DC777Fan

IAD-AUH
Etihad 130
First Class
Seats 2D&G
(Cabin 3/12 full)

My fiancee still had a few minutes of work to take care of in the lounge, so I boarded first since I wanted to get empty cabin pictures.

Up until 3-4 days before the flight, the seat map showed us as the only 2 passengers in first class, and I was excited about the possibility of a “private charter” to Abu Dhabi with our seats in 2D/G. However, just a couple days out, somebody appeared in seat 2A. I later found out, of a couple traveling in business class, the wife upgraded her husband as a birthday surprise, so hard to get upset about that. She did ask if she could join him, but the FA said no dice and she did the walk of shame back to business class.

As I boarded, I was greeted by Constantine, the cabin service manager, and escorted to my seat, 2D. He offered to help with the baggage and asked what I would like to drink. I ordered a champagne for both of us but asked for them to wait until she boards to serve it.

Here are the pictures I ditched her to take of the empty first class cabin:









My first impression of the cabin was this is *really* cool. We’ve flown many first rate first class products before, but this was our first experience with a closed-door suite concept. I didn't necessarily think it served any purpose other than just privacy, but the closed-off sensation did help me sleep.

Once my fiancee boarded, we were served champagne, offered amenity kits and PJs and the main flight attendant for the cabin, James, showed us around our suite, including how to turn on/off the various lights, recline the seats (all of which is done via touch screen), and most importantly how to close the doors (unfortunately this is done manually). He also introduced the food menu, duty free options, and provided us with amenity kits and PJ’s, which we both tossed onto our ottomans until later.

After pouring a few glasses of champagne, our chef also took orders from the extensive food menu:



Here’s the aforementioned menu:

A LA CARTE DINNER

APPETIZERS

Arabic Mezze – A Selection of Middle Eastern hot and cold appetizers

Oven-baked Chicken – grilled baby courgettes, yellow squash, red pepper dressing

Lentil soup – yellow pepper, chopped carrots

Pea and mint soup – sour cream with chives

MAINS

Lamb ghouzi – slow cooked Arabic-style lamb with aromatic rice, roasted vegetables and kabsa sauce.

Your choice of biryani – with fried onions, cashews and raisins

Tagliatelle pasta – artichoke, chunky olive and tomato sauce basil pesto, mozzerlla

Chef’s Special – ask our chef about the “special of the day” or to create something especially for you

FROM THE GRILL

Select your choice of meat or fish from the options below together with your preferred side dishes and sauces and our chef will prepare it all to your taste.

Grass-fed beef tenderloin

U.S. rib-eye steak

Lamb Loin

Corn-fed chicken

Salmon filet

SIDES

Herb filled mushroom

Honey and tamarind carrots

Steamed green beans

Roasted chat potatoes with rosemary

Creamy mashed potatoes

Oven-baked fries

Steamed rice

SAUCES

Bernaise

Veal jus

White cream sauce

Cafe de Paris butter

Red Peppercorn and shallot sauce



During taxi, the captain informed us of a flight time of just under 12 hours (It's blocked for more than 90 minutes longer) putting us into Abu Dhabi about an hour early due to our ~15 minute late takeoff. He also said that due to extremely strong tailwinds, we might experience a bit of chop for the first three hours.

After takeoff, James began service which started with choice of beverage and another hot towel as well as the table being set for dinner service.

The amuse bouche was a tomato/mozzarella skewer



I chose water for now and red wine with the main course. Etihad uses 2 table cloths and it definitely looks cooler than your standard white. We were also served individual bread baskets right away:




I got the Arabic mezze starter:



We were then served a palette cleansing sorbet (which was a lot better than the lighting for this picture):



…and the beef tenderloin main course with a side of mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots:



I find that, in general, beef tenderloin is one of the cuts that “travels” the best, and while I generally prefer other cuts on the ground, tenderloin is the most consistent in the air (or the one that the catering companies do the best job with).

I also had the dessert “sampler” which was amazing:



The food was outstanding and I’m a believer in the on board chef concept after this flight. My fiancee requested a custom dish (vegetable fried rice) which she executed very well and my food was cooked perfectly as well. We also probably got 5-6 chocolates over the course of the flight:



We requested seats 3D/G be made into beds during dinner service, so that we could go to sleep at our leisure, and Constantine took care of that during dinner.



