About five years ago, Etihad Airways launched its top-level cabin product — the residence. It redefined the passenger experience in long-haul flights and on The Airbus A380, the largest aircraft of the world.
Five years after that, as the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Etihad Airways has launched a new set of short-haul Economy Class products. These refreshed products include: a brand-new seat, a new way of accessing in-flight entertainment and a redesign of the cabin service. Etihad is trying to redefine the short-haul Economy class experience; but will passengers buy into these changes?
New Seats
Within the next few months, Etihad will upgrade 23 Airbus A320s and A321s with their new Economy seat. Designed by UK manufacturer Acro Aircraft Seating, the new seats feature an ergonomically correct shape width of 18″ on the window and aisle and 19″ on the middle seat. Etihad has said that the improvements will also provide passengers 2” more room at knee level and each seat has access to fast-charging USB ports.
To replace the personal TV on the back of the seats, Etihad has decided to install adjustable phone and tablet holders in their place; similar to what Sam recently experienced on The American Airlines 737 Max.
These seats feature a unique way to recline the back of the seat; there is a front spar mounted recline lever,this changes the location of the button in the armrest to next to the cushion instead.
Front Spar Mounted Recline Lever
Reduction in Business Class Seats
Etihad will reduce the number of Business Class seats on their existing A320/A321 fleet, from 16 to 8. This means an increase in the total of Economy Class seats at the expense of Business Class seats. The change is to support their current business model. The A320/A321 are mainly deployed to serve The India Sub-Continent and Middle East short haul markets, where the main demand is in Economy Class. Upgrading will be much harder with a reduced number of seats in the front cabin.
Change in Entertainment
Etihad have done away with the monitor on the seat-back in Economy, they have instead opted for streaming to personal devices. In the new cabin, passengers will now use the browser on their own devices to connect and log on to the Panasonic eWX system on-board.
Etihad claims that with the new system more, and better, content can be accessed through a new app called E-BOX STREAM.
Change in Service
On flights longer than three hours, a larger contemporary bistro style main course will be served; it seems to me, Etihad have done away with the salad/appetiser. This seems to be another case of cost cutting, but it is being labelled as an “enhancement”.
Traditionally, the caterer will charge the airline to build the tray ready for flight attendant to serve the meals. This new “enhancement” in dining by Etihad has eliminated the need for the caterer to build the tray , instead the flight attendant is now required to do so. This approach has transformed into direct savings on catering bills.
With the new main course, they will be now plated separately by courses; so now desserts will be served together with coffee or tea on longer flights.
New curved triangular plates will be used to show the uniqueness of Abu Dhabi culture. They are made from recycled materials and are 85% lighter, designed to reduce weight and consequently fuel costs.
How to Book
The best way to find deals on Etihad is directly through their website. Sometimes the prices are more attractive, while sometimes they are not. Luckily, Etihad does have some partners that you can redeem miles with for their tickets.
American Airlines is probably the best partner to redeem miles for Etihad’s flights. As of this week, award tickets for Etihad can be searched and booked directly through aa.com; which was not available before. With this new feature, booking an award ticket is much easier than calling the reservation centre; although not all the availability is being properly displayed through American Airlines. You can view the award charts here.
When booking tickets, it’s important to note that there are ways to save miles. One such way is booking tickets from North America to Africa with a transfer in Abu Dhabi; as it can be cheaper than booking a ticket from North America to Abu Dhabi, and then another one from Abu Dhabi to Africa.
If more miles are needed, American Airlines currently has a promotion on for purchasing miles; when buying miles through aa.com, there is up to a 40% discount. More information about the promotion and buying miles can be found here.
Conclusion
These changes on Etihad’s short haul Economy Class definitely alters the flying experience. I suspect many flyers may perceive these changes “negatively”. Clearly, it is coming from a change in demand and a cost cutting perspective. The positive part is the increase in seat width in the middle seat and an increase in the seat pitch.
Can you ask Etihad Airlines to resume their SFO/AUH route? I have sent several emails and posts but they don’t respond. They can have alternate days between LA and SFO.
Hi there!
Iflew with QATAR 2017 to Manila via Doha – nd it where a very nice experience ihad in their
Businessclass flight from Stockholm, i never forget the good and very special meal they
served shortly after take off..and it Went to be a dining above the sky with something as a
memory of nicethings that never happens on the ground, ican tell you very very happy
with my journeyh!Ihope other go to fly from Sweden and feel the same joy!
