Can I get you a drink, sir? (Etihad Airways)

Member Name: miketunstall

Product:	Etihad Airways
Date:	13/05/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Modern Planes, good food, good inflight goodies & entertainment

Disadvantages: Online check in crashes, service isn't great

Due to time spent visiting family in Abu Dhabi I use Etihad quite a lot, probably 3-4 return flights a year and am also a member of their frequent flyer program. Despite me flying with them frequently I do sometimes feel that they do have areas they need to improve in.

Before the flight Etihad give you the option to check in online 20 hours before your flight which is ideal because it allows you to change your seat and if you have no check in bags you don't need to be at the airport so early which is good if you find airports very stressful. A word to the wise though in my experience with the website if you do try and change your seats during check in the service often crashes meaning you have to pick up your boarding pass from the check in desk, so that isn't too helpful, but at least you have the seats you wanted I suppose. On the whole I feel that Etihad really needs to improve it's online check in as it is miles behind the likes of BA & Qantas in speed & reliability.

Etihad on the whole has very modern planes new to it being a new company which is good because they are much more comfortable than the older planes they use which can be a bit of a nightmare! The planes tend to feature an interactive entertainment system with on demand, music, films, tv and an airshow, which makes the flight much more enjoyable. Also unlike other airlines you do get plenty of goodies in your flight pack with eye masks, flight socks & tooth brushes included (many other airlines I have flown with do give this).

Unfortunately this is usually where the good service ends (on some occassions the staff are very good), in my experience the staff seem overworked and are therefore usually very stressed which doesn't bode well for good customer service unfortunately. The drinks trolley only ever tends to come around once other than during meals and when you press the service button for a drink you can easily wait 30-40 minutes unless you actually go ask someone directly.

Meals times are always interesting on Etihads flights, with Etihad being a Arab airline the food tends to be on the spicy side which isn't always ideal on a flight but most of the time the food is very good (for airplane food), the biggest problem I have faced is whenever you are start towards the back of the plane they often run out of one of the two selections which isn't always ideal because it usually happens because one of the selections is not very appealing.

In summary although Etihad is a very modern airline it has many niggling problems that make the experience less enjoyable than it really should be, which is a shame because the problems are small and wouldn't take a great deal of work to improve.

Summary: Good airline but poor service tarnishes the experience