The Journey is Half the Fun; RTW in SQ Suites/CX F/JL J/EK F/EY Apartment/AA F
Sep 25, 2016, 5:12 pm
#106
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: LAX
Programs: United Silver, Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond
Posts: 988
Last post!
We were dropped off at the business class entrance, but ended up walking over after to the first class section after telling the guy who grabbed our luggage. The guy at the check-in desk was extra chatty, almost pushy of how great Abu Dhabi was. He did however, tell us about the electronic immigration gates, and asked if we wanted to register. A quick iris scan was all it took and allowed us to bypass the already short line.
The entrance to the first class lounge was very close to the first class check in area...about a 30 second walk at most. After showing our boarding passes, we took the elevator upstairs.
We were greeted by the gentleman standing in the corner there, who is actually in charge of the lockers. We offloaded a few items to him so we wouldn't have to lug around as many bags in the lounge. The first order of business was to get our names down on the massage list. As many of you know, the service has been downgraded to the choice of either a shave/haircut OR a massage, no longer both. It was early in the evening, and we had a 3AM departure, so we opted for the massage at around 11PM. Once that was all figured out, time to fine dine!
Menus below
Drink menu...these were definitely taken out of order. My apologies!
And the bar food menu
The wife started with the foie gras terrine while I had the Arabic mezze and lobster sweet corn chilled soup. A glass of Chivas 18 helped me wash it down (I ordered the 25, but they were out). I was looking forward to trying it after having the 21 on the Emirates flight, but oh well.
Followed by the potato ravioli as the main for her, and the pan seared red snapper and scallops for me. The ravioli was good with nice black truffle shavings, but on the heavy side. The red snapper and scallops were good other than the portion being slightly small. We planned to eat again before departure anyway, so it was all good! In comparison to the EK F lounge last year, the food was not as good. The foie gras terrine and fillet of beef we had last year was excellent, and had me looking forward to ordering seconds. Not so much here. I'd say EK takes the upper hand in lounge experience (other than the Cuban cigars not being complementary) and ground experience, but falls behind in the onboard experience.
Dessert was the camel milk panna cotta and coconut creme brulee, both excellent and delicious. Panna cotta tasted ever slightly gamey, but not enough to throw me off. We wolfed down both of the offerings quickly
Some more shots of the lounge and dining area. This is in the area directly opposite the bar.
Dining room looking towards the entrance. Outside of the doors were the shave and spa areas, as well as children's area.
Behind me was more seating and a view of the tarmac. The cigar lounge was to my right. I was tempted, but decided against having a stogie this time around. There was definitely a nice Cuban selection available.
Closer to departure time, and after our massage, we had a small order of food: the tiger prawn roll and the scallops Mughrabia off the Emirates Palace menu. The scallops were very good, but the rolls not so much.
When it was close to departure time, we found out the flight was delayed, but we left to go through pre-clearance anyway.
I'm not quite sure what the deal was with these people, but one guy just checking boarding passes barked at me to turn my camera off. It was on and idle...I wasn't even actively snapping any photos. To make my own life easier, I complied and switched it back on when we were out of sight. Then came the immigration officer, who got a bit snappy too. Asked where we came from, we said Dubai. Then she asked how long we were there, to which we responded less than 24 hours. She gets visibly annoyed and then asks where were you before that? Rinse and repeat another time and she moves on to some other questions with similar responses on her end. Overall, it was just a bad experience when there was seemingly no reason for it to be that way. They just need to get rid of the damn facility since it doesn't make things any easier. It forces you to leave the lounge earlier, and pool up in the crowded "premium" lounge.
It was much nicer once we were finally aboard the plane...the cabin I had been waiting to experience all along was right in front of me ^. Running on little sleep and almost falling asleep in the lounge, the excitement helped carry me through the next hour or 2.
The menu
The cabin as we boarded. My seat at 4A
Dates and a towel
Lamp by the window
The bigger bathroom that doesn't have the shower
Alex was our onboard chef for the flight and he did an excellent job serving up mouth-watering dishes. Starting off with an amuse bouche
I had a starter of smoked salmon
A grapefruit flavored palate cleanser
Wife had the seabass which was awesome, while I had the "chcken" Biryani (their spelling, not mine
)
This time, we decided to hold off on dessert until later. Beds were made and we had a few hours of great sleep. Even so, us FTers don't book F tickets to sleep it all away, so luckily we woke up mid-flight when we ordered the famed Etihad steak sandwich.