The bedding was comfortable, though my one complaint is that they don’t really have a mattress pad, so much as just a fitted sheet that covers the seat. So the bed is only as comfortable as the seat (still very good), but more importantly for me is that you can barely move the seat back up without the fitted sheet coming off.

I generally prefer to raise the seat back just a smidge to mimic the angle of sleeping with 2 pillows (which I do at home) and compensate for the plane’s very small natural incline and that was a little more difficult to do here vs, say, Lufthansa's bedding which does not fit around the seat but only lays on top.

I also did get just a *little* bit of noise coming from the first row of business class which had a few kids seated in it. If I had to do it again, I'd probably sit in row 1 for dinner and use row 2 as the bed--so no light from the galley or noise from J could disturb me.

We must’ve been really moving because I woke up just before we crossed into Egyptian airspace. [We were really moving as several times the airshow displayed us traveling in excess of 700mph].



I was hungry, so I ordered a smoothie and bagel from the kitchen anytime menu which read as follows:

KITCHEN ANYTIME

A selection of sweet and savoury items to enjoy at any time during the flight

A selection of bread and pastries

Wild berry smootie

A range of breakfast cereals – with full-cream or low-fat milk

Breakfast taster – a selection of four mini breakfast items: muesli, yoghurt cream with granola, fruit salad, fruit smoothie

New York cheesecake – rasberry coulis

Fresh eggs cooked to order and served with your selection of chicken sausage, rosti potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans or foul medames

Toasted bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese, rocket leaves

Herb omelette – lamb sausage, potato gratin

Sandwiches – made to order

The Etihad Steak Sandwich – with rocket leaves, turkey rashers, red onion compote, melted cheese, mayonnaise and grain mustard

Pea and mint soup – sour cream and chives

Cheese – a selection of international cheeses

NIBBLES

Potato crisps in a variety of flavors

Freshly baked cookies and madeleines

Swedish crisp breads

Arabic baklava

The bagel and smoothie were both very, very good. Allllllllmost as good as Bodo's.



I took a few pictures out of the window including this one over Saudi Arabia:



And soon it was time to land, so I moved over to a window seat. I don’t know if the sensation of moving from a “double” suite to a “single” was the reason or moving from row 2/3 to a bulkhead, but I got immediately claustrophobic and a little bit dizzy… and I don’t get claustrophobic.

It was too dark to take any meaningful pictures, but we landed in Abu Dhabi and taxied in to our gate. Unfortunately door 1L wasn’t used for disembarkation, so we basically ended up at the end of the business class stampede out of door 2L. Economy passengers were held, however, until we disembarked.

We quickly made our way through immigration, and found the chauffeur desk for our ride into town. I’ll cover that briefly in the next bit.

Overall, I really liked the flight with Etihad and it was among my favorites I've ever taken. The positives are the privacy and the food and the negatives, if there are any, I would say is the bedding. It's not that it's uncomfortable, it's just not doing anything to help you sleep. Also, the IFE wasn't my cup of tea, but there were plenty of choices. I was glad to have downloaded a seasons of Sons of Anarchy onto my iPad...

The flight time of about 12 hours (particularly for a 10pm departure) was perfect as it was enough time to eat a full meal, sleep a full night, and enjoy a few hours of great service. James was extremely attentive and just the right blend of professional and friendly.

DC777Fan

St. Regis Hotel Abu Dhabi at Nation Towers
[Note this is *not* the St. Regis Saadiyat Island]

I was really excited for this stay for a number of reasons. First, we love St. Regis hotels… they all offer free tea & coffee any time and we’re both big “afternoon tea people,” so it’s always nice for that. Also, I’d used SPG Platinum Suite Night Awards to get a confirmed upgrade into a St. Regis Suite which retails for $1300++ per night, so I was quite looking forward to that as well!

We arrived at the hotel around 9:00pm on New Year’s Eve, so while I didn’t get a good view of the outside, I was able to snap a shot the next day:



We were escorted from the very grand lobby into a side room with 3 check in desks.



