I put together a rather substantial summer trip for my wife and myself and burned through quite a few miles on our flights. I purposefully routed us through the UAE as there was award space on Etihad's A380 in First Class. I contemplated the additional cash cost to upgrade to The Residence but at $3k it wasn't worth it to us as even their First Class would be quite the experience. And indeed it was. There is a separate airport entrance for Etihad First Class customers (next to the separate entrance for Business Class) and I was quickly directed to a private check-in area with no one but the two of us, three check in agents, and two bag porters. We were asked to have a seat in pretty nice chair while the agent completed our check-in, checked our passports, and tagged our bags. She then came over to us to present us with our boarding passes and let us know there was a chance we would be upgraded to The Residence but we would find out right before departure. She then escorted us to a private security screening area. There were no other passengers there so we quickly cleared and proceeded to the private immigration area where there was, again, no line.
After making our way through airport security and immigration in approximately 2 minutes combined we made our way to the lounge where we were personally escorted to the First Class passenger's wing.
We were seated at the restaurant and ordered dinner
After dinner we went downstairs for our free pre-flight massage and then it was time to head to the gate which was, conveniently, in the same lounge. We weren't called to the desk by the gate so we assumed there was no upgrade but as soon as my wife scanned her ticket there was the (this time) glorious beep by the system that announced a seat change. Sure enough our seats had been changed to 1A and 1C: The Residence.
The Residence is a 3 room section of the plane on the second level of the A380 at the front. There is a mostly private sitting area and a completely private bedroom and personal bathroom + shower
This flight was just amazing. The comfort and service level was just insane. We had a plated 4 course meal onboard with an additional wine selection list exclusive to The Residence. And it would be just a shame for those wines to not be enjoyed right?
The personal bathroom was great too - no waiting at all and always clean. Showers were limited to 5min for each of us but that was more than enough and the space was surprisingly large. I mean not in terms of a house shower but easily bigger than your average cruise ship shower. It was awesome to leave the plane freshly showered. And to sleep on an actual bed for our overnight flight? And as a free upgrade? I mean come on. Overall it was about 300,000 miles and $600 for the flight
Earlier in the trip we also flew Etihad's Business Class which was also fantastic and the best Business Class experience we had on our trip
You could change the firmness of the seat and it came with multiple massage settings
We had three flights on Singapore Airlines and their consistency was fantastic. Same seat, great food, and great service - even on a 2.5 hour flight where they managed a full meal service of individually plated food. Granted they also run flights configured with just recliner business class seats on this short route but I specifically chose a timing that worked for us and included their better seating:
Meal pictures from our flight to Tokyo
Our last business class flight was on Delta. I knew going into this trip we were going to peak on Etihad half way through and end with likely the worst experience on Delta. But it was a bad joke how poor everything on Delta was compared to everything else. This was my first run in with the seat colloquially known as the 'coffin seat' and the name is spot on. I basically had to sleep like dracula with my arms crossed across my chest because it was so narrow. It's by FAR the worst lay flat seat I've ever experienced. And I think my iPad is bigger than the screen that had roughly 10 total pixels to display the paltry 20 available movies.
For the meal service I was asked what bread I wanted and there was a kind of orange-y colored roll option I didn't recognize.
Exterous: "Hmm what kind of role is that?"
Delta Flight Attendant: "I don't know" and dropped one on my plate with her tongs and left
They had all of 5 wines on the list with one of them noting "Ask your Flight Attendant for the sommelier selected white wine for your flight"
Exterous: "Can you tell me what white wines you have?"
Delta Flight Attendant: "Uh...hmm...well this one looks like a Pino Grigio. Lets see...this other one is..." stares at bottle of wine for 2 minutes "some kind of Spanish wine. Which one would you like?"
And this was after both Etihad and Singapore airlines FAs were telling me proactively about other wines I might be interested in. "If you liked that Cabernet we have this great Merlot that I think will pair really well with the beef. And might I recommend this port over the Riesling for your dessert choice."
