Etihad 777 First Class Review, New York – Abu Dhabi

by Zac George
a room with seats and a tv on the side

After the Freddie Awards, I was headed home through Abu Dhabi and Doha to fly on the world’s longest flight to Auckland. I was supposed to be flying out of Washington but due to the weather, I made the last minute decision to fly out of JFK instead. Luckily there was availability and American were happy to assist the change. For this flight, it cost me 115,000 AAdvantage miles.

I was excited to fly out of New York as I hadn’t visited the JFK lounge before so I was able to review that.

a room with a bar and people standing around

Etihad JFK lounge

Etihad’s First Class on their 777 feature 8 closed suites in a 1-2-1 configuration. The suites are the same design which is found on the A340 and select A330’s.

a room with seats and a tv on the side

Etihad 777 First Class

At the time of booking, it was showing F6 meaning the there were only 2 passengers booked but by the time of departure, every seat was taken.

a seat in a plane

Etihad 777 First Class

I selected seat 1K for this flight.

a seat and a table in a plane

Etihad 777 First Class

After I was seated the crew came around to greet passengers and offer some Arabic coffee.

a cup of brown liquid on a table

Arabic Coffee

As well as the coffee, the crew will ask if you’d like a pre-takeoff beverage. Your beverage is placed at your seat along with some dates, a hot towel and a welcome letter signed by the purser.

a tray with food and a napkin on it

Welcome Tray

The crew will also offer a pair of pyjamas and your amenity kit. Etihad has now rolled out their new Amenity Kits across the whole long-haul fleet as they were previously only available on the A380.

a grey bag with a black band

Amenity Kit

The departure out of JFK was quite rough for some reason but we quickly climbed to our cruise altitude and the service started shortly thereafter. After takeoff, I choose to have an Orange Fizz mocktail and it was brought out with some hot nuts and olives.

a tray with bowls of food and a glass of liquid

Pre-Dining Tray

Of course, I couldn’t not watch my beloved Suits 😉

a woman sitting at a desk with another woman in front of her

Suits

The meal service started with a selection of warm breads:

a plate with food on it

Bread

Then came the Amuse Bouche which was really quite interesting both in look and taste:

a plate of food on a table

Amuse Bouche

I continued with the Orange Fizz mocktail and still water:

two glasses of water and a lemon

Orange Fizz and Sparkling Water

For the appetiser I went with the Duck Rillette:

a plate of food on a table

Duck Rillette

In between the appetiser and the main course, a lemon sorbet was provided.

a glass with a lemon peel on a plate

Lemon Sorbet

And for the main course, I had the chef’s special steak.

a plate of food on a table

Chef Selection of Steak

And finally, for dessert I choose strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice-cream.

a plate of ice cream

Ice-Cream

After the meal service, I got my laptop out of my bag and was going to start working, however, the Wif wouldn’t work. I tried waiting and it kept failing. I asked the crew what was happening with it and they didn’t know either. Instead, I decided to get my bed made and get some well-needed sleep.

a bed with a seat belt and pillow on it

1K made into a Bed

I really do love the star effects in the cabin.

a room with stars on the ceiling

Stars in the cabin

I managed to sleep for 10 hours which I was really impressed with considering I hadn’t slept much the past few days. The crew noticed I had woken up and asked if I would like anything to eat or drink. I choose to have a black coffee and some pastries.

a cup and saucer with food on a tray

Coffee and Pastries

Shortly after having my coffee, the cabin started to get brighter and the cabin crew started to prepare the cabin for arrival. Here are a few more in-depth photos of the suite:

a tv on the wall of an airplane

Seat 1K

The suite has a small minibar type of setup with some small snacks and water. The dissapointing part about the minibar is that it isn’t chilled. It’s more a storage compartment for snacks and drinks.

a close up of a drink holder

Minibar

 

a close up of a seat

Minibar

Each seat has it’s own reading light and also has its own air-vent which does work unlike China Eastern‘s 😉

a close up of a device

Light and Air Nozzle

On the right of the seat, you’ll find the seating control panel.

a screen with text on it

Seating Control Panel

Also on the right side of the seat is where the IFE remote, In-seat power, headphone jack and USB power outlet is found.

a close up of a device

IFE control, in-seat power and USB port

Even though the seat is aged, it’s still extremely comfortable. In my opinion, it’s softer than the A380’s seat and bed.

a seat in an airplane

Seat 1K

Each suite has closing doors to maximise privacy. The suite looks a little cramped but it’s the complete opposite. I find it to be a little more spacious over Emirates’ suites.

a seat in a plane

Suite 1K

In the amenity kit, you’ll find: a dental kit, a shaving kit, socks, eye mask, lip balm, hand cream, a comb, ear plugs and a sleep/relax kit.

a small wallet and a small package on a table

Amenity Kit Contents

To the left of the seat if where the closet/hanger space is found.

a bag on a seat in an airplane

Closet

Overall

This flight was enjoyable but not one of the best flight’s I’ve taken on Etihad. The crew seemed to keep more to themselves and weren’t too friendly which is a shame. The other thing that annoyed me was the lack of wifi, on other carriers I’ve been told before takeoff that the wifi isn’t working but there was nothing on this flight. You’re better than this Etihad…

 

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7 comments

Eliteflyer May 8, 2017 - 12:19 pm

Assuming you only drink mocktails because you’re underage (think you mentioned this in a previous post), do you self-enforce or have you found that crew will enforce this as a policy matter? If the latter, how does it differ among carriers and cabins?

Zac George May 8, 2017 - 12:23 pm

Eliteflyer – thank you for your comment. I won’t drink onboard as I’ll self-enforce, I’m always get offered drinks but then decline and I’ll often be asked why and I just explain my age. Doing that has made for some really interesting conversations and I often get weird looks but I’m fine with it.

Zach May 8, 2017 - 1:30 pm

Great review homie

Chris Ivan May 8, 2017 - 6:13 pm

Great review!

One question – I am just curious to know how did you manage to pay for this flight? Is there any company sponsoring your travels? Did Etihad airways sponsor you for this flight to write a review?

Please don’t get me wrong my friend for my question. I am just curious.

Zac George May 8, 2017 - 6:42 pm

Hi Chris, thank you for reading. No this flight was bought with 115,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles as was stated in the first paragraph. If I ever do take a free flight or hotel stay, it will be clearly noted at the top of the post. Thank you for reading 🙂

Dave May 9, 2017 - 1:11 am

Nice review! You were lucky to find non-stop flights at 115,000 miles. I just checked for June and July and all were First MileSAAver seats requiring changing planes, sometimes twice, between JFK and DOH. Anytime seats with nonstop service had much higher mileage requirements.

Regina May 12, 2017 - 8:33 am

Your crew probably kept to themselves because they’re exhausted. They operate a long haul flight and have about 19 hours rest by the time they get to their hotel. Which I’ll add is disgusting and in the middle of nowhere. Glad you enjoyed yourself.

Comments are closed.