When I Travel The World

Well that puts a damper on my fun lounge time.

Thunderroad

LOL! But which brands of champagne and water?

Regrettably, I've not been to any of these. So take my ranking with the appropriate grain of salt.

Good questions. Having spent 6+ hours in the EY F lounge from about 8 pm to 2 am, my impression is that it never got very crowded at all and that there was lots of room to spread out even without couches.

Given the high level of service in the lounge, it wouldn't surprise me if you could order food to eat anywhere...though you might more comfortably dine at the tables in the restaurant area. But I didn't ask about eating outside that area. No idea whether you can eat breakfast during dinner hours, etc.

This sounds like a sound explanation to me. And as if we didn't know better by now, it also reinforces the notion that no one should hold his/her breath waiting for the new terminal to open, regardless of what target dates EY puts out there.

+1 on all counts, including the two different but equally fine approaches to service. Your experience of the TG F lounge could also hinge a bit on how much time you have there and what time of day you get there. For longer layovers, it's more likely you'll be able to reserve the massage (since you can only reserve it once you get to the lounge, not beforehand) and get one of the semi-private rooms to open up.

I certainly will defer to SFO777 on the AF lounge/CDG experience. He has lots of valuable comparative experience in view of his travels far and wide via many different F cabins and lounges.

chinatraderjmr

IMO The Air France lounge is a notch above Al Safwa. But it's all personal preference. What's important to you? Food, comfort, do you smoke, etc. as a smoker I prefer EK's F lounge in B to them all. Some of the better lounges have nice cigar rooms, etc but these are not places you want to spend the entire time in. EK on the other hand put the smoking area at the far end of the lounge with big couches and you can order anything to eat right there. I realize this is a negative for most people but I hate having to get up and lock myself in a room (even if it's a nice cigar room) every time I want a cigarette.

As far as the Thai lounge, it's up there with the best but not at the top of the list. The private rooms are great but if you don't get one it can be quite uncomfortable

DoubleWidesFly

The lounge was fantastic. I spent nearly 9 hours there on 6/6/16 and didn't want to leave. In fact I made a video.
I figure this will give everyone a better understanding of what the lounge looks like and the experience of the lounge.

DoubleWidesFly

I was there on the eve of Ramadan and the staff confirmed the bar will remain open

Thunderroad

Great video, DWF. You provide a great sense of the lounge. My only very slight quibbles are that it has more seating areas and larger dining areas than perhaps the video conveys. But again, these are really just quibbles.

DoubleWidesFly

3 minutes of just walking through the lounge would have been boring. There is honestly only room for maybe 150-200 people max. The just "lounging" area outside of the bar/restaurant is actually quite small. There are more photos on my blog Etihad Airways First Class Lounge Video Review, but the video really does show more of the lounge than anything else, hence why I share it

Thunderroad

And I'm glad you did! ^

kaiotes

Great video . Is there a place for baggage storage? Just a carry-on size bag.

EtihadHelp

Hi Kaiotes,
thanks for the nice words! We are happy you like it Yes, you find a place to store your bag, no worries. Have a great day! *Mia

skywardhunter

Hey everyone, as mentioned here's a Snapchat-style video of both First Class Apartments and the lounge, including a bit of the positioning flights on Indian low cost carrier Indigo and chauffeur drive and a view of my room at the Le Royal Meridien in Abu Dhabi.

sabdhabi

Great video. Thanks for sharing it. I'll be there again on Thursday. It's a shame about no daytime drinks though.

tfung

I have a 10 hour layover next week.... I managed to get a free room at the St Regis in Abu Dhabi through their premium stopover program, but still debating if its worth it to go out of the airport to make the trek to the hotel, or just stay at the airport inside the new F lounge... 10 hours is a pretty long time, and while the lounge has everything, still seems it will be kind of boring with no private rooms available like in the LH F terminal, etc... and AUH is not a very exciting airport to just roam around in either...

Thunderroad

Hmmm...what a nice choice! Having stayed in the St. Regis on a layover earlier this year, I'd say it's an extremely nice hotel to spend several hours in. But you could easily pass the time in the F lounge if you have some work to do and/or want to use the small gym to work out in. I found that my 6+ hours in the F lounge were easily consumed by the gym, a shave, meals at the start and near the end of my time there, a couple of drinks at the bar, a bit of work, etc. I didn't even have time for 25 minute massage treatment I would have shelled out $38 for (since I'd used my complimentary service for the shave).

Bear in mind that, after getting through the scrum of transit to get to the F lounge and then having to depart it for boarding (especially, if you're going through the pre-board process if departing for the USA), you're looking at something more like 8 or 8.5 hours in the lounge. Then again, taking into account the travel time and going through immigration both ways, perhaps you'd only have 6.5-7 hours at the St. R?

Also, bear in mind that if you're there during Ramadan, you can't get drinks in the lounge during daylight hours.

I guess the bottom line for me would be how tired I would be during the layover and whether I'd want to get work done. If likely to be tired, I'd opt to cool out and take a nice nap at the very pleasant St. R. If not tired and especially if wanting to get some work done, I'd take advantage of the various features of the lounge and simply hang out there.

as219

Hmmm. We baked in an 8-hour layover at AUH en route to JFK that I assumed would be more than enough time to have a short visit in AD proper and take full advantage of the F lounge ... But your post has me wondering. Is 8 hours enough time to do both? We'd be arriving form CAI at 7:15pm, leaving on the 3:20am to JFK. Is including a city visit too much of a rush?