Etihad Airlines - reviews, comments

in December we're heading to Oz for 6 weeks and we're flying Etihad Airlines. An airline I'd never heard of before the travel agent found the fare so I am curious to see what I may expect.

I've done google searches that have turned up some down right scary results "worst experience of my life" did figure rather prominently. I guess I am hoping that the people who got the dud service are more inclined to ease the rage through posting on any and every travel forum rather than the mostly satisified 'what do you expect from cattle class' travellers. hopefully.

so, how rates Etihad?!

Condé Nast Travellers rated Ethiad among the top ten airlines in the category Long-haul leisure. (Page cannot be linked directly, got to click on 'Airlines' to see the results.)

Etihad is the national airline of the UAE, but has only been founded in 2003 (see wiki for more info) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etihad

They basically are trying to compete with Emirates, and become one of the biggest airlines in the region in the long run. But in order to gain ground then they are offering a better product and better prices. But, of course, they try and focus on Business and First class passengers so while I am sure you will get good service is you pay these prices in economy I don't know what they are like. I did find that Emirates was over rated when I fly with them to OZ a few years ago in Economy, and I have heard that since the economy is getting worse.

Although, Etihad are an official 4 star airline (according to skytrax). Which puts them in the same league as BA, Qantas, Lufthansa etc.

For more reviews of Etihad from flyers see http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/etihad.htm

I have flown with Ethihad a few times in the past 9 months. Excellent! Don't know what the other people are on about...

if you are referring to the post above yours, he was on about Emirates not Etihad

Etihad are fine...used to be a bit shitty (on the ground) as transit at Abu Dhabi was a nitemare with people sleeping all over the floors....I haven't flown them in a year tho but I think they now have a new terminal so that side of things has vastly improved....in the air they are fine...

You may also be interested in this...brand new Airbus A380 and they fucked it..

"The how and why of a brand new A380, Etihad crash"

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.irintech.com/x1/images/jean/etihad_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.irintech.com/x1/blogarchive.php%3Fid%3D3739&usg=__Ej9mP1ARAZ_nfDmEtaz1S0I7IW8=&h=480&w=640&sz=25&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=k49ujS0fAzrSJM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnew%2Betihad%2Baircraft%2Bcrash%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

Thats an A340. They are scheduled to get their A380s starting 2013.

I know..read the article it mentions both...think the A380 could be the commercial/marketing name for it?? Thanks for negs....

There was a discussion on TT about those images. The aircraft pictured is not a A380. And it was crashed by Airbus test staff.

it wasn't an Etihad crew flying that plane, though, so you can't really blame them.

Entertainment system is good - there were something like 70 movies on demand, plus a few games. The food was fine and unlike US airlines, don't charge you for booze and the stewardesses are friendly and good looking.

I flew with them to Australia last year and was impressed and I'll be flying with them there again next week.

I'll let you know how it is!!

nope. completely different aircraft. as you can see from these pictures, they look nothing alike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A340

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A380

@OG...you're right...so the article simply had an incorrect title?

Shows observant I am...I flew on an A380 with Emirates to Aussie a month ago...but didn't notice until after the flight...

Flew with Etihad 2 years ago London to Sydney return with no problems. I'm looking at them again for a Munich-Sydney and return next year - purely because for both these trips they were/are around 200 Euro cheaper than anyone else.

That Abu Dhabi airport they dump you in is crap though, small, cramped and once you've looked through the dozen or so generic shops nothing to do. But worth putting up with cause of the cheapness.