To kick off our round the world trip, my dad and I flew Etihad Airways’ Boeing 787-9 first class from Washington to Abu Dhabi. After an exceptional recent flight in Etihad’s Airbus A350 business class, I was curious to see how Etihad’s first class product is nowadays.
Continue reading: Review: Etihad First Class Boeing 787 (IAD-AUH)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I had a similar experience on this flight recently. I could not complain about any one aspect but still it felt like it fell short slightly.
Great review! Im also amazed that your dad sleep seated when you can have a bed... I travel about the same as your average (for about 25+ years) and must tell that I never ever saw someone sleeping seated while you have a bed, I'm not talking to have a nap. I'm afraid I will only see it once I'm on the same flight as your dad. 😉
It's not an Etihad-only thing but I always wonder why the heck there's always a choice of Heineken when this is without a doubt the worst "beer" you can have if you apreciate beer (note; I'm a Belgian). Sorry for the Dutch people out there but the only thing they have is Marketing.
Ben, off topic, but you are nearing the 5mio mark of travelled miles. Any surprise in mind for your loyal readers when reaching that number? 😉
I appreciated the comparisons for dining in Etihad first vs. Emirates first. Now I really want to try Etihad business class on the A351 after your reading the conclusion.
How does this 789 Etihad first compare with the 789 Oman Air first class? Are the doors higher in Oman F? These two first class products look pretty similar.
Etihad still has the best livery. It certainly fits the country. I agree with you fully. I do really look forward to their latest seat. Also, I can't imagine sitting backwards on a plane. Thrilling I bet. I still love the first class pillows. They sort of match the outside. Good read thanks.
The reason for the forward-backward configuration seems to be the curvature of the “suite” so there can be more seat/shoulder room with a narrower foot area.
Holy smokes a grand cru 2002 ? And a 2014 Pinot Noir ? Life is good. 4.5 stars is a pro rating. If a critic gave 5 stars all the time it then it wouldn’t really be 5 stars.
I always find it bizarre when the foreign airlines put so much into their first class experience and then serve Woodford Reserve, a bourbon served on AA in domestic first class ♂️
Ben: You seem to always snag first class award seats (often for two pax) on transcontinental flights. How soon in advance did you book these flights? It would be interesting if you included in the introductory summary of your trip reviews a statement of how far in advance you booked award seats. Thanks.
Just some suggestions: 1) Include the variant of the aircraft (787-9, A350-1000, etc.) 2) List the flight details including departure and arrival dates and times at the top and maybe in bold as well. And 3) Take note of the aircraft registration if you can.
I have yet to fly on Etihad. I turned on your boarding music link as I read your review and found it faded into the background as I read. I didn't realize how much I was enjoying it until I closed the link and it turned off.
Returning to IAD from a trip to Singapore next Spring, paid first class. We can connect in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but I’m on the fence for which one to select. Emirates (on the A380) has the bling factor, but the flight leaves at 2:30AM and gets into Dulles at 8:30AM. Etihad departs at a much more civilized 10:30AM, and is a daytime flight all the way. EK is actually a little cheaper, as well. If the schedule was similar I’d almost certainly choose EK, but that middle of the night departure makes me think that we won’t get the most out of the experience (who wants to eat caviar at 4 in the morning?). Any thoughts?
Ben
How do you add on the domestic leg? If you find IAH outbound tickets, how can you fly into DCA? What’s the process? Do you call AA and ask to tack on the domestic leg to national?
@ Michael -- Since IAD and DCA are co-terminals, they can be added on the same awards. Yes, I first booked the awards out of IAD on EY, and then I called to add the domestic legs, as there was saver award space available.
Have flown it - nice product. To answer you questions:
1. There are no overhead bins -- this is because crew rest area is above. CX is the same in FC.
2. Etihad’s first class seats alternate between being forward and rear facing. I’m not sure I understand the logic for this. -- This is because they can make the seat wider and the foot rest a little narrower. Note the curvature of the aisle. The window seats have the seat against the ends of the cabin. The middle seats are back to back where the aisle bows out.
@ kev -- One major consideration would be that I don't think Etihad operates F to SIN? I only see two class 787s rostered for those flights. So I would probably choose EK simply since more of your journey would be in first class. Agree with you about the flight times, though, I'm not a fan of middle of the night departures.
@ Airfarer -- Hah, I'm not kidding when I say that I listen to airline boarding music all day while working. People are often confused why I rate different boarding music options, but I spend hours a day listening to it, so...
