Hi guys, As you know, I have recently been in Blighty for 2 weeks. I flew Etihad from Manila to Manchester for what I thought was a reasonable $1,061. A somewhat strange experience though - the Asian leg (Manila to Abu Dhabi and return) was hugely disappointing! Flying in a 777-300, I was very disappointed with the food (lukewarm and not very well cooked,) plus, the flight attendants were bordering on downright rude!!! However, the Abu Dhabi/Manchester leg was totally different. Nice aircraft - GREAT food and friendly service from the FAs. Also, I found Abu Dhabi airport HUGELY boring!!! Nothing to do at all except sit and wait - departures board sometimes INCORRECT - (my return from AD to Manila was not announced at all!!!) Hope this is useful. Al.:england:
I did the middle east style trip twice but on Emirates, same as you the Manchester - Dubai leg was great and the Dubai Manila leg was horrible every time, at least Dubai airport was quite flash and fairly interesting, only one pub that I could find though.
Not being familiar with this particular airline, I won't comment, but due to the couple of bad reports i saw in the past, It will be very doubtful if I ever use it in future
I agree on the Airport, luckily when I went there I had about 45 minutes to wait for the flight. So all I could do was go to the comfort room and get ready for my next boarding again...
Al, would you feel happy to use them again or would you prefer to find an alternative? I've never been with them. Recently we've used Cathay Pacific, not always the cheapest but generally good for us. Although had one 'bad' flight due to very limited air-con.
Thanks for the info Al! I had the misfortune of transiting thru' Abu Dhabi, luckily it was a 20 minutes only, but yeah, what a boring place. Interesting fact, I met the CEO of Etihad, James Hogan when he was in charge of Gulf Air - only problem was I didn't know it was him until I saw his picture in the in-flight magazine - if I had known it was him I would have asked for an upgrade, even more ironic given that the particular Gulf Air flight was out of hours and couldn't leave Heathrow for 10 hours (should have left 10.30pm, A340 went tech, ATC refused takeoff due to night time curfew, so delayed till 8am next day)
I flew a couple of times 05-06 and found them fine the airport has a bar its a bit underground with a piano
Coming back to the UK, I remember Abu Dhabi airport for the line of people waiting to use the free internet. Everyone was standing in the middle of two PC terminals waiting for either one to become free so they could then use it... Except for when I turned up. There was this rude Asian looking guy who tapped me on the shoulder and demanded I pick one PC or the other. Anyway, I placated him by choosing a terminal that I knew would be free soon as the other had just been occupied a minute or so before. Then I simply checked my emails, some random other stuff (was limited though, think they blocked a ton of websites) then moved on. But I was quick to gesture the lady who had joined to line up behind me to take over... Seing as this guy had chosen the PC next to mine! Still, I kind of like the spiral design there...
The bar is still there, a little akward to find but its on the stairs between the ground and first floor at the back right corner of the terminal if I remember rightly. Very small with only a few bar stools but the important thing is they serve a very welcome beer. But on the whole the airport is crap. Did buy the wife a gold rado watch there a few years ago before gold prices went mental
