I was excited to check out the brand new Etihad Lounge London Heathrow, which only reopened after a renovation in late December 2014 (the opening coincided with the introduction of Etihad’s A380 service to London Heathrow).
Continue reading: Review: Etihad Airways Lounge London Heathrow Airport
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I am wondering why Emirates , Qatar and Eithad do not have any destination in Israel, even Royal Jordanian and EgyptAir fly to Tel Aviv . This could be a huge inconvenience for people in Australia travel to Israel.
Why would they? They don't have peace treaties with Israel (though there are many under-the-table business dealings...ah, Gulf monarchs, their one true religion is money money money) the way Jordan and Egypt do.
That are 2 well used passports.
I know you have said that you save a lot page by have both EU and US passport Lucky, but how often do you need to renew your passports because all the pages are used up?
@Jaoaos
I think you take the price for today's brain fart.
Before commenting on what is in reality middle eastern politics you might want to read up a bit!
Begin by googling "List of diplomatic missions of Israel"
You do know that Qatar is where the top leadership of Hamas hangs out after Syria became a bit unfriendly?
UAE might do a deal with Israel one day, but don't hold your breath hoping it will happen anytime soon
@No Name
Just because their governments do not like Israel doesn't because they can't. I know both UAE and Qatar are not gay friendly countries, but my gay friends are warmly welcomed and served just like any other passenger, even after he told flight attendants he is homosexual.
I see no problem flying to Israel for these companies. American government doesn't like Cuba, Venzulala, but we still have flights going there as long as it is profitable for airlines.
@Jaoaos - This is exactly why the EgyptAir flight to Israel goes out full every day, although it's not sold online (on the phone or at the office), not advertised and not even on the departures board! 😉
@Jaoaos It would be better to fly Thai/El Al to Israel. They codeshare. I think Thai also flies from the majority of Australian cities
Thai is a little bit far... I wonder why Qantas does not any direct flight to Israel. SYD to TLV should take no more than 16 hours of fly directly... Now, it almost takes one day to fly this route with layovers...
@ Mike S. -- I don't believe they sell them directly to consumers, though I believe they do for corporate incentives:
http://www.etihadguest.com/en/earn-miles/buy-miles/
@ No Name -- I don't get stamped when entering the EU and US and have extra pages in them, so am still good as of now. 🙂
@Jaoaos
What F"#¤%c does the airlines being gay friendly have anything to do with it?
It's not gay rights that are contended issue between Israel and the gulf nations.
The government of Qatar is the main backer of Hamas when it comes to political and money support.
Hamas is the terrorist group that commits suicide bombings and fires rockets again Israel.
Qatar Airways is owned by the government of Qatar
If governments of Cuba and Venezuela sponsored a group sending suicide bombers and rockets into American cities, and getting JFK closed because danger of rockets attack you can be sure it would be a lot of flights going from the US to Cuba and Venezuela.
Of course it would be that small airline called US Airforce doing most of flying with planes whose name start with F, A and B. Probably with some help from that small cruise line called the US Navy if they have one of their floating airfield available.
Let me spell this out for you; Israel and Qatar is in practice in a proxy WAR!
Chance are great that we will see Saudia flying to Tel Aviv before Qatar.
And the UAE airlines will probably not starting flying to Israel anytime soon since that would risk loosing a lot more traffic in Gulf region from locals boycotting them than what they will gain on the routes to Israel.
@No Name Russia is basically doing the same thing towards Ukraine, yet the state-owned Aeroloft still have flights to Kiev. Same for Ukraine International Airlines.
As far as I know, Israel government never said anything about ME3 entering Israel market. As a democratic country, Israel government is actually quite open on this issue. It's ME3 decisions to not to enter the Israel market. Which seems to me, is unreasonable, because business is business and politic is politic.
Is this better than the Qatar lounge at Heathrow? We reviewed it here: http://milesdownunder.com/2015/02/review-qatar-premium-lounge-london-heathrow-t4/
@Jaoaos
Small question does the Israel and the Gulf nations have an opens skies treaty or mutual traffic rights? Kind of hard to set up something like that if you have diplomatic relations?
Seems to remember that US-Cuba flights was under the agreement from before Castro took over? Getting that agreement updated is probably one of the first thing a new US ambassador will have to arrange.
Venezuela still have diplomatic relations with US don't they? And until shale oil the US was the biggest customer for Venezuela oil.
Since you mention Russia, want to take a wild guess whose Nazi Germany biggest trading partner was in 1941? When shooting starts business often becomes one of the first victims of politics.
The problem for Ukraine in the present is that they can not tell Putin and the Russians (including Aeroflot) to go F"#¤%ck them self with a big dildo since they are totally dependent on Russian gas to avoid freezing and being able to cook food.