@ Brian -- That's a great idea, thanks, I'll try to do that going forward. In this case I booked the outbound four days before departure, and at the time the cabin was otherwise totally empty. I had actually booked the rest of the journey before I booked the outbound (since there were a few options I was deciding between).
@ hanchicago -- They are indeed somewhat similar, or at least probably the most comparable 787 first class products. Oman Air seats are all forward facing, while Etihad has the mixed configuration. I'd say Oman Air probably has the edge in terms of meal service, while I think Etihad has more consistently good service, and perhaps better amenities. Both are great products. Sorry you missed Oman Air first class on your recent trip!
@ Nelson -- Hah, that's something to think about, thanks. And all good points you make.
No, it would be J class SIN-AUH. We are doing a stopover on the way back, so really two separate flights.
No, it would be J class SIN-AUH. We are doing a stopover on the way back, so really two separate flights.
Interesting the route you took. You dipped below Israel, as not to fly over it, then over the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Time I went - we flew over over the border between Iraq and Iran. But looking at the map, that likely required us to fly over Urkraine as well.
A few months ago - I flew Swiss from ZRH to SIN. That route was over Turkey, Syria, Iran - and directly over Tehran - then Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and down to SIN. A little concerning if we had to make an emergency landing. I guess Swiss is not excluded by any countries for fly over.
Do you like to drink cognac onboard? Etihad serves $90 Tesseron Lot 90, Emirates serve $1200 Hennessy Paradis...
Very impressive. We have just flown Qatar 1st Doha -Sydney on A380, and apart from the doors ( which, personally I don't miss) the products are very similar. Even the menu! As for the almost ubiquitous comparison to Emirates, sorry but if I wanted that much glitz and gold I'd live in a Versace mansion!
Thanks for the review.
The Etihad lounge at IAD will not be reopening. Chase is taking over that space for their lounge.
Another Good detailed review I’ve flown this route once back when lounge was open which was better than Lufthansa. Ive flown AUH IAD a few times and really enjoy this plane. The reverse seats are I believe to provide more shoulder room and maintain the width of the aisle. Space efficient and sitting back in 1A or 1K the view is of the beautiful wing
I love the passage way between the bathrooms
I’ll be flying this next March.
Looking forward to more details of you father son adventures
How did you book a through itinerary EY>QR? Did you have to call AAdvantage? I can build a multicity itinerary like that but it doesn't price as a single award.
I had the same thought as Brian and am so glad you’ll be considering this for future reviews.
@Lucky, does Etihad allow 1st class passengers to invite business class passengers to dine with them?
"In terms of the competitive landscape, I’d say Etihad’s A350 business class is better than Etihad’s 787 first class (which is to say that the A350 has one of the best business class products in the world, while the 787 offers a solid but perhaps unmemorable experience)."
-A350 J > 787 F?
How do you cope with the anxiety when you are waiting for availability to show up 4 days before departure? I would not be able to do that because of immense anxiety it would cause for me.
What would you have done had no availability showed up?
Ben, I'm amazed that you always seem to use points for your flights. How do you manage to get so many points when you're flying using those points? If it's from credit card points, how far ahead of being able to make a points booking do you transfer them to the airline? Thanks.
Take the EK flight. Dead of night flights are horrible as you don't feel like a full meal (or 2) and can't appreciate a potentially outstanding drinks menu.
Also the crew are pretty keen to get the meal service done, and lights out to encourage you to sleep ASAP and free up their down time.
Remember Ben (and Gary + others) donated $30K to the charity when Simplymiles started and they had a promo with something like 45x $. Plus there was another promo stacked on that. Bottom line they spend $30K and got 7 million miles.
Gary posted that he did it - since he could get about four J round trips to SYD for his family of 4. That was based on AA's mileage of 175K for a one-way ticket to Australia. Of course now AA charges 450K miles for a one way ticket or 900K RT. So that is 3.6M miles for a family of four to Fly RT to Austraila. Now his 7M miles is shy of what is needed for 2 total RTs.
I suspect Ben is looking to use many of those 7M miles on partner airlines while you still get value with partner rewards.
I often see people mention that some of the Ottomans can be used for buddy dining, but rarely see this in action (a lot of flight reviewers seem to fly solo). Have you ever utilized that function? How was/is it?
To be very honest; this site is getting so staid. Reviews that are 90% similar to the ones you did before. Nothing new nor exciting. (Eithad.. yes.. No overhead bins...yes. More spacious...etc..Caviar....Mezze..etc.) Zzzz.
