I booked 2A for my recent trip from Abu Dhabi to Chennai and was happily settled in the seat when during boarding it became clear that a mother and adult daughter had been allocated 1A and 2C. They were clearly keen to sit together and since I had no preference, in agreement with the cabin crew, swapped to 1A. Both seats had an abundance of space and I didn't get the feeling that the front row reclining would adversely impact the row behind.

Whilst the hard product was not in the same league as the 787 (which I had for the return flight from Bangalore to Abu Dhabi), the service was by far the best from my four Etihad segments from London to India and return.