And remember that the ME3 are government owned and instruments used to carry out political goals when it comes to developing their home bases, and NOT pure commercial enterprises.
It just mean that they are not run by purely commercial reasons, but are vehicles for carrying out political goals and profit comes seconded.
And you seems to have forgotten another of President Scrub's Axis of Evil, Iran? How many direct flight are there between Iran and the US these days?
Qatar Airlines applying for a license to fly to Israel is kind of like a airline owned by the Taliban applying for traffic rights to JFK in October 2001.
Turkish is the way to go for Israel connections (which has an awesome lounge that I'd consider only slightly worse than this Etihad one reviewed here and probably superior if you prefer more plain food), though that won't help you with Australia. I also hope that we'll see flights to ME countries, maybe the election this week will help.
@ Miles Down Under -- I'd say the food in the Qatar Lounge might be a bit nicer, but the Etihad Lounge has the spa, which I really like.
@No Name
you know , you sound a lot like Delta's CEO
"Qatar Airlines applying for a license to fly to Israel is kind of like a airline owned by the Taliban applying for traffic rights to JFK in October 2001."
“It’s a great irony to have the United Arab Emirates from the Arabian peninsula talk about that given the fact that our industry was really shocked by the terrorism of 9/11 which came from terrorists from the Arabian peninsula that caused us to go through a massive restructuring.” Said Delta CEO.
Israel government is actually really open minded, given it is a democratic country respect opinions of their citizens. It is really up to ME3 airlines decide whether or not to launch flights between Israel and their hubs.
Looks pretty good! Am at the biz class side of the Wing at HKG right now and it's a little disappointing after having only done the first class side before. I mean no ice? Really? Also food selection is a little spare.
The ME3 countries not flying to Israel isn't a matter of economy, it's a matter of principle (for now).
"The government of Qatar is the main backer of Hamas when it comes to political and money support.
Hamas is the terrorist group that commits suicide bombings and fires rockets again Israel.
Qatar Airways is owned by the government of Qatar"
Well, Qatar wasn't flying there long before they had close ties to Hamas. And terrorist group to you, freedom fighters and liberators to others. El-Al flies to the UK, despite all the British people killed by Haganah, the Irgun, Lehi, etc...
@Jaoaos Among the 58 or so Islamic countries, Israel is only recognized by Egypt, Jordan and Turkey and all three fly to Israel. For other countries, its never going to happen, not alteast in the next decade or so- there will be riots on the streets if governments/airlines decide to fly there.
@Jaoaos and others:
As a gay Australian jew I believe i'm well qualified to answer your questions. The ME3 don't fly to TLV because they don't want to fly to Tel Aviv. Pure and simple. Likely a mixture of political issues (non recognition of each other's countried diplomatically, or even potentially considered an enemy state), blowback from any of their local passengers because they fly to TLV, and whether they'd make money on it. Would passengers on Israeli passports be allowed to transit the ME3, let alone enter the country? If most passengers at a destination country can't fly your airline, who is going to buy tickets? Just tourists? Forget about that.
I don't see the fact that your gay friends were not lynched by the flight attendants upon revealing themself to be a homosexual to be relevant to the question. Are you saying now all gays should fly them to Israel because it's safe?
Similarly with Qantas, the fact that it'd be convenient for you to fly quicker to Israel with QF doesn't make it a viable flight. Do you really see them making money with such a route? How many people actually travel to TLV every day from SYD?
SG
Nice review as ever. The lounge has a similar look to the relatively new Syd lounge, which is great, all al a carte dining etc, for business and first passengers. The Aussie lounges seem to beat anything in Europe into the dust! Lucky, I'm looking forward to your review of the EY 1st lounge in Abu Dhabi when it eventually opens
@Lucky. Nice review and pics as usual. Was the lounge overly busy? I read another review where the guy said the lounge is small and close to departure it was full and he couldn't find a seat. I think he was on EY12 though. Thanks.
Can i use Etihad Lounge in LHR by paying and not First or Business traveler, if answer positive how much per pax ?
You can use the lounge at Heathrow if you are flying economy and have Silver Guest or above.
I am looking forward to using it again on Thursday
Do you know whether this can be used as arrival lounge? We arrive in Heathrow on Etihad First then after 3 hours transit we'll fly to Barcelona in economy. Thanks heaps
Thank you for this very detailed report, I would really appreciate it if you try Qatar airways new lounges in Hamad airport, which are the business and the first class lounges.. and give your report and opinion about it..
I am flying Economy to Abu Dhabi from LHR T 4 on 4 September and would like to know
if I can pay to enter the Etihad Lounge before my flight. I am a mature single female passenger.
Please advise via email.
Regards Jacqui.