Trip Report: Etihad Melbourne to Abu Dhabi Business Class
It was not without trepidation that I sent foot on Etihad again, to see just how the new, cut down, slimmed, Etihad would fare on it's once fabled Melbourne to Abu Dhabi route. Etihad Business Class used to be a delight on this route, with multiple flights a day, and included the amazing A380 with onboard premium lounge, and indeed 'The Residence', a suite of cabins at the front of first class.
Not any more. There is just a once a day 787, with only a few premium seats. No longer is there the amazing Etihad lounge with a la carte pre flight dining.
And indeed, as I checked in... no passengers either.
It was indeed a very quiet day in Melbourne, and I was through security in just a couple of minutes.
Etihad Lounge Melbourne
The Etihad House Melbourne Lounge is lovely, but forget all the glowing reviews of the past. It is now a much more basic generic airport lounge. Read our Etihad Lounge Melbourne review.
Once upon a time, when it was run by Etihad, it was the go-to lounge at Melbourne, and gave the Qantas First lounge a run for its money. It used to have an a la carte restaurant style dining, a well stocked bar offering some rare and unusual spirits.
Those days have long gone, and the lounge is just a shadow of itself, although the changes started when it taken over by No1 lounge, who in turn have offloaded the lounge onto Swissport, who now operate it as a basic pay-per-entry lounge.
When you enter the lounge, along with the views, you'll generally be struck by how much space there is: it is a genuinely decent large airy lounge, with floor to ceiling windows and acres of seats.
With space for 144 guests, The Etihad House lounge Melbourne is tastefully decorated, sporting Poltrona Frau Italian leather chairs, the same company that supplies Ferrari.
Occupying most of the window space is, annoying, the bar, through which you can see the runways. There are seats at the bar, but they are fixed to the floor, and you tend to have to other passengers leaning over you ordering drinks if you sit here.
In front of this area used to be the restaurant, but now just has rather harsh upright seats, and at the back is a long bench. To the right is the prime area in the lounge; half a dozen large, loungy, seats, with amazing views over the airport apron, and I was hoping, my aircraft. Alas not today. There was no sign of it!
Dining in the Etihad House lounge Melbourne is very basic indeed.
There is a small buffet in one corner of the room, with just a basic salad, slices of pizza, and sandwiches under the silver cover. There are only a few of these, and they go very quickly.
There are slices of cake under a plastic cover on the top of the counter too, plus a bowl of fruit salad that tastes as if it has come from a tin.
About an hour before the scheduled Etihad flight departure time, hot food appeared in three silver tureen dishes. Typically there is a pasta dish, chicken and rice. And that's it.
With food being so basic, the main standout feature is the bar. There are numerous top shelf spirits here, and the lounge makes a very decent cocktail. Beer is Peroni or Coopers Light.
I enjoyed a cocktail, and then another, as it was clear my flight was extensively delayed.
Finally, two hours late, came the call to board, and I went downstairs to the ever so empty gate.
Etihad 787 Business Class Boarding
With a Business Class boarding card, and priority boarding properly enforced, I was almost the first to board, and walked pretty much straight onto the plane, thankfully avoiding the two hour wait on a bench at the gate that those behind the curtain had been forced to ensure.
I was offered a glass of lime juice, or a glass of champagne. Naturally, being such a late hour, I went for the Champagne.
Etihad's latest safety video is an arty shoot at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and inflight prayers.
A menu and a wine list are at each seat as you board, and I was surprised at how cut down the options are: gone are the vast volumes of the wine list of years gone by. Instead there are just a couple of red and a couple of white wines.
Thankfully four main options for dinner remain, which with about the same number of customers in business class, meant we were on for a very speedy service, with plenty of choice.
Etihad 787 Business Class seats
The Dreamliner brings with it inflight WiFi and Etihad's latest 'Business Studio' business class seats.
The Business Studios seats are pretty standard now, with direct aisle access for every passenger in a 1-2-1 layout, and have a fully-flat bed stretching up to 200cm in length to cater for taller travellers, although the end of the suite still curves in on one side in a small tunnel going under the seat in front. It has direct aisle access from every seat, a side table for your laptop, and smartphone, plus a side seat cubby hole which has space for headphones and shoes.
Almost all of Etihad's 787 Dreamliners are equipped as two-class aircraft, configured with 28 Business Studio business class seats, in just one cabin at the front of the aircraft. There is no premium economy on Etihad, and unlikely to be for many years, as the airline slims down and aims for stability.
Along with a standard reading lamp and mood lighting, there's an elegant side lamp to illuminate the studio with four brightness levels.
Etihad 787 Economy Class
I wandered back to have at look at Economy Class on the Etihad Boeing 787. I was shocked at how empty it was. Not just empty, but seriously, desserted.
Economy seats are 17 inches wide and have a 31 inch pitch, with a seat configuration of 3-3-3.
This is absolutely standard for an airline, and there is the usual rather large TV screen, split-fold tray table, and a USB charging socket. A novelty is the remote also has a quite large screen, which can show different channels to the main screen, such as the moving map.
