Originally Posted by
akalra1187
Sad to hear. You flew two of Etihad's worst J products, this doesn't make it ok, but the seats on those two planes are a lot worse than the A380 and even the 777s for that matter.
What makes EY better than QR in my eyes, even if I get one of their bad planes?
- AUH is smaller and more efficient than DOH.
- AUH is close to Dubai, a world city, which Doha isn't yet.
- Chauffer service.
QR have some great seats and food, and to this end they are undoubtedly better than Etihad, I'm not so sure Turkish is as good as Etihad but you may have had a different experience to me.
As a point of comparison the EY 380 J seat is much more comfortable than the EK J seat to me. I also prefer the decor and the food.
Compare either to BA and BA's signature service and you will know what I'm talking about.
I've had my share of issues with Etihad, from surly service in F, to an unnanouced aircraft change (787 to 777 from SIN), to damaging my suitcase and not responding.... I still rank them higher than any other airline, I'm based in London so mostly fly the 380 and that's probably why. When I go onwards from Abu Dhabi on a 340/777 I inevitably wonder why I didn't choose another airline, then I look back to my 380 flight and feel ok about it.
So in a nutshell, when they're good there the best, when they're bad I think they're ok but in your experience very bad (perhaps amplified because you're tall and I'm not).
It's certainly possible that the plane/seat will make a difference, but almost everything that could of wrong on EY went wrong, so I'm just past a point of giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I will note however that I've flown a lot of airlines in business, and new planes don't always mean a good experience for me. For example my QR flight was on the A350 and while the plane was fantastic and I definitely noticed the extra humidity I can't say I loved the seat or the food. The plane itself coupled with the very good service was what impressed me most even though they had above average food and a good seat. Another example of a new plane that I really disliked in C is LH's a380. I flew it twice after it had just launched and it was really bad. They had way too big of a C cabin, bad service, a really dissappointing seat that I couldn't sleep in, and even ran out of food. The F on that plane is fantastic, but in C I felt as though I was in Y. The cabin was just way too crowded and the hard product was very dissappointing.
The flip side is something like TK C. I fly TK a couple times a year, almost always between NYC>OTP, and it's always a great experience. I've never had a bad crew on TK (even though I've heard about it), and quite like the 777 C seat. Not all seats have direct aisle access, but as mentioned I always get good service on TK, the lounge in IST is great (even offering suites if you have a 4-7 hour connection), and I quite like the seat. It's very comfortable for working on my laptop and I can even get a good nights sleep on it (even though it's not a perfect 180 degree recline). On the IST>JFK flight I had dinner, took and ambient and slept for approx 8 hours. To top things off the crew didn't even jump all over us to wake us up until only 30 minutes before landing (while most airlines will wake you up 1 hour out). TK also has what I would consider the best short haul C in europe. Not good enough to go way out of my way for it, but for pretty much any city that I can't fly direct into I'd chose TK (even something like NYC>PRG via IST over a shorter connection in western europe). If there's any knock on TK it's just their wine list which is always subpar.