zahidworld

Hi forumers,
I usually fly a cheaper section of my journey in Business class but now that I have a bit more £££, I will be flying Business class return ( 4 flights in total - 2 X A380 + 2 X 777 ) in a couple of days.

I have a question about Kitchen anytime. How does it work ? Do I get a main meal and despite this, order something from the Kitchen anytime menu when scheduled meals are no longer being served. How many times can I order from it ?

In AUH, I have 6 hours transit. Do I qualify for a hotel room? Do I have to approach a certain desk ?

And, what about the lounge? Can I use the Business & First class lounge ?

nux

Order what you want, when you want I guess until the food runs out. The chef should speak to you early on or before takeoff.

No.

There is only a business class lounge with a roped off section for first passengers.

amnicoll

why if you are flying business would you expect to use the first class lounge?

i am not aware of any airline that offers hotel room with 6 hour transit

kitchen anytime works as it says - you can order and eat when you want (within the constraints of take off and landing) and there is no limit to the number of times you can eat apart from the availability of the meals on board. If you want to eat much later you can tell the chef what you want to eat and when and it will be kept for you and served as requested

zahidworld

Apologies, I didn't realize there were different lounges for First and Business class passengers.

Just did a bit of research and it seems I need to go to the Etihad Pearl Business Class Lounge in Terminal 3 ( where luckily I will be arriving )

AUH lounges

Terminal 1
Al Reem Lounge - the pedestrian lounge, avoid at all costs
Al Dhabi Lounge - Not available to EY business passengers
Etihad Diamond First Class Lounge - First class only
Al Dar Lounge - Everyone one has to pay a hefty amount for this one

Terminal 2
Al Ghazal Lounge - Not available to EY business passengers

Terminal 3
Etihad Diamond First Class Lounge - First class only
Etihad Pearl Business Class Lounge - For EY business passengers , Six senses spa

Unknown terminal
Etihad Arrivals Lounge - For EY business & first class passengers
No food, but shower and shave and dress steaming

h1ghfly3r

Your information is old and outdated.
There is currently no first class lounge at AUH.
You want to use the Premium lounge in T1 or 3, depending on the gate your flight is leaving from..

SuiteFlight

Not quite correct - the Etihad Arrivals Lounge offers both food and drink (a modest selection compared to the airside lounges, but suitable for a quick bite of light options), and while the Arrivals lounge advertises that they'll press your clothes while in the shower, I've yet to have anyone access the two-way locker to do so on my visits (Etihad yet again giving itself an own goal - overpromising and under-delivering).

STBCypriot

Hmmmm. Perhaps you have to ask. I'm just guessing.

zahidworld

Cheers for the replies all.

SuiteFlight

The printed signs in the shower two-way lockers regarding the service simply state that if you hang your clothes and put them into the locker and close it, they'll be steam pressed while you shower. There's no bell or flag or other mechanism, and the service desk is quite a way away from the showers (you can't simply pop your head out to flag someone). So I agree it's a shaky guess lol.

NoStressHere

Maybe they are expecting the steam from YOUR SHOWER to do this for you? LOL!

Meanwhile, a search online and I find lots of posts about this being available, but nobody that has actually done it.

SuiteFlight

Well you can get a lot of steam in those shower cubicles due to a lack of adequate ventilation and that there is no water cooling on the main (until I started visiting the Middle East, I had never heard of cooling units on main water supply, but given the extreme temperatures outside that penetrates even into the upper layer of the ground, mains water is delivered warm once the first few moments of residual water in the internal pipes runs out, so if you want a cold or cool shower you must have a cooler unit installed - sadly I believe that only the old terminal lounge showers have this), but the locker is the other side of the room and once the door is closed the steam from the shower won't really seep in.

In all honesty, I wasn't surprised the execution fell short of the concept as Etihad has a bit of a track record here, and I'm not going to stalk the corridor in only a towel to remedy the service drop-out (but I have noted that it hasn't happened on all my visits, so clearly there is something going on there).

zahidworld

I know I am 3 years late...
But, how was my experience?

The AUH business class lounge was spacious and had Macs. I got a massage both times while transiting. The food was cold and not topped up. It was also tasteless. My local takeway's food tastes much better! The staff also couldn't understand a word of English even though they were Filipino.
After 11PM, the food gets taken away. So, if you have a very long transit, you will be without food till breakfast service starts. There is a barber but if you fly Business, you have to pay for it. Only First class passengers get it for free.

The lounge also gets busy and packed when Aussie passengers disembark.

The flights were amazing. Food on the A380 was fantastic. You also had the option of calling an air hostess and ordering from the A La carte menu as many times as you wanted. Well, it's not as feasible as it sounds. How many do times do you want a steak sandwich ?

amnicoll

Whilst the lounge is not perfect my experience of it over numerous visits was that the staff were generally very good, no problems communicating with them, do not recall cold food and certainly could eat after 23.00

true the lounge can get busy but not ever noticed it to be dominated by Aussies or any other nationality