if it's just on the brazilian website, but it might be still working.
Lucky - I know it is summer and a bit of a slow time, and I hope you have been able to to relax, but I have to concur with others who have noted that there are really a lot of "fluff" posts lately on your site. FWIW who of your readers is ever going to pay for or be able to take advantage of the residence? Concierge service with the Residence. Gee, that's great. I'll keep that in mind.
I genuinely hope that come September, we will be able to read more relevant material like some new business class or premium economy trip reviews in order to test a new product that most of us may relate to! That would be much more appreciated by your average reader I suspect. Just my 2 cents...
cheers
So buy a ticket and find out firsthand if the concierge service is up to snuff?
Lucky,
Along the same lines, which credit card offers the best concierge services?
@Stephan - while The Residence isn't something 99.9% of us will ever even be able to think about, it's still interesting to read about, in the same vein as watching Clarkson put a supercar through its paces on Top Gear. (Well, no more of that until next year and the debut of "PrimeGear", but you get my point.) And when you consider the ongoing debate about the Gulf carriers and whether or not they receive subsidies that hurt other carriers, discussion of their business models is interesting. The site has always had more about the industry than just product reviews (although those are my favourite posts!)
That said, I do really have trouble picturing anyone getting $32k of value from The Residence, concierge or not, as I think anyone who could afford to drop $32k on this flight probably has access to resources that can get them pretty much anything they might want already.
"If I bought a $32,000 ticket and they advertised a concierge service, I’d expect they could do just about anything. Hopefully they can!"
This. Too many companies over-promise and under-deliver.
Concierge service is a non-starter. No need to raise hopes up.
@Stephan. First Class & sometimes J reviews is what I & most others come to THIS blog for. If anyone else wants to read Premium Economy or worse, Y offerings, please do us an enormous favor & find another blog.
Yes, these are First World/1% problems. Nobody forced you to read it.
Al said "Too many companies over-promise and under-deliver."
@Al Couldn't agree more Al. Put the EY A380 Apartment through it's paces this week, and sadly the hype was more than the reality. That bench seat is way too firm, even with mattress pad and doona, to have a comfortable face up sleep on. Didn't help that one of my suite doors was U/S and unable to latch, thus spent most of the flight sliding back and forth. The experience wasn't a total disaster, and there were some good points, but missed opportunities abounded (and service was pretty much the same as experienced in the Business Studio - acceptable mostly, but not great). I have a few more First Apartment flights ahead, which no longer have a shine, but at least it'll get me to Platinum Guest so that's something.
Over-promising always ends badly.
I think you have the pricing wrong; According to what Etihad told me at the NY Travel Expo, the $16 K ticket covers -two- people.