As is typical for St. Regis hotels, check in was processed as a sit down affair. The Malaysian gentleman processed us pretty quickly and assigned us a suite on the 47th floor.

[Quick Note: The hotel downgraded us from a St. Regis Suite to a "Grand Deluxe" Suite. It was involuntary, but they've since made it right. I don't want to harp on it since they did offer appropriate compensation, but it did happen, so I'm reporting it. I did post about it in the SPG forum if you're interested.]

The Suite was essentially a junior suite with a divider between the bed and a small sitting area. The best feature of the suite was the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrapped around and provided an awesome view of the corniche area as well as the city & desert.







In case it's not obvious from the pictures, the floor to ceiling windows wrapped around the entire room.

The bathroom looked like a marble showroom and the central tub also had a pretty terrific view including the corniche area and presidential palace.



There were dual sinks, and the shower/toilet were on opposite sides of the bathroom.





The agent was also kind enough to give us a voucher for a free glass of champagne for the New Year’s Eve party on the 3rd floor terrace.

The party itself was exactly the low key affair we were looking for after a 12 hour flight. It had a great view of the fireworks which were either coming from or behind the presidential palace.



The most impressive aspect of the hotel, though, had to be the breakfast, which was as good as any I can remember anywhere. There were at least a dozen hot dishes:



a yogurt bar:



Fruits and veggies:





Cold meats & cheese:



and three different pastry/bread stations:



[other 2 not pictured]

There were also made to order omelets, and of course, tea, coffee, juice, etc.

So how was the stay overall?

Well… it was good overall, though I probably wouldn’t stay there again.

First, and most obviously. I prefer my SPG Platinum benefits to be properly honored–not to have the hotel compensate me for not honoring them. Also, and this has nothing to do with the hotel, but Abu Dhabi proper didn’t really do it for us. We much preferred the seclusion and resorty-ness of Saadiyat Island.

More relevant, the hotel definitely was experiencing some teething problems and inconsistencies as it’s only a few months old. One of the challenges seemed to be that English was the second (or third, etc) language for most of the staff, but because the staff comes from all over they were all forced to communicate with each other in English.

A few of our butler service requests were completely lost with no follow up at all, and we never got the impression that we could really just relax, which is certainly something you expect at a St. Regis property. We're not picky, but when we call butler service to ask if they have hairspray (and they say let me find out and call you right back), we don't expect to have to call back 20 minutes later and follow up (to have them say the same thing), and then never call us back.

The hotel itself is absolutely gorgeous, and if it were in the middle of, say, Hong Kong (our favorite city in the world), we’d definitely stay there again once they’ve [hopefully] worked out a few teething problems. It’s still a bargain, though, as a category 5 hotel, and it certainly has some great suites available for Suite Night redemption (if they actually honor it, that is).

blueline7

This info is so helpful and spot on for me! I can see that we have a lot of the same tastes from Hong Kong to St. Regis. Thank you so much for all of the fabulous detail, all of which is appreciated. Keep up the report please!

oneworld82

Great report so far!

brg

Thanks for sharing.

DC777Fan

Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi



We took a fairly early cab over from the St. Regis to the Park Hyatt. We had our fill of Abu Dhabi proper and were looking forward to kicking back a little bit and getting “on vacation” after a corniche jog and breakfast.

We arrived around 12 or so, and not surprisingly our room wasn’t ready–I have absolutely no elite status with Hyatt, so I’m sure I was on the bottom of the list for early rooms. They were willing to take a local phone # only (I bought a local SIM) and said they’d call me as soon as the room was available.

So having come prepared (dressed in bathing suits), we made our way to the pool for some R&R and lunch. The pool area is down one level from the main reception and has a large pool deck with a “family” pool and an adults only pool. Unfortunately, while the adults only pool was for adults only, the surrounding pool deck still had plenty of kids around.



The temperatures in January were just perfect — low 80′s during the day and mid 60′s at night with typically very low (at least compared to DC) humidity for the Middle East.

We got lunch at the pool, which was slightly overpriced and very mediocre, and toward the end of lunch the front desk agent called and said our room was ready–about 1:30pm at this point, which is still a good bit before “official” check in time.