At the front of the cabin was Economy Space, which is Etihad Airways' extra legroom seating option available in Economy class. These are regular economy seats with 'up to' five inches of extra legroom. Although actually only one row has this, and for all the other seats there are 35 inches of pitch for the 45 Economy Space seats.
The seats are at the front of the economy cabin. Etihad removed one row of seats to provide the extra legroom, as a kind of makeshift short term stopgap when Emirates announced their premium economy. However, it is all a little underwhelming. The headrests have elegant branding but otherwise, look like regular economy seats.
The economy class cabin was at best half full - unlike business, where there were only half a dozen customers. With loads like these, it is no wonder Etihad have cut the Melbourne route down to only one flight a day, and with a much smaller aircraft at that.
Etihad Business Class amenity kit
As this was a long night-time flight I was hoping for a full amenity kit, unlike the shorter option offered on flights to London. Alas, although somewhat bigger, it was still only a basic amenity kit, and no pyjamas are offered.
The Acqua Di Parma amenity kit, in dark leather and eye popping yellow leather - looked the part, but alas didn't have all that much actual content. There was an eye mask, ear plugs, basic wool socks and the famous 'signature fresh fragrance' which was a whiff of cologne.
I also found there were shaving kits and combs available in the bathrooms, which were really rather swish, with a nice tiled effect around the basin.
Take off was pretty speedy - thank goodness Melbourne has no overnight curfew considering how late we were - and we flew north west over Australia, and the Gibson dessert, as I got myself busy with mains and desert.
Etihad Business Class meals
While the few passengers this flight would take boarded, the crew came through and asked what we'd like off the menu. They were clearly in a hurry to rush through the service, seeing as how we were seriously late on take off, and many wanted to get to sleep. Later, I noticed they phrased it quite carefully, in terms of 'do I have a preference' for my meal selection, not what I'd like to eat, as there were only a few of each dish loaded, but it didn't really matter considering the light loads.
On the menu today was dinner, followed by breakfast on landing.
There is still a fine menu at the seat, and I naively assumed that the content of these would reflect the meals on board. How wrong I was!
After take off the menu was:
Warm bakery
Arabic Mezze with Middle Eastern appetisers
Mains
- Braised short rib with cheese polenta, baby carrots and brocolini
- Pan fried barramundi
- Chicken biryandi
Before arrival:
Warm breakfast bakery served with butter and preserve
Natural yoghurt with apple compote and toasted granola
Seasonal fresh fruit
- Cheese omelette with chicken sausage, herbed potato baked beans and vine tomato
- Ratatouille frittata
- Passionfruit muesli
- Toasted banana bread
With so few passengers the crew said I could have a couple of meals if I wanted... but clearly they were begging me to say no, as they wanted to get the service over and done with.
Indeed, before we'd even hit the crise, the Arabic Mezze came round - this is a classic Middle Eastern appetiser, and very good it was too.
Don't miss Etihad's unique cutlery, designed for the airline in England's Cotswolds, before the airline hit hard times. I do wonder now if they count all the cutlery on and off the plane.
Clearly service is also suffering from cutbacks. Just a year or two ago, each dish was brought out to you individually from the galley. Now, everything is on one tray, from starters to mains to desert, and including the bread. It's quicker, but just didn't have a quality 'feel'.
I went for the Braised short rib with cheese polenta, baby carrots and brocolini.
There were some good wines on board. I went for the Shiraz Domaine Terlato from the Pyrenees in Victoria in Australia. The 2015 vintage is Red, Rich and Intense, with blackberry fruit notes.
I didn't have much time to enjoy it, as the crew tried to take my tray from me before I've even finished taking videos and photographs of it, and I had to hurry onto breaking bread to dip in the Olive oil and balsamic vinegar - there is a mini bottle of Monte Vibiano mixed oil and vinegar on each tray.
I was slightly less impressed to see after the meal service the crew taking unused ones off the tray, to reuse on later meal.
Dessert was a Chocolate delice with freeze dried raspberries no less.
It was very rich, and very very good. I really enjoyed that, but again served at the same time on the tray, saving the crew time.
Etihad Business Class drinks and bar service
The wine list on Etihad has been heavily slimmed down in the past few years.
There is now just one signature cocktail, one type of Champagne, and two types of red and white wine, plus a desert wine and a port.
The list included
Bellini with Brut prosecco with white peach pulp
Champagne: Duval Leroy Brut Reserve
White wine
- Chardonnay Languedoc France 2020
- Two Tracks Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand 2020
Red wine
- Bordeaux Blend D de Dauzac France 2016
- Shiraz Domaine Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu dit Malakoff from Pyrenees in Victoria Australia 2015
Dessert wine
- Nederburg Nobel late harvest South Africa 2020
- Dows Colheita Port Portugal 2002
The Bellini was fantastic, with lots of flavour However the champagne was rather pedestrian, and the Wither Hills Two Tracks Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand is a typical $11 in Dan Murphys or £5 in Tesco type of white. Clearly, Etihad are not pushing the boat out.
