Returning from a holiday in Thailand via a stopover in Abu Dhabi, I decided to chance my luck at an upgrade to First.

Whilst checking in at Abu Dhabi, I decided to chance my arm and sound out the possibility of a cash upgrade on the final homeward sector to London.
We had taxied to the airport for the 13.30hrs departure from Terminal 3. The taxi dropped us off at the First and Business Check In entrance where we were shown to the Business Class counter.


We were given boarding passes for our J class flight and I asked the girl on the desk if there were any cash upgrades available. After a few clicks of the mouse and a couple of phone calls, she said it was possible for a modest fee. (c �450 GBP per person). I considered this for a second, asked if the cabin was First Class Suites and on getting a reply to confirm this, thought why not. When else were we ever going to get such an opportunity again for a fraction of the normal price?


I was escorted to the ticketing desk and paid the fee and told to go back to the First Class check in desk to pick up boarding passes.
We sat down in the leather chairs and were presented with boarding passes for adjoining centre suites and had the requisite First Class tags put onto our carry on bags.
We were then escorted by a valet (who dealt with the bags) to the First Class fast track passport control and security. After security it was up in the lift to the lounge on the first floor.


We were welcomed to the lounge and told the upgrade did not qualify for First Class lounge entry nor airside limo transfer. Ah well, but Business Class lounge was just fine.
We checked our carry on bags with the lounge concierge and went to book Indian Head massages in the Six Senses Spa. These were great and left us feeling brand new – ready to face the rigours of a six hour flight up the front


Success:

EY017 AUH-LHR

A6 -EHI ( All rights reserved by Mattia Vichi)



Row 2, centre suites



The arrival of the Bollinger 2000 (and a pre take off sweetie)




Welcome on board


Patchi Lebanese Chocolates and Dates (Yum)



Arabic Coffee



First Class Luxury





The Grille



The Choice



Le Chef ( His inaugural trip)



Laying of the table





An Aperitif



The Breads, guacamole, sour cream and chilli, olives and feta with beetroot





Olive oil



An Amuse Bouche and a glass of Rose Bolly



A drop of white for the Hors d'Oeuvres (Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc)

Guinea Fowl Roullade - tres tasty mon amies



A little lime sorbet to cleanse the palette ( or rather the evidence of a little lime sorbet)



Hmmm, what to choose next......



A glass of red for the entr�e - a Haut Medoc Bordeaux



The Tenderloin



A glass of vintage port



A double espresso and a sweetie



I could no longer hold the camera by this point so you'll
just have to take my word about the cheese board, grapes
and oatcakes and the Botrytis Semillon Dessert wine

I finished things off with a snooze



And we got these amenity kits full of La Prairie goodies

Wow, that looks like QUITE the experience! Thanks for the detailed pics!

The report looks interesting, but the photos are huge. Can you make them a bit smaller?

I don't mind the size of the pictures, in fact they are the perfect size.

How are the chefs "grilling" the food on board? Did the steak taste like it was cooked in a New York type grill or did it taste like a home steak?

Does the on board chef affect the kitchen anytime menu? Are there other dinner options other than the grille?

Great report so far! BTW, you should consider erasing your name and e-ticket # on the ticket stub especially if you are still travelling on that same itinerary. There are some mean people out there (like what happened to Lucky).

yes, I would have to agree with this comment

agree. very nice TR, but I'd erase your boarding pass with your name on it, unless you don't care that people know who you are.

This is where it gets interesting.

My steak, whilst looking quite delicious on the plate, was a) cold and b) completely tasteless.

There was also evidence of silver paper on the meat.

I think it is all pre-prepared and all the chef is doing is making it look pretty on the plate with drizzles of oil here and there.

Now whilst I did not stand over the preparation of my meal, I don't think there was a grill involved anywhere in the process.

The selected side dish of roast new baby potatoes was substituted with mashed potatoes ( on the pretext of having run out).

The butter de paris attived on my partners tray rather than mine and when placed on the meat to melt, remained completely intact due to the fact the meat was cold.

I did comment to the FA that the red wine was in fact warmer than the steak !!

The cabin was full and it did take 4 hours to complete my dinner service.

You can opt to dine from the regular a la carte menu. The concept of dine anytime does not work ( and did not work on any of the 4 sectors flown due to dinner service taking forever.)

These points are just observations and did not really detract from my enjoyment of the first class experience - but I had not paid anything like the full fare - and if I had - there would have been quite a scene

Sorry about that

Just resize your browser to 69% - that works a treat

How good does that look

Great wines - love the dog point

Four hours is nothing that unusual for dinner in first class on Etihad especially with a degustation meal. I kind of like the time wasted imo. Its a pity the steak wasn't that good. I wonder why the heck they decided to put in a "Grille" on the airplane instead of just preparing items that were doable on a plane. When I saw the menu "The Grille" all I could thinking of was "uh oh."

Admittingly this was the first flight for this particular chef, so I'm sure improvements could be made. Also when the first class cabin is full standards take a nose dive. There just isn't enough people to serve the 12 first class passengers to an international first class standard (which imo should be extremely high!)

Looking at a bottle of wine in one photo, it looks to me as if it's called "dog poo"

deleted.