Originally Posted by Lumpster

Sorry, I am British and was looking at options to fly from the UK to Australia for a family holiday, so why wouldn't I compare Etihad to BA and other European carriers? In the event, Etihad was far cheaper than Emirates and Qatar (by a few thousand Pounds) and also cheaper than BA and more convenient as I was flying from northern England. I also have recent business class experience flying BA in its newest products (on the 787). So please don't tell me who I am and am not allowed to benchmark Etihad to.

People on here seem to be obsessed with Etihad needing to be the best airline in the world on every comparison point and totally oblivious to the commercial realities - whilst Etihad is tightening its belt, so is Emirates and the situation with Qatar will mean that it is also going to be impacted - just think of the loss of revenue it is facing and the additional time/fuel costs from having to make detours to avoid the airspace of certain ME countries.

In my mind, airlines exist to make money - some on here seem to think that it's all about winning awards and plaudits and that being commercially unsustainable isn't a problem. Sorry, I disagree - and as primarily leisure traveller paying my own way, price is a much bigger factor to me than whether a particular kind of vintage champagne is served on board, whether a Merc S-class is offered to pick me up or whether caviar is part of the menu.