Etihad 787 Inflight Entertainment IFE
With dinner done - by the time we were over Adelaide - I took a stroll through the Inflight films on the IFE.
The noise reducing headphones are great. Live television, which was advertised as being available on this flight, actually did work, which was a bit of a miracle. Few Etihad flights have this function working.
Etihad Business Class IFE Copyright lux-travellerTo go with the noise cancelling headphones, each seat has a large, high definition, 21-inch video touchscreen, which is genuinely good. There is also a large remote, with a screen as well: this can show the inflight map.
Next to this is the power socket, and a USB charging socket.
Etihad Business Class seatback TV screen Copyright lux-travellerThe Etihad Airways IFE film selection is vast with 100 movies, lots of TV series, music, and games. However, I have heard some passengers saying there isn't that much to watch: that's because you have to explore through the A to Z list to see what is loaded. It is quite hard to see and find a film you want. If you just scroll through the Blockbusters section, there are only a dozen listed, and you have to delve into the submenus to see everything that is available.
Etihad Business Class IFE Copyright lux-travellerIt is well worth while doing so, because hidden away are several arthouse British films which otherwise would be hard to find. And it must be said a huge amount of dross otherwise.
The IFE screens also allow you to order drinks from your seat. I tried this and nothing turned up. Eventually when I found a crew member they explained they'd turned off this function as it disturbed them in the middle of the night.
And I had to ask in the galley for another glass of the excellent Two Tracks Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand.
Thankfully the fully flat bed was very comfortable, and I managed to get some sleep, if only because there wasn't a lot else to do, and the crew pretty much vanished for the night.
There is Wifi on board, however in Business Class you now have to pay for it. A basic connection costs 10 US dollars in Business Class, and it is woefully slow
You can also use your mobile to make calls or send messages as you would on the ground.
I found this came through as a direct charges from my mobile service provider at about double to a normal international roaming rate. It's really quite odd to be snoozing away on the patterned Etihad pillow, and then someone starts to natter away on their phone. Previously airline cabins were a haven away from hearing someone else's conversation, and this is a development I really don't approve of.
Etihad Business Class second meal
Around ten hours into the flight, and with everyone starting to wake up. I, like many of the passengers, and certainly the crew, were looking forward to finally landing, and indeed having breakfast.
Etihad are famous for their inflight breakfasts - and the menu offered everything from Cheese omelette with chicken sausage, to ratatouille frittata, passionfruit muesli and toasted banana bread.
I made my choice, only for the crew to announce that nothing had been loaded, and the only options if we wanted anything hot for breakfast - was the crew meals. And that was egg on toast. Not bad egg on toast. Indeed, a very good egg on toast. But not what I was looking forward to.
Etihad Business Class second meal Copyright lux-travellerIt was all served on one tray, brought straight from the galley. No mucking around with individual plated service,
Now the tray did contain the promised warm breakfast bakery served with butter and preserve, nNatural yoghurt with apple compote and toasted granola, and seasonal fresh fruit.
But, surely, it's not too hard to load meals for half a dozen passengers?
All too soon we began a slow decent into Abu Dhabi, and it was clear why this aircraft had been delayed. Abu Dhabi had had some of the most torrential rain it had seen in decades, and all flights were delayed. The city normally gets about half an inch of rain in the rainy season, which last a month, and the rest of year is dry. Instead, and abnormal storm had arrived, and it had brought several inches of rain, which the airport and runways were just not designed to handle.
Etihad Business Class 787 review
The delays gave me some time to ponder the current state of Etihad.
Etihad no longer give you a lavish treatment when you are on a flight, but it gets you where you want to go in some style, with most of the perks you expect with minimal fuss. Certainly the hard product - the seats, the planes - were ordered before Etihad tightened it's belt, and it's good to see the Abu Dhabi-based airline is still using them, despite years of heavy losses, and major cutbacks across the board.
Etihad Business Class 787 seat Copyright lux-travellerIt's good to see that although Etihad airlines has had a run of bad luck lately, and it has struggled maintain its once extravagant moniker as 'reimaging flying', it is still trying hard. It's survival, even in a slimmed down form, is impressive, and the fact that it does so with a quality seat and aircraft is even more remarkable.
See the full Trip Report: Etihad Melbourne to Abu Dhabi Business Class video:
Trip Report: Etihad Melbourne to Abu Dhabi Business Class video Click to play
Lux-traveller paid its own way for this Trip Report: Etihad Melbourne to Abu Dhabi Business Class, and travelled incognito.Trip Report: Etihad Melbourne to Abu Dhabi Business Class Lux-traveller.com rating: 6 out of10 
Seats: 7 - Decent, large room, every seat with aisle access Food: 5 - Good when its available, many menu items not loaded Service: 4 - Very rushed, crew often not to be seen IFE: 7 - OK, large screen, lots of content
- Nederburg Nobel late harvest South Africa 2020
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