Several months back Etihad Airways revealed their brand new Residence product, which will be available exclusively on their A380s. There will be a single Residence on each A380 plane, which will feature a private living room, bedroom, and bathroom. It’s unlike anything otherwise available in commercial aviation at the moment.
The Residence Living Room
The Residence Bedroom
The Residence Bathroom
At the time they announced that their first A380 route would be between Abu Dhabi and London. The Residence came at a staggering price tag of ~$21,000 one-way.
That’s crazy for a roughly seven hour flight, given that you can’t really maximize service and sleep on a flight that short. Then again, for something as extravagant as a three room suite with a personal butler, I wouldn’t expect it to be much cheaper than that.
Just last week Etihad announced their second A380 route, which will be between Abu Dhabi and Sydney. This flight is roughly double the distance of Abu Dhabi to London, so would at least be an opportunity to “maximize” the experience. Of course this assumes you have that kind of cash to drop, which I’m guessing 99.999% of us never will.
However, when Etihad initially loaded the new A380 service between Abu Dhabi and Sydney they didn’t publish fares for The Residence. It looks like those fares have now been published, and Etihad seems to be charging ~$25,500 for a one-way ticket.
So while that’s still crazy expensive, by comparison it’s a much better value than on the London route. An extra ~$4,500 f0r a flight that’s roughly double the length isn’t half bad.
Now if you want to be really badass and fly all the way from London to Sydney via Abu Dhabi in The Residence, that will cost you a cool ~$40,000 one-way. Ouch!
Wow I want to try that!!!
Having said that I don't know what should be considered more outrageous, the Etihad Suite, or referring to one of the Minogue sisters as "the correspondent" :P
As an aside, that video was hysterical. The correspondent's random screaming and jazz hands throughout were quite entertaining and kind of normalized a truly extravagant product (in a good way).
"I’m not sure how any human being with a heart (or at least a sense of class) can pay $80,000 for a round-trip ticket and not wonder whether that money would be better spent helping humankind advance in some tangible way."
Who says a person cannot do both? There are people who do both. And is it really all that different from chartering a private jet?
Depending on how points were earned, someone could also...
"I’m not sure how any human being with a heart (or at least a sense of class) can pay $80,000 for a round-trip ticket and not wonder whether that money would be better spent helping humankind advance in some tangible way."
Who says a person cannot do both? There are people who do both. And is it really all that different from chartering a private jet?
Depending on how points were earned, someone could also make the argument that all that money spent on things like mileage runs could be donated to charity also.
@Reine: "Bitter weeping upon the realization that I will never ever be able to afford to drop $25500 on a one-way plane ticket despite my desperate desire to fly like this!"
Whatever. The very, very rich have lots of extravagant crap that I really don't need or even want, and a living room with butler between Abu Dhabi and Sydney is one of them.
Don't get me wrong - I love first class travel. But...
@Reine: "Bitter weeping upon the realization that I will never ever be able to afford to drop $25500 on a one-way plane ticket despite my desperate desire to fly like this!"
Whatever. The very, very rich have lots of extravagant crap that I really don't need or even want, and a living room with butler between Abu Dhabi and Sydney is one of them.
Don't get me wrong - I love first class travel. But at what point does the product become so excessively over the top that it's just a ridiculously tacky status symbol?
I can fly first class on points and live with myself afterwards. I'm not sure how any human being with a heart (or at least a sense of class) can pay $80,000 for a round-trip ticket and not wonder whether that money would be better spent helping humankind advance in some tangible way.
After being held up because of a visa issue in AUH the cordial immigration folks laid on a limmo service one for myself and another for my equipment. "Which Palace?" said the driver. " Oh, no.." said I "I am staying at the xxxx hotel". "I have never heard of that" said he. It is the folks in the palaces who will be using the residency. Not I, at least, not this year.
@Ivan Y, I think Lucky & Devil's Advocate would be a better matchup to go together on the Residence! It'll be very entertaining to read each other's perspectives on the same flight & cabin! ;)
Now if only I could get one of those tickets crowdfunded...
"would any of us pay ANYTHING for FC seats?"
Duh! That's why you passively-aggressively have people start a Kickstarter campaign for you instead.
@Reine, Etihad does offer the Residence by points --- but it's ridiculously expensive! For AUH-LHR, it was around 2.3 million Etihad Guest points. Granted, SQ did offer their suites back in 6-7 years ago for 1 million SQ KrisFlyer points (nowadays it's a lot cheaper than that.)
I went through various stages while reading the pricing for The Residence.
- Shock
- Maniacal laughter caused by my denial at such a ridiculous price point.
- Bitter weeping upon the realization that I will never ever be able to afford to drop $25500 on a one-way plane ticket despite my desperate desire to fly like this!
- Denial/delusions of grandeur: "Oh, I can totally afford this. All I have to...
I went through various stages while reading the pricing for The Residence.
- Shock
- Maniacal laughter caused by my denial at such a ridiculous price point.
- Bitter weeping upon the realization that I will never ever be able to afford to drop $25500 on a one-way plane ticket despite my desperate desire to fly like this!
- Denial/delusions of grandeur: "Oh, I can totally afford this. All I have to do is sell my house, my car, and sign off my first born...if that doesn't work, I'll go Les Mis-style and sell my hair and teeth. It'll be fine. I can do this."
I bet you they will NEVER offer award space for these puppies.
I don't even have a card short of an amex with a credit limit over 35K. How would I even book? lol
C'mon Lucky. We follow you to find out how to get FC tickets for free but really, would any of us pay ANYTHING for FC seats? It's all just plain nuts but if you make tens of millions each year, who cares. It's all just pushing the envelope a tad more!
@ Steven S -- Agreed, though I do still find the relative pricing fascinating.
@ Lucky - I think you & Gary should take AUH-SYD flight together and report back to Flightfox on the rating for The Residence. Since the price is for two people, it only comes out to $913/hr for each of you ;)
I think the price for AUH-SYD is a great deal!!! Since the route starts in June, I think it would be great if you could restart the kickstarter campaign again (but for this route, not LHR) and price the kickstarter at $25500. There is more time to fundraise money and I really think you can do it, Lucky! At least give it some thought. :)
@Levy Flight
TG is in the toilet financially (competition, political meddling/favoritism, debt, etc. - basically hemorrhaging money) while the ME carriers are well-run and (seemingly) profitable. TG has a tolerable first class product that, by all appearances, is used largely to curry favor with the Thai royal family and high-ranking military; not much revenue to be gained with that.
Curious that TQ are dropping F to SYD and EY is taking it to a level above.
Sounds like one of those fares that you have to ask the price, its probably not for you
Makes F look really cheap!
Yeah just tried pricing it myself and it does seem to be for two people. Sort of like a cruise I guess if you were trying to get a cabin all to yourself. Makes it a little more reasonable when comparing it to an F fare.
Isn't the price for two passengers though or how does that work?