A few days ago I received an email from a reader asking why couldn’t he book first class on the Brisbane flight with the 787. Good question, this post will answer that question.

Last year, Etihad announced that Brisbane would no longer receive the 787 fitted with First Class and instead the route would be operated by a 2 class 787 with only Business and Economy.

Etihad 787 First Class

If you haven’t seen what the First product looks like, here’s a review of it from Washington to Abu Dhabi & Abu Dhabi to Brisbane. If you want to see a review of the Business Class product here’s a review of it on the A380 from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, the product in Business is the same as the 787.

Etihad A380 Business Class

Funnily enough, Etihad does still operate a few flights per month with a First Class cabin. As you can see from the screenshots, there is no trend as to when they have it available. The dates with the prices that are in green are the dates with First available.

If you’re flexible with dates, this great if you are using points. Each date that has First available has at least 2 seats free.

And if you want to redeem points for Business Class, pick a date when First is available, and they seem to have a heap more seats open which is quite odd.

I’d love to see Etihad bring back First to Brisbane daily and hopefully we will once the airline uses more 2-class 787’s on the routes currently being operated by A340’s. The 787 is my favourite First Class on Etihad and it would be great to fly to AUH straight from home.