Raspberry pudding for dessert. The sandwich really hit the spot in flavor and portion size.
Afterwards, we lounged a little, napped a little, but didn't really have a deep slumber. I watched Keanu to burn off some time and had a small chat with Ana and Lara, our FAs taking care of us.
For breakfast, we started with some fruit before the egg omelette served with potatoes and mushrooms. Pretty good for an airplane breakfast.
On approach to JFK
Shots of the cabin in the daylight prior to landing
We arrived in JFK 30 minutes behind schedule after the initial 1 hour delay. For the flight, I'll echo everyone else's impression that it is by far the best hard product out there. Service was very good, but not to Singapore's level, but even so, I would say they were #1 if you evaluate the experience as a complete package. It was a treat to be able to experience this cabin, and I hope I'll get a chance to do it again in the future.
Saying goodbye to the last whalejet of the trip
Passing through security in a different terminal, these were the only pictures I snapped CONUS. We were exhausted and it really hit us on the two legs home.
The domestic F experience!
We were asleep from JFK to CLT where we had a long layover. Once we got to the gate at CLT, we lay down and fell asleep for probably 2 hours and still woke up groggy. There were thunderstorms in the area and all flights were grounded. Luckily, our plane was already on the ground and we were cleared to board not too much after the scheduled time, unlike the flight next to us that had their plane diverted. Again, once on board we were KO'd for the entire flight. So just like last year, sorry for those who were looking forward to the AA F portion of our trip
Thank you to everyone who read and commented (if there's anyone still reading back here on page whatever this is). Until next time, I will read reports to get ideas for our next outing
We were dropped off at the business class entrance, but ended up walking over after to the first class section after telling the guy who grabbed our luggage. The guy at the check-in desk was extra chatty, almost pushy of how great Abu Dhabi was. He did however, tell us about the electronic immigration gates, and asked if we wanted to register. A quick iris scan was all it took and allowed us to bypass the already short line.
The entrance to the first class lounge was very close to the first class check in area...about a 30 second walk at most. After showing our boarding passes, we took the elevator upstairs.
We were greeted by the gentleman standing in the corner there, who is actually in charge of the lockers. We offloaded a few items to him so we wouldn't have to lug around as many bags in the lounge. The first order of business was to get our names down on the massage list. As many of you know, the service has been downgraded to the choice of either a shave/haircut OR a massage, no longer both. It was early in the evening, and we had a 3AM departure, so we opted for the massage at around 11PM. Once that was all figured out, time to fine dine!
Menus below
Drink menu...these were definitely taken out of order. My apologies!
And the bar food menu
The wife started with the foie gras terrine while I had the Arabic mezze and lobster sweet corn chilled soup. A glass of Chivas 18 helped me wash it down (I ordered the 25, but they were out). I was looking forward to trying it after having the 21 on the Emirates flight, but oh well.
Followed by the potato ravioli as the main for her, and the pan seared red snapper and scallops for me. The ravioli was good with nice black truffle shavings, but on the heavy side. The red snapper and scallops were good other than the portion being slightly small. We planned to eat again before departure anyway, so it was all good! In comparison to the EK F lounge last year, the food was not as good. The foie gras terrine and fillet of beef we had last year was excellent, and had me looking forward to ordering seconds. Not so much here. I'd say EK takes the upper hand in lounge experience (other than the Cuban cigars not being complementary) and ground experience, but falls behind in the onboard experience.
Dessert was the camel milk panna cotta and coconut creme brulee, both excellent and delicious. Panna cotta tasted ever slightly gamey, but not enough to throw me off. We wolfed down both of the offerings quickly
Some more shots of the lounge and dining area. This is in the area directly opposite the bar.
Dining room looking towards the entrance. Outside of the doors were the shave and spa areas, as well as children's area.
Behind me was more seating and a view of the tarmac. The cigar lounge was to my right. I was tempted, but decided against having a stogie this time around. There was definitely a nice Cuban selection available.
