Efficiency in action from New York flying with Etihad business class
My Uber journey from the centre of Brooklyn to JFK airport took me through the broken-down, depressed and slightly scary looking suburb of Jamaica, so it was a relief to pull up to Terminal 4 and be greeted by a uniformed Etihad concierge with a luggage trolley.
It’s about three hours before the departure of my flight to Abu Dhabi, and I’m checked in quickly. After passing thrugh security, my laptop is swabbed for explosives. Unfortunately, while the passport check is completed quickly, the business class security line has not yet opened, so I’m processed in the regular queue.
Just after security is the Etihad-only first and business class lounge, where I work on my laptop before enjoying the a la carte dining and soothing atmosphere. The departure gate is five minutes away and boarding starts early.
This is an A380 service, with the smaller top deck dedicated to business and first-class passengers, plus The Residence. The business cabin houses 70 seats across two sections in a 1-2-1 formation. The seats are “business studios”, which offer an enhanced experience as you feel like you are in your own semi-private room. Seats can face in either direction but I prefer to be facing forward and I am next to the window on the right in the rear cabin. Because premium passengers board from a different level, there isn’t the usual waiting-behind-economy-passengers queue, so the premium experience starts right away.
Take-off is on-time at about 3.15pm. I order seared cod with celeriac puree and spinach, which was excellent, and cheese for dessert – tasty, fresh and, like the main course, attractively presented – before sleeping. There is quite a lot of minor turbulence and a sick child in a family to my left screams and shouts on and off for the whole flight, but with my earplugs in and a reasonable distance between us I can ignore it.
Between business and first class is a comfortable and softly lit bar area, which is a great place to watch the news headlines on a muted TV screen. Landing in Abu Dhabi 13 hours later is on time.