The actual point is that there's a Services that we have lost so far thread here, in which you can whinge in to your heart's content.

So it is quite unnecessary to infect a thread about an actual positive customer experience in J on EY with even more whinging about how things are not to your liking in F and various other matters which are quite unrelated to the OP's experience.

I don't agree with you. Experiences positive & negative have both have a place here on FT.
FWIW, I have switched to ME3 from the likes of BA AA DL etc long time ago.

Ah so more encouragement of bad service, it's like encouraging a toddler to misbehave. Or you like to get less for your money? I don't understand.

Absolutely agree. EY provide services that many actually enjoy ^ If EY doesn’t suit some people then fly elsewhere - we wish you all the best :)

What some do not understand (but I do) is that there WILL be more cuts (yes, more to come) & these will prevail until their bottom line has improved. We can all dole out wisdom & advice on what EY should do but, believe me, they have enough people doing that within their inner sanctum already, & they are listening to them...;) and if anyone thinks that they will pay heed to anything posted in threads like this, the those people are deluded.

Ah yes, the company that doesn't listen to its customers. I can think of more than a few that have been very successful :rolleyes:

Oh and most airlines realise a valuable customer is someone who regularly flies long haul with them (2-3 times a month) and not the first time lesuire traveller, who will switch to BA/QR/EK for their next annual family holiday if they are cheaper or better yet have the barking mad excuse of a better schedule (for a holiday :rolleyes:)

I'm not claiming to be better than anyone else to the airline, but for me if my airline is Emirates I will fly EK even if the ticket is £2k more than another airline or even if I could have gone direct with another airline. Likewise if my airline of choice was still Etihad. If Etihad want to target the once a year holidaymaker family of four, they might consider dropping their prices as opposed to raising them? I personally need to be in the UAE so I cannot switch to QR but what's stopping family of four from choosing QR. The competition doesn't matter, the customer doesn't matter. EY sure have chosen a good path if what you say is the case.

This incessant repetition on multiple threads is quite tiresome. Say it once, then move on.

Despite there being a 50:50 split (go on scroll up and count) on this thread of those who we could classify into two camps:

Camp A:
- Etihads cuts are justified and the customer should be their first point to call when they are not profitable.
- BA is a perfectly fair comparison to EY.
- Why should EY care about status travellers, they can get another family of holidaymakers.

Camp B:
- Etihad is a company operating in a competitive environment and is bound to failure if they attempt cost cutting at a consumer level. The cuts need to be in the back office and/or efficiency related, not on the frontline. To simply cut services to the end user is far too symplistic a management strategy in 2017.
- EK, QR, BR, JL, NH and SQ can be considered the only real competition to EY. To compare BA to EY is as another poster put it like comparing to Air Koreyo.
- If EY want to target the once year holiday making family they ought to do it by cutting prices not increasing them.

Now I realise some posters straddle both camps, and that's their prerogative but what is pure comedy is that those in camp A wholeheartedly believe they are in the majority and by deafault right. Camp B are on the whole more pragmatic in that they accept some people's view of being accepting of EY's new policies (because after all who ever said Etihad is a bad airline) but at the same time cannot ignore the fact that these changes effect them and encouragement of them is only going to make matters worse.

Deleted. I don’t want to encourage anymore.....over & out.

Thanks OP for your post. I appreciate it too.

I'm flying Eithad for the first time later this year LHR-BKK. My key motivator was price - EY was the best price of all business class available when I booked. And given I've never tried them, a good opportunity to do so and compare. FWIW, the BA price was almost twice the price, and doing an ex-EU flight, with the hassle that entails, was more than the EY price as well.

One question: how much connection time did you have in AUH? We're on a 75 minute connection on our return flight (and connecting from a 777 to an A380 if that makes a difference) so I'm interested to know how easy the connection might be. It's also the middle of the day - I'm assuming a quieter time at AUH?... FTers?

Should be plenty of time, you should even be able to get a beer in the lounge especially as the A380 is always gated and never a bus

Ironic as when I shopped EK was twice the price of the EY price as well. UAL/Virgin and QATAR were all about 30% higher.