Farewell Millemiglia, review Abu Dhabi - Milan flight in business class aboard Etihad's most modern and efficient Boeing 787
This trip will go down in my history as a reward traveler, as it was my last flight paid for with the [...]
Etihad Airways
Alitalia
MXP
This trip will go down in my history as a reward traveler, as it was my last paid flight With Millemiglia points from Alitalia's loyalty program..
In this article:
- Specifications
- Aircraft:
- B787/1000
- Class:
- Business
- Treat:
- AUH - MXP
- Price:
- 60000 thousand miles
- Book
Almost 20 years after that first flight from Malpensa to St. Petersburg.
The best bonuses
Now all that remains is to see what ITA, our new flag carrier, will do in terms of its loyalty program. Meanwhile, in the past few days, the following have in fact "died" the American Express credit cards branded Alitalia. Today is October 14 and officially ends the Millemiglia program, from tomorrow it will (perhaps) be a different story. The flight to Milan departed from Terminal 1, which is the old facility to which the new Terminal 3 was later added.
The lounge
As a business class passenger, I also had access to the Etihad lounge present in Terminal 3.
The hall at 3 a.m. was practically empty, but it slowly filled up.
The lounge is huge, but it is not modern. There is not a lot of seating with an outlet available, nor are there comfortable seats where you can relax before your flight.
The food offerings, in this case breakfast, were also not very rich, let alone up to the standard of what is to be expected from the main lounge of a carrier like Etihad.
At the airport
That it is an old structure no longer adequate for air traffic is obvious, but it certainly has a soul unlike the steel and glass of the new one.
The terminal built in the 1970s by Paul Andreu, known as the architect of airports, has at its center a huge flashlight from which beams lead to the gates.
Each spoke contains two gates, and in the "world before," it was easy to get clogged up when you found yourself with two departing flights within a short distance of each other.
Today there is a lack of passengers so there are no social distancing problems at the gates.
Aircraft livery is increasingly a canvas To tell a story, to sponsor a product Or to send a message. In this case at the terminal 3 gate departing for Manchester, there was the 787 designed in the colors of City, a Premier League team sponsored by Etihad.
Whenever I fly I try to find out all the information I can about the plane that will be used on the route, it may happen for example that the company for technical reasons replaces the car with a different model, realizing this in time can help to choose a better seat on board.
This time when I saw the initials of this plane, I immediately realized that I would be boarding a "special" machine: this Dreamliner, renamed Greenliner, is being used as a flying testbed to accelerate technological developments, with the goal of making commercial aviation safer and more sustainable.
It is the latest to enter service for Etihad last October and has a livery that tells how this is a special plane. In case a distracted traveler missed the stickers on the sides of the plane, there is another sticker right on the center door and a second poster on the cabin wall between business class and economy.
On board, of course, is the latest version of the business studio that has won Etihad dozens of awards.
The cabin is beautiful, from the colors to the lights reminiscent of desert flashlights. The seat is upholstered in a luxurious brown fabric. The chair turned into a bed is 185 cm long and one 56 cm wide.
The configuration is 1-2-1, this means that all passengers have direct aisle access. This is not a given, for example Emirates still has its business class cabin configured with 6 seats per row.
Sure, there are no doors that isolate passengers from the aisle giving more privacy, as we are seeing more and more frequently, however, everything else is the top of what can be found in the skies around the world. What makes Etihad's cabin special is that. the even-numbered rows of seats face the direction of travel and the odd-numbered rows instead travel toward the back of the plane.
If you like window-side seating, there is nothing better than the even numbered seats; all rows (except 8) have 3 huge portholes for viewing the scenery.
Also, just because of the way the two seats are interlocked, these are the ones that give the most privacy. Next to the seat is a large console table.
The seats in the middle rows are also different. Even-numbered rows face the direction of travel and allow passengers to travel closer and more isolated from the aisle, in contrast, odd-numbered rows travel turned in the opposite direction and the center console divides passengers. In each case, there is the option of raising a partition to obtain proper privacy from the passenger traveling close by, in case he or she is not a fellow passenger.
The space for each passenger is plenty, perhaps not as much as what offers Singapore Airlines or Qatar's QSuite, but we are still in one of the best business class cabins on the market today.
The chair is comfortable and can be configured in a multitude of ways, starting with the ability to decide how soft or hard you want the seat, and it is all manageable via a small touch screen found next to the remote control that controls the on-board entertainment system.
