Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 Economy Class Review [KIX to AUH]

Airline: Etihad Airways (EY)
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Flight #: EY0815
Route: Kansai International Airport (KIX) to Zayed International Airport (AUH)
Date: August 9, 2024
Duration: 11 hours, 15 minutes
Cabin and Layout: Economy class, 3-3-3
Seat: 22D
Cost: 33,500 Flying Blue miles + $156.35 in fees (including an onward flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha)

I planned an epic, 7-week trip across Asia with my 3 kids over the 2024 summer break. I knew I wanted to start in Phuket, Thailand, and route north to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, but I didn’t see any cheap cash flights or award flights from any of these countries back to our home in Doha, Qatar.

When I found a cheap cash flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Osaka, Japan, I tried to figure out the best way to position home from Japan. I always prefer a nonstop flight, particularly after a long vacation, but award availability on Qatar Airways from Osaka to Doha was nonexistent (and pricey!) on the days I was able to fly. Some creative searching and a partner award helped me score a great deal on a carrier I hadn’t flown in years: Etihad Airways.

Booking Etihad Economy Class

Utilizing point.me, I identified an Etihad Airways flight bookable with Flying Blue miles that would connect through Abu Dhabi and add only around 4 additional hours of travel time.

The cost for 4 one-way tickets from Osaka (KIX) to Doha (DOH) was 134,000 miles (33,500 miles each) and $625.40 ($156.35 each) for taxes and fees.

Flying Blue is the loyalty program for Air France and KLM, and I’ve never had an account, but the program is transfer partners with just about every major credit card rewards program. Knowing that I could piece together balances from American Express Membership Rewards and Capital One Miles, I created a Flying Blue account and transferred enough rewards to make the redemption.

I paid the taxes and fees with my Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card for its excellent travel protections and benefits, even on award bookings. The card’s travel insurance benefits include coverage for trip cancellation, interruption, and delay, as well as baggage insurance.

BEST BEGINNER CARD

Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

A fantastic travel card with a great welcome offer, good benefits, and perks for a moderate annual fee.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card

A fantastic travel card with a great welcome offer, good benefits, and perks for a moderate annual fee.

Welcome Offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

60,000 bonus points

UP's Bonus Valuation*:

$1,200

Annual Fee

$95

APR

20.74% - 27.74% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Good to Excellent (670-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred^® card is one of the best travel rewards cards on the market. Its bonus categories include travel, dining, online grocery purchases, and streaming services, which gives you the opportunity to earn lots of bonus points on these purchases.

Additionally, it offers flexible point redemption options, no foreign transaction fees, and excellent travel insurance coverage including primary car rental insurance. With benefits like these, it’s easy to see why this card is an excellent choice for any traveler.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 5x points on all travel booked via the Chase Travel portal
• 5x points on select Peloton purchases over $150 (through March 31, 2025)
• 5x points on Lyft purchases (through March 31, 2025)

Cons

• $95 annual fee
• No elite benefits like airport lounge access or hotel elite status

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Card Highlights

• Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases, $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit, plus more.
• Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Travel℠. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.
• Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
• 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.
• Member FDIC

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.74% - 27.74% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Rewards Center

Chase Ultimate Rewards

The cash price of the flight was $863 (almost half of the nonstop Qatar Airways flight’s price), so I received a redemption value of about 2.1 cents per mile.

Kansai International Airport (KIX)

Checking In

My family arrived at the airport at 2 p.m. for the 5:40 p.m. flight. Even though Etihad’s website said the check-in desks would open 4 hours before the flight, the reality was 3 hours. After a brief wait, a queue began about 20 minutes before the 3-hour window, and airline staff started helping passengers 10 minutes later.

We had our bags tagged and were through immigration and security in an amazingly efficient 15 minutes.

Card Members Lounge Annex Rokko

As a Priority Pass cardholder via my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, it looked like I would have a few lounge options at KIX.

Unfortunately, the ANA Lounge near gate 15 was full and only allowed Star Alliance passengers. We next tried the Card Members Lounge Rokko opposite gate 12, but this lounge was only open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Signage at that lounge directed us to the Card Members Lounge Annex Rokko around the corner from gate 13.

Card Members Lounge Annex Rokko participates in Priority Pass, LoungeKey, and DragonPass. A list of accepted cards was posted outside of the gate 12 Rokko lounge, and I assume that these cardmembers were eligible for both Rokko lounges.

The lounge was open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and only offered snacks and drinks, with alcohol for a fee (though I did not see where to order alcoholic drinks). Children under 6 years old were free.

The space was really not more than an area to look out over the apron with a drink and a packaged cookie.

My family was lucky to score these club chairs, and we hung out here for 2 hours before boarding. The lounge was positioned 1 level under the terminal train, so the space reverberated with a loud and vibrating bass sound every time a train passed. It was uncomfortable, but not enough to make us leave.

The lounge advertised snacks, but these 2 baskets of cookies were all that were offered. Our visit was midafternoon, and we hadn’t had lunch (counting on the lounge to help us out!), so these cookies did enough to tide my kids over until we could grab an onigiri (rice ball) from the FamilyMart convenience store closest to our gate.

The lounge had a coffee machine and a Coca-Cola fountain with iced coffee, iced tea, juice, sodas, and water.

The lounge had a dedicated network that was easy to connect to. My laptop stayed connected throughout the visit, and speeds were adequate at 20.02 Mbps download and 17.81 Mbps upload.

Hot Tip:

Etihad guests flying in business or first class have access to the Asuka Lounge near gate 11.