Agreed, the service at Qatar Airways is incredible and is how a full service airline should be. Etihad on the other hand continue to tarnish their reputation with never ending cost cuts that while save costs, don’t help to generate more revenue because they’re becoming less and less appealing to customers,
Interesting fact, Etihad have stopped publishing the Annual Financial Report since 2015! Most other airlines, including Qatar and Emirates have made their Annual Financial Report accessible to the public every year.
https://www.etihadaviationgroup.com/en-ae/home-corporate/reports.html
Bangkok to London via Abu Dhabi… Facilitated advance check-in and allocated seat numbers for both sectors? Arriving AUH in the small hours I was removed from the next sector and made to wait eight hours for the next flight. Staff unpleasant and disinterested. Finally one supervisor DID admit to disgraceful behaviour but it still did not change their utter contempt for the rules of transport. This situation suggests an overbooking procedure got out of hand so they dumped a Budget fare passenger. Considering the eye watering loses incurred by Ethihad this practice is no surprise. As with previous flights, Ethihad flight catering is abysmal… a disgrace. Also, maybe this airline might just be able one day to depart on schedule. their timekeeping is dreadful.
No more Ethihad!!!
Etihad Airlines can do all they want to do upgrade their product. Unless they can get their act together, the whole thing is a futile cause. The airline is in a situation where the right hand hardly knows what the left is doing. Recently, my family had the misfortune of travelling this airline from Toronto to Kochi, in India through Abu Dhabi. The night the flight was to take off from Toronto, post boarding they cancelled the flight. There was absolutely no one from Etihad to take charge. We had to depend on the mercies of a local handling agent who was hardly competent to handle a proper check in let alone a flight disruption. Again, on the flight back form Kochi to Toronto, the airline had a Bassinet position confirmed for my daughter in law and her baby Kochi to Abu Dhabi. The airline claimed when we called to reconfirm that the Bassinet request was in place for Kochi to Abu Dhabi for a 4 hour flight, but that we had not made a request for the same for the 17 hour flight form Abu Dhabi to Toronto. How stupid could we be? I myself traveled business class on this Airline and found the product far inferior in comparison to what their nearest rival Emirates offers.
My two cents worth – avoid flying Etihad.
My partner works for Etihad as a FA and said Etihad’s cost cutting knows no bounds. They are removing products/ services (e.g. appetisers or amenity kits) or replacing them with cheaper alternatives (e.g. cheaper a lotus biscuit instead of chocolate mouse for dessert or replacing hot towels with hand sanitiser liquid). I find it sad that they’re advertising these changes as “improvements” when we all know that changes like replacing metal cutlery for plastic cutlery is not environmentally friendlier nor an improvement to the customer experience. This comes at a time when they’re facing fierce competition from Qatar, Emirates and Turkish, all of which fly to more destinations and therefore attract more passengers in general….
I flew Etihad long haul recently. I was unimpressed with the meal service. Paltry portions and mediocre quality. The thing that annoyed me most however was the triangular tray … it doesn’t stabilise on the chair tray and moves around while you are trying to eat leading to spills. Felt slapdash, the whole experience.
Travelled buisness class with this airline in feb. Worst ever apart from comfortable seats.l inflight TV system not working.food dreadful. Cabin crew none existant. In spite of sitting on plane over 4 hours before take off due to technical fault no refreshment offered..1 meal offered during 10hour period. Most of journey lights out as if night time flight even though daytime. I presume so cabin crew didn.t have much to do. The next leg of our journey was a night flight so turned into a very long night. Maybe we were just unfortunate but after spending 4,500. on 2 tickets would have expected better.Used Emirates before for same trip and was exellent. Customer service bad .offered 400dollars off another flight. No thank you Paula.will not be using ETIAD again ever.
Slimline seats, eliminated video screens, reduced food – not sure how that can be described as “upgraded”…
And I wonder where thebextrav2*1in middle seat widthbis coming from? The plane isn’t any wider than before, so either seats are closer to the wall, the aisle is more narrow – or it’s math-gymnastics…
It certainly sounds good in theory, although the devil is in the details. For instance, everyone loves a wider seat, but any idea if the new ones are the dreaded slimline seats?