ft101

Where did you see that? I read it as allowing you to stream the content to your personal device, which they provide some sort of holder for, at no cost.

kelix

exactly, the system is widely used in USA for domestic flights and the wifi allows streaming of media from their IFE but if you want internet access you pay. you dint need to buy wifi to stream the onboard IFE.

Gabby2

Have experienced the new economy meal, my humble opinion.
No salad, (half the time the salad was not very good anyway)
No desert, (see above)
Seems to have better quality on the food than before.
More food than before.
Smaller tray. better for having drinks on side instead of trying to balance on the tray.
No metal cutlery, Not that good.

All in All the food is better.

Selling the "luxury" extras, seems to be that nobody wanted. so as far as I could see no sales.
But I didn't see the whole plane.

csdf

Weird, that's a very different experience from mine. I got the "old" food on my way out and the "new" food on the way back.
For the "old" food, I got:

• Hot dish, bread, salad, orange juice (or water, can't remember) , butter, desert, all delivered on a tray

Then (on the medium-length routes like LHR) towards the end of the flight they brought out a hot pizza or chicken wrap.

On the way back, I got:

• A small tray with a hot dish and desert and that was it. The size of the hot dish was no different to previously.

The hot wrap near the end of the flight was replaced with the choice of a "salty or sweet biscuit"

eddibabyyeah

They aren't going to advertise the fact they are using more plastic.

I flew EY15 three days ago and can confirm that meals in economy are now served with very cheap plastic cutlery. Clearly they couldn't care less about using less plastic.

skywardhunter

I wasn't saying they're not, but there didn't seem to be anything supporting the fact either. Some plastics are better than others, in that they're recycled and recyclable. Of course something like bamboo cutlery would still be better (isn't that what Air Seychelles did?

flyerby

SinkOrSwim

This new food is going to be an absolute nightmare for those of us with kids. I rely on things like the bread rolls to fill them up when they won't eat the other stuff. Ditto with regards to losing the seatback video screens - I have no intention of buying iPads for each of my kids. The seatback screens are extremely useful for keeping them calm and occupied, especially through dinner service when nobody can get up.

s0ssos

Nope. If you care to inquire more about the reality of plastics, BBC has a good one on Coca-cola and plastics (and how they fought to put the blame on the consumer for using so many plastic bottles). Coca-cola also said they would use post-consumer waste plastic mostly, and they haven't. Apparently it isn't that easy.
Plastics are usually not recycled nowadays. There are very few countries that recycle plastics, and often they just go in the incinerator. China has stopped taking most plastics for recycling, unless they are very not contaminated. Which are pretty much not the cutlery you are talking about here.

Whether or not bamboo cutlery is better is complicated as well. It is like the age-old question paper versus plastic (bags). Is the bamboo being harvested sustainably?

Now I don't know the plastic utensils on Etihad, but I would presume they aren't re-washable. There are some that are.

csdf

I quite agree. The new food tray for children is a lot worse than the old one too. And yes, an iPad per child is a ridiculous idea.

eddibabyyeah

And all the charging equipment that is needed for such devices.

Personally, I have don't mind all these cuts if the prices reflect a sub standard offering. But, EY seem to think they can reduce the service whilst increasing prices. I wonder what business school these people went to.

camsean

tommy123

thank goodness I can still use the lounge beforehand . Better pack some high strength sleeping pills in future

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

I can't seem to find any info to confirm this but my colleague flew with the new meal service a couple days ago (ULH into AUH) and reports that coffee was chargeable after the meal service. Can that be right or is it only specialty coffee that's being charged for?

MUCflyerEY

I just experienced the new food menu on HKG-AUH. I would say that while the quality has increased, the size of it is ridiculously small and absolutely inadequate. And the new separate 'dessert service' consists of tea or coffee and a small chocolate bar, absolutely ridiculous. The snacks (bag of crackers and water) service at the beginning of flights has now also been cancelled and is used towards the end of the flight to replace the previously far more substantial hot snack service. All in all it's quite insulting to paying passengers. If I wouldn't be able to use the lounges before and after my flight, I would have starved. All in all, it's absolutely dismal. If I wouldn't have Gold status, I would never ever fly Etihad in Economy again after this and I even now start to consider alternatives.