milesaddict

Dear Readers,

Thanks for stopping by. Before I start, I may have made mistakes in English since it’s not my mother tongue. Be gentle 😉

Flying for the sake of flying or should I say, treat myself. I wanted to experience Etihad First Class "Apartment".

While being in France and in Marseille where I went to see my relatives, I had the desire to have fun. My first goal was to fly round trip in First Class to AUH from London where you have the Airbus A380.

I looked for the award on Etihad’s website.

I called American Airlines in Australia to book the ticket. I'm racking up miles thanks to my American Airlines credit card. The cost was 62,500 miles.

While I managed to find the inbound flight, nothing was available for the outbound. As I was close from the departure date and with no solution, I decided to buy the ticket to AUH. BA was an option but it would have meant spending a night in London since the first flight coming from MRS lands at noon and the flight to AUH leaves at 11:30 am.

TK was my choice for few reasons:
- Reliable
- Good catering even in economy
- The lounge in Istanbul.
- Cheap ticket

Ticket with TK : 320€
Ticket with AA : $21

I arrived in AUH in the middle of the night on Saturday at 2 am. I booked Premier Inn Hotel linked to Terminal. Convenient.

For the full review you can go to :
http://www.youtripreport.com/report/flight/28

Shall we begin ;-)

I realize after the preview that the pics are big to fully enjoy them. I'm sorry in advance.

After a good rest, I decided to leave my hotel at noon, 14 hours before departure. The idea behind it, have 2 meals and enjoy the lounge… Feel free to say I’m nuts to stay that long!

Facing the Premium Terminal from the street:
IMG_21012017_114606 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Now from inside:
IMG_21012017_115133 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

If you arrive by car (provided by EY), a doorbell will help you with your belongings:
IMG_21012017_115218 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

The check-in took less than 1 minute:
IMG_21012017_120234 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

And 5 minutes later I was about to step inside the lounge:
IMG_21012017_120739 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

One of the lounge attendant will check if you have the right to use the lounge:
IMG_21012017_120846 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

By the time I arrived, I was hungry and took a seat to have lunch:
IMG_21012017_121534 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

View from the window:
IMG_21012017_122634 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

The restaurant:
IMG_21012017_122639 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_21012017_122644 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

While my order is being prepared, I went to see the Bar! Love the design:
IMG_21012017_123616 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Now let’s fill up my stomach! I had the Scallops Mughrabia infused with saffron. Phenomenal! FYI the meal comes with only 2 scallops, with that in mind I told Salah the Lead waiter who’s also a trainer for new comers to give me more scallops.
IMG_21012017_124135 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

For the main I had the Veal:
IMG_21012017_125908 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

For the desert I went for the mille-feuille who was not presented as a mille-feuille for a French, it was great nevertheless:
IMG_21012017_133739 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Myself and Salah, I sent a mail to EY to congratulate Salah’s excellent service, If my memory does not fail me, Sam Chui had Salah as Butler for its flight in The Residence:
IMG_21012017_135830 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

After such an heavy meal, it’s time to do some exercises, don’t you think so?
IMG_21012017_150958 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_21012017_151003 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

If you did not have time to shave, EY will provide:
IMG_21012017_151200 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Shower Please:
IMG_21012017_141613 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_21012017_141558 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

If you’re tired, you can put the seat into a “bed”, we are far from your private room in Doha with Qatar or with Swiss in Zurich:
IMG_21012017_161926 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Fast forward it was past midnight and I went to buy few things for my family. The lounge is now busy with a lot of pax in the restaurant. My boarding pass:
IMG_21012017_150626 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Boarding it was to start:
IMG_22012017_011448 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_22012017_011622 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

My seat for the next 7 hours… Damn so short !
IMG_22012017_013851 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Plenty of space:
IMG_22012017_013939 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_22012017_014002 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

The letter from EY Manager with Sparkling water:
IMG_22012017_014019 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

I love the view:
IMG_22012017_014023 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

The letter:
IMG_22012017_014312 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Someone is happy !
IMG_22012017_015112 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

The screen is massive and loaded with countless movies!
IMG_22012017_022755 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Tail view:
IMG_22012017_023415_HDR by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Looks like my seatmate won’t be eating after all… But I will:
IMG_22012017_023458_HDR by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

But first I need to try the shower. I’m still amazed by the opportunity to shower at 38,000 feet:
IMG_22012017_033442 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_22012017_033738 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

IMG_22012017_022236 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

After my very quick shower, my sparkling water with olives and nuts were there for me:
IMG_22012017_034300 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

The Lovely FA from Bulgaria came to set up my table. The onboard chef (very charming) came to bring me the meals.
It was 3 am, I was kinda tired, I ordered the Lamb loin:
IMG_22012017_040617 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Nicely presented and tasted great:
IMG_22012017_040910 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Next: the cheese and Chocolate cake :
IMG_22012017_042227 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Alas, I was full, the flight is short I need to rest!
The bed set up is done by the FA:
IMG_22012017_044257 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

That’s a bed!!
IMG_22012017_044625 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

For the long flight, I like the opportunity to have a bed and a seat to work or watch a movie.
Let’s finish Jack Reacher first:
IMG_22012017_044638 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

4 hours later, it was time to have the breakfast:
IMG_22012017_091201 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Double espresso please…
IMG_22012017_091622 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

My beef arrived shortly after. It’s odd to have beef as breakfast:
IMG_22012017_092011 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

After saying goodbye to the crew, we were close to touch down:
IMG_22012017_103039 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151219994@N05/, sur Flickr

Bottom line :
Where to start. I was really looking forward my EY trip.
It exceeds all my expectations.

The lounge :
- Staff : Salah is one of the best lounge staff I met. But all staff were just perfect.
- Design : I enjoyed the bar design. What is missing is real nap room.
- Catering : We are close to perfection, the best catering hands down compared to EK and QR.

I really loved the fact that it's not a big lounge.

The flight:

Aside from the residence, the comfort is hard to beat. I did not feel oppressed even when the doors closed.
I'm glad to see the catering offered for the short trip given the take-off time.

The chef was nice and provided a very good service like the Bulgarian flight attendant.

The shower was fun.

The whole experience is something you should put on your bucket list.

My goal is to try The Residence but given the price tag, I’m not willing to fork out 15K for a round trip despite all the legitimate praise from Sam Chui or more recently from OMAAT.

You can see the whole trip on youtube:

Thanks for reading.

Thomas

offerendum

Thanks for your report about this indeed outstanding product.

RTW4

Great trip report. Thank you

roadwarrier

Lovely TR thank you!
But, there seems to be an issue with a repeat of a Cathay photo that is in between the other photos.

milesaddict

Many thanks for your comment.

I'm glad you enjoyed the report.

Thank you for your kind words. Looks like there is an issue on FT since It's the same report and content posted on airliners and there is no problem.

I will pay attention on my next report here. Thanks again.

SQTraveller

Yes! I have the same problem. The solution is to remove the code from the link. I copy the whole text and paste it into word. Then I find and replace the offending section.

djjaguar64

Lovely indeed!

BA5E

THanks for sharing your EY Trip report everything looked great, and I must say that bed made up looked extremely inviting. One day we will have to do the trip to SYD, and am sure will enjoy the experience especially on that long trip