6 July 2019
The longest leg
Flying to Abu Dhabi in economy on an Etihad 10 abreast 777 - Abu Dhabi lounge pics included
Warning! Boring airport photos ahead.
Thankfully my legs are not that long. I fit in 10 abreast oversold economy just fine. Also rumors of the Etihad service being horrifically bad since they announced 'enhancements' about a year ago are a bit overblown.
I did not really notice the difference between the 10 vs 9 seats in a 777, I have flown in 9 abreast many times. If anything the distance between the seats, often called pitch if you are a plane dork, was more than other airlines. Or perhaps my legs have shrunk.
Despite fitting perfectly fine in the torture device / seat, I got almost no sleep, In fact maybe none, the 3 times I nodded, I immediately re-awoke.
Thankfully all those around me seemed to be illness free, and the cabin was surprisingly lacking in lung hacking noises.
They have 3 meal services, the middle one just being a sandwich, and as far as I can tell thats the only time you can get a drink of any kind without paying. They also have paid trolley services with snacks. The stupid thing about this is each time they run this paid service they turn all the lights on, wake everyone up, and announce it. I never saw anyone buy anything from the paid trolley.
Since I am on no sleep with still a lot of no sleep to go until I get to Paris, I suspect this update will be largely nonsensical.
I have just refreshed myself with a second 2 course breakfast and long hot shower in the Etihad first class lounge day spa, which is wonderful. Actually the breakfast was served in the restaurant, not the day spa.
After this short boring update, I will go explore the airport before my flight, despite my long leg flight being 30 minutes early at 13.5 hours instead of 14, there is actually not that much time before the next flight, which will be on an A380.
Now onto the cataclysmically boring airport photos.
These were fast edits, dont expect award winning photos. Dont ever expect that from me. Here is my plane, from afar. Heavy crop at dawn. You can see the seats they have added making the sides of the tube bulge outwards.
This is the inside of the lounge. No downgrades here yet. I guess they are only downgrading their economy service, I qualify to use the first class lounge due to my status with Virgin Australia as top dork on board.
Here is course 1, fruit and yoghurt. It was probably enough, but they also had an ala carte menu, and thats a French word and thats where I am going.
So allah cart-e I did. Thats the correct French Arabic pronunciation. Scrambled eggs with mushrooms. It was great, toast was weird though, no crusts.
While waiting for my shower suite to be made ready by the various lab coated day spa servants, I took in a movie in the wrap around cinema.
And then I took about 30 photos of myself in the shower, all lathered up and soaking wet. If you send me $10 on paypal you get access to that exclusive gallery.