In addition to this, there is the ability to activate lumbar massage, adjusting the intensity and position of the area you want to massage during flight.
The coffee table is hidden in the console, is easy to pull out, and can be pushed forward to get up from the chair without having to close it.
On the other hand, you cannot adjust the height, if you want to work on the PC, this may be slightly uncomfortable.
Wanting to be very nitpicky and necessarily look for a flaw, I would say the lack of some useful secondary compartments so as not to leave cell phones and other items on the peninsula containing the front-seat passenger's legs. The only storage is the one to the right of the seat, which is deep enough, but not convenient for storing a cell phone.
Each chair has 2 USB sockets and a power outlet for charging one's electronic devices.
The 787 is currently the only airplane model that no longer has the classic sun shade to black out the windows, but uses an electronic system that allows the passenger to choose how much light to let through, simply by pressing on a button located under the window.
So you can manage the brightness of your space, especially as in this case when it is a daytime flight and you want to take a nap before landing.
The business chair becomes a real bed: as is the practice when there are these kinds of configurations with the seats sandwiched together, the legs end up in a smaller space than the rest of the body.
I must say, however, that compared to other airlines, see Singapore Airlines, it doesn't feel too constrained.
Then in the front bathroom, the one near the cockpit, there is something more unique than rare, which is a window. Of course, Chef Barbieri who is always looking for the ventilated bathroom might criticize the fact that it cannot be opened, but having a window allows one to admire a different landscape while performing one's personal needs.
In addition to the window, this bathroom deserves special mention for the space available to the passenger, it is really very generous.
The service on board
As soon as I reached my seat, the cabin attendant came over to introduce herself and greet me by name. Since it was morning I opted for a glass of orange juice, other passengers instead took the opportunity to have breakfast with a glass of champagne.
A few moments later I was delivered the little Acqua di Parma branded beauty kit, perhaps one of the most beautiful at this time among the various premium companies. The kit comes in different sizes and colors, a "boon" for those who love to collect this little souvenir.
The contents, however, are very basic. The usual socks and eye mask. Toothbrush and toothpaste and two Acqua di Parma products, a hand/face cream and a perfume.
In addition to these products, Etihad also delivers a small kit containing wipes, hand sanitizer, and a scarf/ balaclava to use when sleeping instead of a mask
Food & Beverage
Covid for some airline was the perfect excuse to do away with the classic paper menu, Etihad instead reinstated it in all travel classes. Being a morning flight, the offer included three different types of breakfast.
I must say that my French toast was, probably, the best I have ever had. Served with fresh strawberry puree and whipped cream, it was a real blast to start the day.
Service is done in a single tray, and no longer course after course as was the case before the pandemic, but I must say that everything brought to me besides the main course (fruit, hot muffins, yogurt, and tea) was really delicious, a definite step up from what was on offer in the lounge.
I was less convinced by the steak sandwich served as a light lunch just before landing, let's say theburger I had on Singapore Airlines Was a whole different thing.
IFE
In front of the seat is an 18.5-inch touchscreen TV. Under this TV is a large footrest with a small storage compartment (for storing shoes or a small bag).
The screen is touch, but you can manage everything from the controller on top of the coffee table. The remote control is also touch, and if you want you can use it to watch a second program or play games while on the TV watching a movie or one of the many programs available.
The content offerings are extensive, in fact there were the same programs that I had available a few days earlier when I flew in the opposite direction in economy on the same model aircraft.
The flaws are also the same, i.e., no cameras to look at what is going on outside or what the pilots see from the cockpit.
Headphones do their dirty work, although on board an aircraft that is already very quiet everything is easier. In any case, it is good to remember that you can connect your Bluetooth headphones to the onboard infotainment to be able to isolate yourself even more.
The flight was perfect, just some turbulence. As is often the case in this post-pandemic period, we took off a few tens of minutes early and landed at Malpensa very far in advance of the scheduled time.
In conclusion
I will never forget this flight, thanks to all the benefits provided by Alitalia's Millemiglia program, I flew to every continent spending little and nothing. I am not sure that tomorrow with ITA's new loyalty program you will have such a convenient award table with so many opportunities to travel far while spending so little. Above all, I am not sure if Etihad will still be among the partners of the new program and therefore, not being a partner of American Express and Membership Rewards either, it will be very difficult to go back to free travel on this airline.
Pro
- The cabin and the chair
- Breakfast
- The "windowed" bathroom
Against
- Some more content in the IFE
- Lack of web cams
- A couple of spaces/containers are missing in the chair
