Last October Etihad Airways announced that they would be launching nonstop service between Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles as of June 1, 2014. Etihad is an American AAdvantage airline partner, so the day that they opened their schedule for the Los Angeles flight I speculatively locked in a first class award seat on the flight.
Continue reading: Trip Report: To Abu Dhabi For An Etihad Inaugural
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hey Ben,
Has Etihad followed up about the lack of food options in your AUH-LAX flight?
I have the SPG Amex, which I guess isn't valid for Fine Hotels program. I guess I could try Virtuoso, but I've never really been clear on how that works either.
Sounds like a fun trip - excited to read further about it.
Those are really ridiculously good deals with Hyatt Capital Gate and St Regis! Looking forward to reading how you found them.
Looking forward to your Hyatt Capital Gate review! I've got 2 nights booked at that hotel right now, and I'm looking forward to my visit to Abu Dhabi.
@ Joe -- Any agent that has a Virtuoso affiliation can book hotels with them, and many don't charge a fee (since they get a commission on the bookings). That being said, the St. Regis Abu Dhabi is part of Fine Hotels & Resorts but not part of Virtuoso yet. One of the few hotels where that's the case.
I wonder whether you could argue that LAX-AUG-HKG should be allowed on one Aa award as it clearly isn't TATL - it's trans arctic!
Can you add the trip report index series to your immigration clearance post as well?
@ hkairlinenews -- Yep, thanks for the tip. Will do that as soon as all the installments are posted and I can add the full links.
In addition to that the Hyatt the first Hyatt I've ever heard of without a "Park", "Grand", "Regency" or "HOUSE" attached to it! I know that they have a specialty Hyatt chain named "Hyatt _______", but it's interesting nonetheless.
@ hkairlinenews -- Yep, Hyatt is changing up their branding a bit. They've realized that they weren't doing their hotels justice with the "Grand" and "Regency" name since they weren't really indicative of the qualify of the properties, so a lot of the new hotels are just branded as "Hyatts."
I hope you include a photo of the beach you posted on Instagram - so many people, lol.
Glad to see you reviewing some business class product, would like to see you eventually review all of the lie flat product out there, at least from the major alliances. And Iceland Air of course 🙂
You've taken the blog to a higher level lately with the variety of experiences (inaugural flights etc.) and humorous anecdotes from your adventures. It's a delectable diversion to one's daily routine and been, dare I say, phenomenal! 😉