We took a swing by the front desk to pick up keys and while she offered to escort us to the room, we declined. We were given a standard room on the 2nd floor–the same floor as the lobby, but a good hundred yards down the hall at least. When we arrived, our bags were already waiting for us and hanging clothes hanging in the closet.

The room was perfectly spacious and well appointed with a large balcony and very cool bathroom.

















While we didn’t have breakfast included in our rate, it was quite good, and probably worth the fairly hefty ~$40 all-in per person charge given what most resorts charge for breakfast these days.

There was a yogurt bar:



…lots of fresh juices and smoothies:



cold meats:



salad bar:



plenty of hot dishes (plus made to order eggs):



fruits:



…and naturally lots of bread and pastry:



The breakfast was good, though it didn’t blow me away. You don't have much of a choice, though, since Saadiyat Island has no real "outside food" options, so what can you do?

We also did run around Saadiyat island a bit and ran through the next-door St. Regis property which looked to have more “going on” and had a small min-mall just adjacent (though part of the property) which would’ve been nice for some "semi outside” food as well as just a convenience store to pick up snacks. If we do return to Saadiyat Island, we’d probably try out the St. Regis next time as it looked a bit nicer.

We did have a few other meals there, and all were much better than the pool snack bar food — big surprise. Serves us right for eating there when the hotel has 4-5 other places to eat…

On the whole, the property was nicely maintained, the room was perfectly adequate and service was friendly and prompt. However, I wouldn’t want to spend more than a few days here, as it’s not truly a luxury beach vacation in the same vein as a St. Regis Bali or Conrad Maldives (coming up). That’s not necessarily a fault of the hotel, but it’s something to consider if you’re planning a week long (or more) holiday here. On the other hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to come back for a 2-3 day stopover--particularly in Mid-Atlantic winter months...

I did see lots of European families on holiday here, so I guess the calculation is a bit different when it's 5-6 hours away instead of 12...

ma91pmh

This is a great report!

"I did see lots of European families on holiday here, so I guess the calculation is a bit different when it's 5-6 hours away instead of 12..."

You are right on there. Back in the 70s and 80s us Brits used to raid the Greek islands and Spanish costas for cheap vacays, or "holidays" as we like to call them. But these days with better flight connections and increased wealth Dubai and I guess to a lesser extent Abu Dhabi are now choice tourist destinations. I mean Emirates serve 5 different destinations in the UK, a country similar in size to say California. It's a very convenient flight duration and a nice climate. We really noted the British brands (Boots, Costa etc) in the airport as DXB

blueline7

Thanks again. For a 24-48 hour layover in Abu Dhabi, what hotel location would you recommend? If you stay on the island is Abu Dhabi proper easily and cheaply accessible? What about the other way around? Is there anything worth seeing in terms of tourist attractions etc.? Have any good dinner buffets? How did the St. Regis breakfast compare to the PH one?

DC777Fan

Honestly, Abu Dhabi proper isn't much closer to the airport than Saadiyat Island--maybe 5 min max (25 min vs 30 min), so I wouldn't make your decision based on that.

I'd probably base where you're staying on whether you want to be touring or relaxing... Saadiyat was great, but there's literally nothing there other than a couple resorts.

Taxis are super cheap there, so I wouldn't build in too much expense there. In Abu Dhabi you definitely have more "outside food" options which would cut down on costs...

In terms of breakfast, I liked the St. Regis much better and my fiancee thought it was about a tie. I liked all the hot options at St. Regis (had way more than PH) while she enjoyed all the juices and such at PH.

DC777Fan

AUH Airport and EY Lounges

I asked the concierge at the Park Hyatt to confirm our chauffeur pick up with Etihad for 7:30am (for a 9:35am flight), which was taken care of with no problems at all (that I knew of, anyway…).

We figured that with free breakfast in the lounge and $80 breakfast at the Park Hyatt, there was no need to get up painfully early for breakfast. At 7:25 the front desk called us to inform us the chauffeur arrived and asked if we needed a bellman.

After a thirty minute ride to the airport, we arrived at the “exclusive” first and business class check in area at Abu Dhabi airport.