Closer to departure time, and after our massage, we had a small order of food: the tiger prawn roll and the scallops Mughrabia off the Emirates Palace menu. The scallops were very good, but the rolls not so much.
When it was close to departure time, we found out the flight was delayed, but we left to go through pre-clearance anyway.
I'm not quite sure what the deal was with these people, but one guy just checking boarding passes barked at me to turn my camera off. It was on and idle...I wasn't even actively snapping any photos. To make my own life easier, I complied and switched it back on when we were out of sight. Then came the immigration officer, who got a bit snappy too. Asked where we came from, we said Dubai. Then she asked how long we were there, to which we responded less than 24 hours. She gets visibly annoyed and then asks where were you before that? Rinse and repeat another time and she moves on to some other questions with similar responses on her end. Overall, it was just a bad experience when there was seemingly no reason for it to be that way. They just need to get rid of the damn facility since it doesn't make things any easier. It forces you to leave the lounge earlier, and pool up in the crowded "premium" lounge.
It was much nicer once we were finally aboard the plane...the cabin I had been waiting to experience all along was right in front of me ^. Running on little sleep and almost falling asleep in the lounge, the excitement helped carry me through the next hour or 2.
The menu
The cabin as we boarded. My seat at 4A
Dates and a towel
Lamp by the window
The bigger bathroom that doesn't have the shower
Alex was our onboard chef for the flight and he did an excellent job serving up mouth-watering dishes. Starting off with an amuse bouche
I had a starter of smoked salmon
A grapefruit flavored palate cleanser
Wife had the seabass which was awesome, while I had the "chcken" Biryani (their spelling, not mine
)This time, we decided to hold off on dessert until later. Beds were made and we had a few hours of great sleep. Even so, us FTers don't book F tickets to sleep it all away, so luckily we woke up mid-flight when we ordered the famed Etihad steak sandwich.
Raspberry pudding for dessert. The sandwich really hit the spot in flavor and portion size.
Afterwards, we lounged a little, napped a little, but didn't really have a deep slumber. I watched Keanu to burn off some time and had a small chat with Ana and Lara, our FAs taking care of us.
For breakfast, we started with some fruit before the egg omelette served with potatoes and mushrooms. Pretty good for an airplane breakfast.
On approach to JFK
Shots of the cabin in the daylight prior to landing
We arrived in JFK 30 minutes behind schedule after the initial 1 hour delay. For the flight, I'll echo everyone else's impression that it is by far the best hard product out there. Service was very good, but not to Singapore's level, but even so, I would say they were #1 if you evaluate the experience as a complete package. It was a treat to be able to experience this cabin, and I hope I'll get a chance to do it again in the future.
Saying goodbye to the last whalejet of the trip
Passing through security in a different terminal, these were the only pictures I snapped CONUS. We were exhausted and it really hit us on the two legs home.
The domestic F experience!
We were asleep from JFK to CLT where we had a long layover. Once we got to the gate at CLT, we lay down and fell asleep for probably 2 hours and still woke up groggy. There were thunderstorms in the area and all flights were grounded. Luckily, our plane was already on the ground and we were cleared to board not too much after the scheduled time, unlike the flight next to us that had their plane diverted. Again, once on board we were KO'd for the entire flight. So just like last year, sorry for those who were looking forward to the AA F portion of our trip
Thank you to everyone who read and commented (if there's anyone still reading back here on page whatever this is). Until next time, I will read reports to get ideas for our next outing
Sep 25, 2016, 7:29 pm
#107
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Wisconsin
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Delta PM
Posts: 323
I read all the way to the end, and I'm glad I did. I had kind of decided to forego ever trying to get a flight an Apartment in favor of flying more often.....but now you have me thinking I might need to change that plan...
Apr 15, 2017, 7:01 am
#109
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PlatMM, BA and Alaska Emerald, HHonors DIA, Accor, Marriott Titanium, IHG Plat Amb, UA Silver, AA
Posts: 4,514
Sorry it's a late comment, but this is one of the best TRs I've ever read: heavy on F class, some great photography, and lots of food porn. Nice work!
Apr 16, 2017, 1:30 pm
#112
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: LAX
Programs: United Silver, Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond
Posts: 988
Thank you @sl00001 Domestic F...always a letdown and never worth reporting on