Well, in July I needed some time as vacations since School are closed and so it the heat increasing here in Abu Dhabi. I thought of going back to Lisbon for a week or two but it looked like I was already going there ever year so I wanted a change. Hong Kong is one of the asian cities I wanted to pay a visit to and Etihad has exclusive fares for the season. Being a Etihad Guest Gold Member, I booked the lowest available fare in economy and looked forward to a nice and cozy 8-hour Flight to Hong Kong. So, on the afternoon of 17th July I was at the airport for check-in and to my surprise, I was awarded a upgrade to Business Class! Yahooo!. (I kinda knew this was going to happen since Etihad does offer upgrades to always returning and faithful customers. With bags checked and passes issued I headed over to the Duty Free ( I did go to the lounge first for some snacks and a drink, but I still wanted to go around the terminal after).
Abu Dhabi Airport is easily connected by 3 Terminals. Terminal 1 is used for all flights, Terminal 2 for Domestic Flights and Terminal 3 for Etihad and Partners. Since I was on a Etihad Flight, Terminal 3 was the one we departed from. I kept a continuous watch on which aircraft we would be on, to my amazement I was issued a seat at check in which the A330-200 does not have. (The A330-200 always serves this route), When I enquired at Check-in on the Aircraft It was a ****ing A330-300... Yahoo again! So according to the seat map I was seated on the front Business Class area, very close to the First Class Suites. I was assigned a aisle facing seat also.
Check-in started 15 minutes before departure, and zonal boarding was strictly enforced. We boarded through Door 2 and headed left for the business/first area. Actual Departure was 9:50 but doors were actually closed at 10:10pm. We taxied shortly after, the taxi was for 10 minutes and we also passed by the new midfield terminal which is due to open in a year. Strong Take-off roll and we were airborne. Let me skip most of the Flight and make it in brief- Dinner service started soon after take off and then most of the flight everyone was just sleeping. After 6 Hours of Flight Breakfast service commenced over China and then after a hard landing we touched down to Hong Kong.
We got our bags first and headed to the Airport Express Train for a Ride to Central MTR.
Conclusion: Etihad does have a solid product in business. I did get many surprises by the service. Crew were just the best and after a small chit chat they asked me to join them for a crew-fie (Selfie). I did also visit the cockpit while we were over India, It's simply amazing to see the aircraft pass through the turbulence clouds.