If you find yourself here during a busy time, I highly, highly recommend getting member of their bell staff (for lack of a better term) to assist you with your bags. The line inside was completely slammed…not at all a premium experience:



However, the bellman simply walked us around the line straight to the front where we were promptly called by a desk agent who took an excruciatingly long time to check us in… to the point where I was very worried if we would be going to the Maldives or if there was a problem with our ticket. But like nothing at all was unusual, she simply handed us our boarding passes and wished us a pleasant trip.

Given the newly truncated timetable we booked it straight to the lounge only to find the business class side a complete zoo. I couldn't even take a picture without feeling uncomfortable as I'd be basically sticking the camera in somebody's face who was just standing around eating.

I took a quick lap and didn’t spot a single seat, so my fiancee sprang into action as our expert negotiator (think the Seinfeld episode w/ the girl who always gets what she wants). We spoke to the attendant in the first class side and explained to her that we arrived in Etihad first class and were simply “stopping over” on the way to the Maldives (though on a different ticket now). She didn’t seem in the mood for an argument, so as soon as I showed her our boarding pass (from 5 days earlier), she waved us in.

The first class side was still crowded, but much less so than the business class side. There was a small seating area:



Same area, different angle:



They also had little TV “stalls” which seem a bit impractical and not the best use of space:



There was also, most importantly, a small restaurant area with a la carte food:



With just minutes to go before boarding, we asked for a sampling of whatever they could serve in less than five minutes, which ended up being some fruit and pastry spread–more than enough to hold us over til the flight.

After scarfing down our food (sorry no pictures, had to be packed and ready to go), we made our way over to the boarding “gate” (bus to plane) where the flight was already boarding.



If there was a separate bus for business class, we certainly missed it as I never heard the call, but this obviously isn’t a big deal.

I would've liked about another 15 minutes or so in the airport (the 15 minutes we wasted at check in), but otherwise I'm not bummed to have arrived close to flight time. I wouldn't consider AUH airport a "look forward to it destination" like, for instance, the FCT in Frankfurt...

I meant to have a look and see if they have sleeping rooms as we have a ~8 hour overnight layover in November, and between leaving the airport, checking into a hotel, getting settled, and then coming back and going through everything, it would be nice to just relax for 6-7 hours at the airport before boarding... I didn't get to poke around, though, as we were in a bigtime hurry.

Kangol

Awesome report, looking forward to the rest.
How did you book it - I'm guessing a combination of different FF miles/revenue fares?

DC777Fan

Actually almost entirely miles & points.

180k AA miles for 2 pax IAD-AUH in F
28k SPG points for 2 nights at St.R AUH (12k one night and 16k for NYE which is "peak")
36k Hyatt points for 2 nights at PH AUH
90k AA for 2 pax AUH-MLE in J
300k HH points for 8 nights @ Conrad MLE (pre-devaluation GLON rate)
50k Avios for 2 pax MLE-HKG in J
~$400 for 1 night at W HKG
140k United miles for HKG-MUC-FRA-IAD in F

I think the total out of pocket cash cost was around $500 for taxes & fees on all airline tickets + obviously the 1 night in HKG + food and bev.

I know I could've booked it much cheaper with other programs and employing a stopover/open jaw (maybe IAD-AUH-stopover-MLE//HKG-IAD with United and using Avios like I did), but ultimately I earn more than I can redeem anyway, so why not do exactly what I want. We were actually booked HKG-JFK-DCA (CX F and AA F) but switched to LH at the last minute just because of the United devaluation... last chance to stack 2 LH F segments like that for a reasonable amount of miles.

FlyerTalker7654

Really interesting report, thanks for posting. I wanted to make Abu Dhabi a place we visit next as we spent 4 nights in Dubai a couple of years ago. From reading various reports, maybe 2 nights would be better then 4...??

Also, interesting about the lounges at the airport (in Abu Dhabi). I would have expected something a bit better then that considering they are competing with the likes of EK...

Thanks for sharing though, really enjoyed it!!

ConcordeOrphan

Hope to hear more soon. Leaving on similar trip this Friday, March 7th. IAD - AUH in EY F, stopover 2 nites in AUH, then on to Conrad Maldives. Hope to hear your take on the Conrad before we leave.

brg

So I guess that the UA ticket was booked while you were on vacation there?
Thanks for sharing info on details