And good christ the food on Delta was terrible. Look I am aware that most of my complaints are very first world so far (Oh no his lay flat seat was not as comfortable. They didn't take the time to learn the 5 free wines he could order) but this was probably the worst meal I've ever had served to me anywhere let alone on a flight. And there are very few meals that I would call bad. I won't turn away a Red Barron or Little Caesar's pizza. I love Taco Bell. Hell I would have been happier if they'd just handed me a Cheez-whiz can and some crackers. So the bad seat, terrible food, and FAs who were polite on the surface but didn't put any real effort into their job on the heals of such amazing experiences was jarring - to the point of being funny.
But anyway - The Residence. Would recommend.
After making our way through airport security and immigration in approximately 2 minutes combined we made our way to the lounge where we were personally escorted to the First Class passenger's wing.
We were seated at the restaurant and ordered dinner
After dinner we went downstairs for our free pre-flight massage and then it was time to head to the gate which was, conveniently, in the same lounge. We weren't called to the desk by the gate so we assumed there was no upgrade but as soon as my wife scanned her ticket there was the (this time) glorious beep by the system that announced a seat change. Sure enough our seats had been changed to 1A and 1C: The Residence.
The Residence is a 3 room section of the plane on the second level of the A380 at the front. There is a mostly private sitting area and a completely private bedroom and personal bathroom + shower
This flight was just amazing. The comfort and service level was just insane. We had a plated 4 course meal onboard with an additional wine selection list exclusive to The Residence. And it would be just a shame for those wines to not be enjoyed right?
The personal bathroom was great too - no waiting at all and always clean. Showers were limited to 5min for each of us but that was more than enough and the space was surprisingly large. I mean not in terms of a house shower but easily bigger than your average cruise ship shower. It was awesome to leave the plane freshly showered. And to sleep on an actual bed for our overnight flight? And as a free upgrade? I mean come on. Overall it was about 300,000 miles and $600 for the flight
Earlier in the trip we also flew Etihad's Business Class which was also fantastic and the best Business Class experience we had on our trip
You could change the firmness of the seat and it came with multiple massage settings
We had three flights on Singapore Airlines and their consistency was fantastic. Same seat, great food, and great service - even on a 2.5 hour flight where they managed a full meal service of individually plated food. Granted they also run flights configured with just recliner business class seats on this short route but I specifically chose a timing that worked for us and included their better seating:
Meal pictures from our flight to Tokyo
Our last business class flight was on Delta. I knew going into this trip we were going to peak on Etihad half way through and end with likely the worst experience on Delta. But it was a bad joke how poor everything on Delta was compared to everything else. This was my first run in with the seat colloquially known as the 'coffin seat' and the name is spot on. I basically had to sleep like dracula with my arms crossed across my chest because it was so narrow. It's by FAR the worst lay flat seat I've ever experienced. And I think my iPad is bigger than the screen that had roughly 10 total pixels to display the paltry 20 available movies.
For the meal service I was asked what bread I wanted and there was a kind of orange-y colored roll option I didn't recognize.
Exterous: "Hmm what kind of role is that?"
Delta Flight Attendant: "I don't know" and dropped one on my plate with her tongs and left
They had all of 5 wines on the list with one of them noting "Ask your Flight Attendant for the sommelier selected white wine for your flight"
Exterous: "Can you tell me what white wines you have?"
Delta Flight Attendant: "Uh...hmm...well this one looks like a Pino Grigio. Lets see...this other one is..." stares at bottle of wine for 2 minutes "some kind of Spanish wine. Which one would you like?"
And this was after both Etihad and Singapore airlines FAs were telling me proactively about other wines I might be interested in. "If you liked that Cabernet we have this great Merlot that I think will pair really well with the beef. And might I recommend this port over the Riesling for your dessert choice."
And good christ the food on Delta was terrible. Look I am aware that most of my complaints are very first world so far (Oh no his lay flat seat was not as comfortable. They didn't take the time to learn the 5 free wines he could order) but this was probably the worst meal I've ever had served to me anywhere let alone on a flight. And there are very few meals that I would call bad. I won't turn away a Red Barron or Little Caesar's pizza. I love Taco Bell. Hell I would have been happier if they'd just handed me a Cheez-whiz can and some crackers. So the bad seat, terrible food, and FAs who were polite on the surface but didn't put any real effort into their job on the heals of such amazing experiences was jarring - to the point of being funny.
But anyway - The Residence. Would recommend.
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