Airline: Etihad

Flight Number: EY603 and EY602

Plane: Airbus A320

Cabin: Business Class

Seat: 1A

This Flight

This is my view of my flight from Abu Dhabi to Jeddah and back.

This was a business trip, and I was in Jeddah for a few days – seemingly the flights to anywhere in Saudi Arabia arrive at inconvenient times, and this was an example of that!

EY603 leaves Abu Dhabi at 02:20 and lands in Jeddah at 04:30.

EY602 leaves Jeddah at 02:50 lands in Abu Dhabi at 06:25.

As you an imagine, forget sleeping any night you’re taking these – I found these times shattering and much worse than any jetleg I’ve had from the US!

Checking In

Checking in for both of these flights was straightforward.

In Abu Dhabi, I was connecting, so it was a case of going through Security from my London flight and straight to the gate.

In Jeddah, I arrived a little after the 3hrs before the flight (mainly because I didn’t want to wait around for the desk to open), but was greeted by a very friendly chap on the desk, and everything was very straightforward.

The Lounge

In Abu Dhabi, I was gate-running so didn’t have a chance to visit any lounge, as my connection was 50 minutes.

In Jeddah, Etihad partner with the Wellcome Lounge, you can see my review here. Being completely honest, I didn’t think that the Wellcome Lounge was that great, so moved over to the Plaza Premium Lounge, using my American Express for entry.

The Plane

Making each of these fairly short-haul flights was an Airbus A320.

Etihad’s layouts on the A320 are 16 x Business Class seats and 120 x Economy Seats.

The Seat

I have to say I was quite impressed with this seat.

It was very clean and tidy, and very spacious.

The seat itself reclines, but does not go to flatbed – it is similar to American Airlines-style A320’s in that respect.

The seat is controlled with buttons on the side. The seat also has charging in the form of 1 x Euro socket and 1 x USB per seat. The table pulls out from the side and is of decent quality.

Food and Drink

Drinks

It is safe to say flying from Abu Dhabi to Jeddah was a dry flight!

Before takeoff options of water, orange juice or coffee were on offer. Post takeoff, I took a Coke Zero which was served with nuts.

Food

The food for both these relatively short +/-3hr flights was a single-tray service. To be honest this was much appreciated over the faff of anything more when sleep was to be had!

Choices of lamb, chicken or vegetable were available on both flights. I (unusually) chose lamb for both flights.

Amenities Kit

Perhaps unsurprisingly, for such a short flight no Amenities Kit was offered.

However, there were blankets and pillows waiting at my seat when boarding.

Entertainment

Something I found quite unusual was that on my flight to Jeddah, there were built in TV’s to the seats, which flipped out. On the TV was an identical offering to Etihad’s long-haul flights, which was great!

Unfortunately, on the way back, the TV’s were locked in and no entertainment was offered – nor were any iPAD’s – so I guess you could say this was very much a mixed bag!

Wifi

I don’t believe either of the flights were equipped with Wifi. If they were I didn’t see or use it.

Cabin Crew

On both of my flights the cabin crew were very friendly and helpful. The cabin crew introduced themselves to me and asked if there was anything I needed.

The cabin crew clearly had an appreciation that these were short flights in the middle of the night and were incredibly efficient with the dinner and drinks service – and quickly getting the trays collected for maximum sleep.

Landing

Annoyingly, when landing in Jeddah the plane was at a bus gate – so there was a wait for the bus. When the bus got the the terminal, there was then a long walk parallel to tram track, where the tram seemed to be out of action. The walk was long and immigration was also jam packed.

Flying back to Abu Dhabi was a lot better, with the plane parking at a proper air bridge, where it was (another long walk) back to Security in Abu Dhabi and off to the Lounge.

Conclusion

Although these were short +/-3hr flights, everything offered was of an excellent standard – and far surpasses British Airways’ offering in ‘Business Class’ on their A320’s. The entertainment system was a welcome surprise, and whilst the food wasn’t to my exact taste, it was certainly perfectly acceptable.

If there is a way to to take a 3hr flight anywhere in an A320 – I’d say this is a perfect example of how to do it (perhaps with better flight timings)!