Great report and photos and thanks for sharing.
We are flying Etihad in Jan next year from MAN to AUH. This will be our first flight with Etihad and very excited about that. We even paid a couple of hundred pounds more to fly Etihad rather than KLM or LH who we usually fly with.
I too got the email informing us about the bid and we will be contacted nearer the flight. It would be my dream to be upgraded as sadly I could never ever afford a business class ticket.
I would be very interested to see what the minimum price would be for MAN-AUH
Thanks again.