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Dad’s Review: Etihad First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi
Miles has REALLY spoiled us with First Class everything on this trip! Any one of the five location stops on this trip would make a wonderful destination vacation by itself. And he made the travel to each location a remarkable and truly enjoyable experience by booking us in First Class or better on elite international flights. At little or no cost. Unreal! We had just spent 4 days in the UAE enjoying Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It was time to move on to the south of France and I was looking forward to seeing what the Etihad First Class treatment was like.
IMHO the ground experience prior to the lounge leaves much to be desired.
The airport is old and very congested. The First Class check-in and security areas are too small and too slow. After clearing this area, First Class passengers are merged with a heavy stream of other passengers into an undersized, poorly marked passageway. If you’re not alert, the flow of people will sweep you right past the entrance to Etihad’s First Class Lounge without you even seeing it. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. This made a bad one on me.
The Etihad First Class Lounge and Spa is located on the second floor.
As soon as you clear security you need to keep to the right to enter a marked hallway that leads you to a Etihad rep checking credentials for admittance. Then you can head upstairs to the reception area, which is roomy, richly appointed and staffed by 2 people. They will assist you with reservations and access to any of the Spa’s facilities and services and answer any questions you might have. We skipped the Spa and headed left into the Lounge.
Upon entering the inverted U-shaped Lounge, the main menu dining area and bar stretch out down the left side of the inverted U. After that there is a buffet area and another bar with windows overlooking the airport along the cross member of the U. Then on the right side are seating areas, a TV room and a self serve beverage area. In general I would say the Lounge is very clean with a place for everything and everything in its place. The service staff is friendly and helpful. The chairs in the sitting areas are large but not very comfortable and there are too few chairs in the TV room. We did not eat while there so no opinion on the food.
It is my understanding that this facility is new – having been open only a little over a year. And granted we did not check out the Spa facilities or services. But I have to admit I left somewhat disappointed.
I have seen traveller polls and read many traveller comments praising Etihad as the best airline in the world. I assumed the ground experience and the lounge at their Flagship location would be the best as well. But what I found was a ground experience that was only tolerable and a lounge that was really nice, but lacked the WOW factor that we experienced earlier on this trip at The Private Room in Singapore, The Wing, and The Pier Lounge in Hong Kong.
You don’t have to stop here. Check out how we paid $5k and took a $125k Surprise trip Around The World to celebrate my Mom’s 75th
Flights:
- Boston to Beijing
- Beijing to Singapore
- Singapore to Bali Roundtrip
- Singapore to Dubai
- Abu Dhabi to Cannes, France
- Cannes, France to Dallas
Hotels:
- Boston
- Beijing
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
- Club King ($250)
- Singapore
- Bali
- Singapore
- Dubai
- Abu Dhabi
- Cannes, France
- Dallas
- Grand Hyatt DFW ($150
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
Lounges
- Boston
- Hong Kong
- Beijing
- Singapore
- Bali
- Singapore
- Abu Dhabi
- Etihad First Class Lounge
- Etihad Business Class Lounge
- Etihad Shave Experience
- London
- Nice
- Frankfurt
Afternoon Tea
TIPS:
- When to look for Cathay award space
- How we booked 3 Singapore Suites
- 5 things we loved doing in Singapore that avoided the heat
- Never trust the concierge
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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