Thought I'd post an update...

So EY 140 on Feb 15 went as follows: the flight was completely full, we boarded on time, pushed back and after push back there was some clear irregularity during the pre-taxi checks; the engines spooled up multiple times and for whatever technical reason, we didn't begin to taxi. The captain (Cpt Jameel (sp?) came on the PA system and announced that he had some bad news for us, and that we had technical issues, and were going to taxi to a remote stand where the mechanics would take a look. We did this. Once the mechanics got going, I thought the captain did an admirable job with keep us updated while not getting our hopes up (for example, he said something to the effect of "the mechanics estimate that it would take about 2 hours to change a part, now keep in mind we have to do paperwork following their fix, and run multiple tests to ensure that the error from before has been rectified"). Very well spoken, very timely updates and he did an excellent job managing expectations. He also had the crew spring to action, and they did multiple water runs, a cracker (snack) run, and a second snack run with either Miss Vickies chips or a sandwich (I got shafted with Miss Vickies). About 2.5 hours following our scheduled departure, we were told the flight was ready for departure, adn we departed roughly 3 hours late. We arrived with a similar delay (and I think SEVERAL people misconnected, but the ground staff seemed quite organized at taking people away with signs who would have misconnected and offering them alternatives)

Fortunately I had by chance booked an 11 hour connection, so I am going to board my connecting flight soon.

Overall, the situation sucked. But I thought the crew (and especially the Captain) handled the situation in an extremely professional manner. Having to sit through the 12ish hour flight in Y with screaming kids for the majority of it left me with a headache. Regardless, I have to give kudos where it is due to the Etihad team on this flight.