Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Liquor on Etihad Airways???

Need to go back to the Middle East for business. EY has some outstanding business fares. BUT

Hubby is going with me for at least part of the trip. He won't fly on a plane without booze. With those parameters, is EY a smart decision???? What about the lounges???

Non-Muslim, US citizen. Need to fly from Bangkok/Abu Dhabi/Dubai and then on to Kuwait City.

EY is not a dry airline your hubby will be fine

Neither the airline or the lounges are remotely dry!
Their TV Ads stress "champagne over the Alps"!

http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/global/en/home/pages/home.aspx

Definitely not dry, unless you are flying to Saudi IIRC. Their champagnes are very nice, have a reasonable wine selection and they have my favourite tipple of all, Glenfiddich.

Hi greatam, unless (as HW suggests) you are in Saudi airspace your husband will have neither dry lounges nor dry flights.

I have attempted to index all of the Mid-East airline trip reports from the FlyerTalk Trip Reports forum, in this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-middle-east-africa-frequent-flyer-programs/792412-middle-east-africa-airlines-trip-reports-index.html). You might find some of the reports useful.

This one in particular could be helpful: LHR-AUH-BKK and return in C on EY (PHOTOS)
(http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=832182)
Aside from FlyerTalk there are other sources which focus on customer reviews and reports of their airline flight experiences, so I think you could find some reports from flights in and out of the airports you plan to use.

Note the new Etihad lounges, introduced last year, in some reports and in other threads here in this forum. :)

Cheers,
BiziBB

Actually on EK, flights over Saudi, they serve alcohol. I'm pretty sure I have a pic somewhere of the champagne glass with the IFE screen showing the plane is above Saudi Arabia.

Although Kuwait is strictly dry, I've been served alcohol on EY flights from/to Kuwait City. It's not on the trolley, but if you ask nicely for a beer ;)

Just ask a Saudi the defenition of "dry"......... not when he's in Bahrain though:D

God bless that causeway!

CJ