FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - An Apartment in the Sky (Etihad Apartment First Class, AA Y, BA J/Y, QR Y)
Old Mar 13, 2015, 8:33 am
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dat4life
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: BTR/MSY
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LTP, Hilton Gold
Posts: 1,257
An Apartment in the Sky (Etihad Apartment First Class, AA Y, BA J/Y, QR Y)



Back in early 2014, I took my mom on a thanks for raising me” trip to Paris. Unfortunately, my dad couldn’t make that trip due to work commitments. So I decided plan another trip for early 2015 for my dad and I. Since we were both big World War II buffs, I figured a trip to one of sites of one of the most epic battles of the war would be in order. Normandy, to be precise. Paris seemed to be the easiest launch pad to get to Normandy, so I figured we could fly into Paris, spend a day or two there, and then make our way northward to Normandy.

Since the westbound transatlantic flights are relatively short thanks to favorable winds, I decided to just book us Off Peak Economy SAAver Awards, which cost just 20,000 miles and $5.60 per person. Quite the bargain, in my humble opinion. Getting back was bit more complicated, since there was no SAAver award space on AA or US metal in any class of service. British Airways did have plenty of coach award space available, but that also meant paying a couple of hundred bucks in taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges plus a good chunk of my precious AAdvantage miles. At that rate, we might as well fly a little more comfortably, so I booked a Business Class award on British Airways back to the states for my dad. As for myself, I decided to get a little more creative.

One-way tickets home from Europe were exorbitantly priced. So I decided to give it a rest for a bit and reevaluate my options closer to departure. A couple months later, Etihad began releasing First and Business Class award seats on their brand spanking new Airbus A380. Availability was surprisingly good and there were several seats available from London to Abu Dhabi on the day I was planning to leave France. Just for kicks, I put an award on hold using my AAdvantage miles. Then I poked around at one way fares from the Middle East and stumbled upon a $561 fare from Doha back to Houston. Those flights booked into AA codeshares, which meant I would earn full AAdvantage miles. Rather tempting. In fact, tempting enough for me to pull the trigger and issue both tickets. So for 40,000 AAdvantage miles and about $700, including taxes and fees from the Etihad award ticket, I would get to experience Etihad’s much hyped new First Class product and spend a couple of days in Doha, a place I have never been to before. Overall, I was saving 10,000 miles but I spent $200 more. But I would earn nearly 8,000 elite qualifying miles and 16,000 redeemable miles, plus get fly on two new airlines on A380s to boot. Not bad at all.

Of course, nothing ever goes as planned. A week before we were supposed to leave, my dad had something come up at work. And because of that, he couldn’t go on our trip once again. Well that’s all fine and dandy. Just about everything was cancelable, of course for a fee. But my Doha to Houston ticket was non-refundable, and I hated to let that ticket go to waste. I also did not want to miss out on my first Etihad experience. So I decided to go on the trip anyways, though a few tweaks to my itinerary were in order. Since my dad was no longer coming and I too had something come up at work, I ended up chopping the Normandy part of my trip and pushing back my outbound from the US. Though I did lose a good chunk of trip, I still had more than enough time to visit with some good friends on a long layover in London and spend a decent amount of time in Paris and Doha. My final itinerary looked like this.

American Eagle 4344 Houston Intercontinental to Chicago O’Hare Embraer 175 Economy Class
American Airlines 42 Chicago O’Hare to Paris Charles DeGualle Boeing 767-300ER Economy Class
British Airways 333 Paris Orly to London Heathrow Airbus A319-100 Business Class
Etihad Airways 11 London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi Airbus A380-800 First Class
Etihad Airways 399 Abu Dhabi to Doha Airbus A320 Business Class
Qatar Airways 3 Doha to London Heathrow Airbus A380-800 Economy Class
British Airways 197 London Heathrow to Houston Intercontinental Economy Class

I’m going to try something different with this trip report. For all one, maybe two of you, that have read my past trip reports know I’m pretty wordy. Since photo trip reports are all the rage these days, I’m going to go with the format du jour to see if the general population of the Trip Report forum likes it better as well as to expedite this report.

Previous Trip Reports
2014: The End of An Era (JL/CX/TG/QF A380 F, OZ J, KA Y, and a Chinese Bullet Train!)
2014: A Tale of Two Cities (AA 77W J BA Y IB Y AF J)
2013: It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year (AA/MQ F AS Y)
2013: Geeking Out Across America (AA F)
2012: Around The World and From Sea to Shining Sea (AA F/Y, CX F, SQ F, UA F, DL F, WN Y)
2011: Everybody look at me because I'm sailing on a boat (KL J and DL Y)

Last edited by dat4life; Jan 15, 2016 at 9:54 am Reason: Add index links.
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