Etihad A320 flight to Doha

“We now welcome business class passengers to board Etihad flight EY661 to Doha”. I’m the first to board, walk down the jet bridge that doesn’t get any air conditioning and board the plane where the crew are busy repacking their toiletries in their crew bags in my seat. “Umm hi?” I say sensing I’m not supposed to be here. “I’m guessing they didn’t tell you we were boarding?”. To this I receive a very firm “No. you can’t be here” and am escorted off the plane to wait in the very hot aerobridge. #greatstart 😂

Just about the same time I’m profusely sweating me and the crowd now gathered behind me are invited to board. I hop into seat 1A, a standard recliner seat with tray table and tv monitor in each armrest. There are a whopping 20 business seats on this Etihad A320 each in a 2-2 layout. The seat beside me is vacant, as is about half the cabin.

While boarding continues I’m offered a choice of orange juice or “our signature lemon and mint”. If it’s ‘signature’ it mist be good so opted for that which was delicious and refreshing (especially after my mini sauna). This is followed by dates and Arabic coffee. In for a penny in for a pound. Even though I hate coffee (so bitter) I give it a go. Dang - that’s nice. Great combo with the dates too. Will be coming back for those for sure (to regulate bowel health of course). Meal orders are taken from back to front of the cabin. There is only 1 option; an Arabic Meze plate. I choose that.

And then we wait. Etihad start the boarding of an A320 45 minutes before departure. That’s a long time for not many people to board. Departure time came and went and I soon realised I’d be spending more time on the ground on this plane than in the air 😂. Actually the only other time I’ve flown an Etihad A320 before was out of Athens where the plane broke down as we tried to take off and we had to return to a remote gate and eventually deplane. Hopefully that won’t happen again today.

The door closed 10mins late and the captain made an announcement “… our flight is 45mins and we’ll fly east and arrive in Doha…”. The cabin crew talking in the galley said “it’s west” with an eye roll. They are right - hopefully the captain isn’t taking us the wrong way.

We raced another Etihad A320 to the runway and both lined up at the same time (with us winning taking an earlier position on the runway). As we took off past 3 Qantas A380’s parked up against the runway. They didn’t t look like much was happening to them. That’s almost a third of Qantas’ fleet in Abu Dhabi.

Meals came out straight after take off on this super short flight. The mezze bowl was delicious as was the tandoori chicken mini wrap. The dessert was interesting. Don’t know if I like it or not but I ate all of its bright yellow goodness. Barely finished my last bite and the seatbelt sign is on for landing.

I think the crew were tied today as about 5seconds before the wheels of the plane hit the runway they announced “cabin crew to landing stations”. Following that as we taxied to the gate they read an announcement “as we are beginning our descent into Doha please…”. Overall an ok experience but a little like the earlier Etihad flight not as polished as previously.

Now to enter my 51st country for about 10mins before flight 3/3 today to Madrid.もっと詳しく