Same prose. Same formulaic writing with similar expected responses/reactions.
Same airlines. Same hotel chains.
(Only thing that makes this site interesting, are the unexpected dramas; like Ford's recent multiple flight delays/cancellations)
I did simply miles for about 1.5m miles. Wish I had done 10x but so be it. Today I just booked Sydney to dfw on Qantas on American for august. Tons of days in the next month where you can fly almost anywhere in the USA for 78k on American biz which I think is very nice. I’ve also flown quite a few Sydney to asia flights for 40k america and unfort had to cancel a Qatar f redemption this week for 100k. 15hrs to Doha. Point is that to and from australia there is tons of value in aa.
Sorry *on American miles is what I meant. My wife and I are flying Qantas for 80k american miles syd to dfw. It’s rare but with expert flyer it exists. I also flew Qantas in June from Tokyo to syd in Qantas biz for 40k American miles. And plenty of close in availability right now for biz and first on American to the USA from australia.
Fly somewhere else I’m guessing! As Ben mentions you get the flexibility with american as no cancelation fees. Personally I’ll book something decent and keep checking each day for better and better flights. We’re flying to the USA in aug and I have flights on American booked but just changed to dfw on Qantas for the Sunday (have a commitment in Sydney on the Saturday). I’m an anxious person but I enjoy the thrill of the search and waiting for things to open up closer to the date. No flight from Dubai to Hanoi? Let’s fly to Saigon instead and travel the country in the opposite direction. I don’t find that hotel prices change much closer to the date. I prioritize (prob stupidly) my flights.
"I can’t help but feel like the product lacks pizzaz. There are no double beds, or showers, or bars, on the Etihad 787"
Is it really fair to ding them for this though? You won't find any of this in the first class products of Lufthansa, Swiss, JAL, ANA, Air France, Qantas, Asiana, Korean Air non-A380s, Emirates on the 777, Singapore non-A380s...
@ Julia --I don't view it as dinging them. My approach to reviews isn't like Uber ratings, where you give the driver five stars just for getting you to your destination safely. And you're right on a lot of those points -- I wouldn't give Lufthansa, SWISS, Qantas, Korean Air, etc., five stars either, for their standard first class products.
I do think Air France having floor-to-ceiling curtains is a major feature, though, since there's only one other first class product in the world with full privacy.
@ Sam -- I have used it before, though not on this flight, since we could sit next to one another. We would have definitely used it if we both chose window seats, so that we could still dine together. This is one of the better buddy seat setups, as the ottoman is spacious, and the tray table is huge. Much better than the setups on British Airways and Cathay Pacific, for example.
@ Brian -- In the case of AAdvantage miles, I earned most of those through a promotion, as others have noticed, where I could acquire them at a low cost. For transferable points currencies, I only transfer those shortly before I'm ready to make a booking.
@ Theonlywaytofly -- I clarified that part of the review to hopefully make it clearer. My point is that I think Etihad's A350 business class compares more favorably to other business class products than Etihad's 787 first class compares to other first class products.
@ AlsoBen -- The space showed on aa.com, but if it's not available online, it should be bookable by phone.
I’m imagining your son falling asleep to air like boarding music as his “white noise”!
Tiffany wrote a really great article many years ago about how she booked her family a trip to Thailand over New Year. It sounded stressful but she managed!
@Ben, regarding you comment about the alternating forward/rear facing eats, I didn't notice this before but in one of your photos, it appears that the aisle seems to curve a little. I checked Aerolopa - https://www.aerolopa.com/ey-789-3cl - and what they did looks brilliant. The seats aren't a perfect rectangle, they're actually wider at the seat than at the footwell. By alternating, they create more space for the seating area and the result appears that they actually have a curved aisle. Very cool if I'm right!
We are on this flight in a few hours! We can’t wait! Thank you for this extensive review.
Thank you for the detailed review and this reply, Ben. I'll get on Oman Air first class one day? 😉
Ben, you said there’s an additional USB outlet past the tray table but the photo shows an HDMI port. Which would allow you to plug in your device and watch your own entertainment (or work on your laptop) on the seat’s display.
Few airlines have this but when the seat has a nice big display it’s a good feature
If you had a choice between:
1) Qatar Q-SUITES BUSINESS from AUH-IAD (DOH plane change) for 70K AA miles, or
2) Etihad FIRST, but on a 787, from AUH-IAD nonstop for 115K AA miles
which would you choose?