Flight: EY473 BNE-SIN (& on to AUH)
Jan 24 2008.
Equipment: B777 300ER
Flight Status (SIN-AUH)
Someone else's pic: BNE takeoff: EY 473 (thanks, Ben)
Checkin was fairly fast. 10mins wait or less.
Carryons were weighed, so I had to quickly re-pack to make these ~7kg.
Contract staff at checkin were unable to answer my request to have a middle seat blocked but would check with EY staff and confirm if it is possible at the date.
No troubles there - reassigned seats, albeit further back than our original Row23 assignment. Once fully loaded it was clear the flight was quite empty!
Estimate: Y - <50% sold; J - 65%.
In the end there was sufficient space for ou entire section to go Y++ (3 seats each, lie-flat).
On board:
It's freezing! Unusual from our GF experiences where the cabin was usually set to too high a temperature.
Most pax used 2,3 or more blankets each to wrap up and stay warm.
IFE: 10.4" touchscreens on headrest monitors.
In Flight Power in Y! Something I didn't get on later J flights with MH & BA (BA ancient 777-200 with ancient pods).
73 movies. CH9 cameras for front and below views for takeoff or cloud watching later.
I chose to watch
Rescue Dawn as I believed it was filmed in Laos. It was filmed in Thailand, according to IMDB. If I hadn't slept I'd also have watched
3:10 to Yuma.
Christian Bale is an intriguing actor especially when he (as he often does) starves down to a skeleton!
Comfort:
New,clean fitout. Plenty of those blankets, in cylindrical bags, which made useful pillows.
Thermostat of aircon was set to be way too cold!
Nice view of J cabin (
not EY473; thanks Kostantin!)
Amenities:
Decent quality gear in the bathrooms, but did not note the maker.
Socks and mask that seemed to be made by Gulf Air's supplier, only in a beige colour.
Service:
^^^^^
1 FA per 12 rows (in this case, per 2 FA for an estimated 56 guests)
Drinks served in double-doubles – double size/strength + two at a time.
Robert our FA (Czech) frequently offered refills.
Meals:
Chpice of lamb, seafood (?) and vegetarian, with mid-east trimmings.
Seconds offered and gladly taken! Seconds are rarely offered, IME.
Several nearby pax did not like the seafood and requested lamb as their seconds.
Drinks:
Beer: Tiger/Bittburger/Heineken beers (served 2 per pax on request)
Spirits: Ballantines, Baileys, a Cal. Chard, a French red.
Treats:
Connoisseur icecream (van/strawb.) [Australia]. Served 1.20 pre-landing. I had a second.
Anything else?
Interesting (pleasant) interior colour scheme.
Mainly gold/tan seat upholstery butthere were some centre rows with contrasting gold/blue scheme.
Any glitches?
None, other than the cabin aircon setting.
Overall:
Best Y flight I can remember. Slept most of it when not watching films.
Great on-demand IFE and the camera option is always good.
All I could eat and drink, friendly FA.
No major screaming baby dramas, delays or unusual turbulence.
I slept a few hours and possibly more comfortably than in J (which seemed to have lie-flat pods).
When Y inflight power wasn't working due to a glitch, FA offered to take my laptop & another pax laptop to the cockpit to charge for 1hr! This allowed me to take more notes for this report. 
Mrs B liked it better than our last flight of the trip, on BA J, in the other direction.
Etihad has set the bar high for standards, even if the flight was half empty.
I hope it is busier and becomes profitable as it is a great Australia-SIN option. ^
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