Boarding

The flight boarded from gate 8. I received an email at 4:51 p.m. that the 5:40 p.m. flight was boarding, though, in actuality, it was a bit delayed.

Boarding announcements primarily came from an agent showing which rows were boarding on a laminated sign, and all rows were boarding by 5:15 p.m.

From the jet bridge, we could clearly see the 787 taking us to Abu Dhabi.

On Board Etihad Airways’ Boeing 787-9

Prior to checking in online, I had chatted with Etihad to inquire about any family seating policy, which is essentially nonexistent. When checking in online, I saw that we were assigned 2 seats next to each other across 2 rows. My kids are all preteens, so this arrangement worked fine for us. I also wasn’t interested in paying to change seats.

What piqued my interest was the indication that we were assigned extra-legroom seats.

This Etihad 787-9 configuration had a forward business class cabin with the economy cabin split across the center and rear.

We arrived at our seats, which were assigned squarely in the center of the forward economy cabin.

I had plenty of space to store my carry-on bags above our seats.

Each seat was set with a pillow and a pair of headphones.

I instantly liked the modern design of the pillowcase, along with the adjustable leather headrest.

What I didn’t love was the design of the fabric seat, which wasn’t forgiving of stains or snags. After grabbing my headphones, I noticed that the seat bottom was soiled. Ick!

The seats were indeed some of the most spacious, legroom-wise, that I’d ever sat in (outside of a bulkhead seat). I had a comfortable amount of room for my knees, and when I fully extended my legs, I had about 6 more inches of room before my feet hit the bar under the seat in front of me.

The seat-back compartment held the safety instructions and a magazine. Netted pouches on the outside were well-sized for small items like a cell phone.

Of note is the that tray table just above the pocket looked like it had a small tray that would drop down to hold a single cup, but I couldn’t get this to work, and I never saw anyone using it.

I enjoyed flipping through Atlas, the inflight magazine (also available to view online).

I’m a big fan of tray tables that can fold in half, as this generally gives you more space if you’ve just got a drink or want a place to rest your phone.

The tray table also could open up fully and extend toward you.

To illustrate just how much legroom I had, I was comfortably able to work on my giant 15.6-inch laptop throughout the flight.

The seat back had a 13.3-inch touchscreen monitor with an extendable digital remote control.

The screen could be pulled toward you to adjust the viewing angle.

The left side of the unit had a USB-A and a headphone jack.

The right side had a hanger peg and a universal power outlet.

Buttons along the armrest allowed for seat recline.

Upon boarding, the cabin was quite stuffy, and after looking upward, I realized there were no air nozzles, just lighting controls.

Food and Beverage

Children’s Meal

I’m pretty familiar with rival Gulf carrier Qatar Airways’ children’s meals, so I was curious to see how Etihad would fare. While the Warner Bros. packaging was cute, the food didn’t excite my kids, and they barely ate.

The first child meal service was about an hour into the flight and consisted of hot entrée with a juice box, a roll, a yogurt, and a cup of something that looked like flan.

The entrée could not have looked any less appetizing. It was an odd mix of chicken or fish bites (not sure, as my kids didn’t try them), half of a hot dog, a medley of potatoes, broccoli, and carrots, and what looked like Spanish rice topped with scrambled eggs and ketchup.

About 3.5 hours later, the flight attendants passed through the cabins with a snack basket of chips, Oreos, and dates. After this treat, my daughter was still peckish, so I advised her to go to the galley to ask a flight attendant if there were any snacks. The flight attendant offered her 2 KitKats and chips — the midnight snacks of champions.

The second child meal service was about 6 hours after the first meal and looked a lot better: vegetable pasta, a small cheese sandwich, cookies, a KitKat, apple juice, and potato sticks. My kids ate the less-healthy bits and didn’t touch the entrée.

Bottom Line:

I have yet to find a carrier that offers hot entrées my kids enjoy. They often eat the junk food side items and won’t touch the main meal. I’m all for diverse, nutritious food, but at the end of the day, I just want my kids to get fed.

Low-Calorie Meal

Speaking of nutritious, I swung away from those KitKats and had preordered the low-calorie meal. The first service had a whitefish fillet with tomatoes, green beans, and carrots in a clear, gelatinous goop. This was accompanied by a side salad, a fruit mix, and a roll with (what I hoped was light) butter. I avoided the hot vegetables, but this meal overall was tolerable.

The second low-calorie meal service had a piece of salmon with rice and vegetables. I didn’t expect either or both meals to be fish, as I don’t love to attempt fish on a plane, but for an entrée that had been held for over 7 hours, the salmon was much better than the whitefish. It was accompanied by a salad, a few grapes, and another roll.

For regular meal service, the options were fish, pasta, or chicken with rice for the first meal, and shrimp with rice or vegetable noodles for the second meal. No menu was available to view on the IFE, so I’m not sure of specifics beyond what I heard the flight attendant offer.

Amenities

Blankets were available upon request, but there was no amenity kit. I was disappointed not to be taking home one of the reusable tote bag amenity kits mentioned in the inflight magazine.

Etihad offers Warner Bros. World Kids Packs to children up to 10 years old. We saw flight attendants distributing these throughout the cabin, but my kids (ages 10 and 11) were not offered anything.

Inflight Entertainment

Each seat was set with a pair of headphones. These were comfortable enough for the duration of the flight, but 2 of my 3 kids immediately complained of static, so we asked a flight attendant to replace the faulty sets.

I really enjoyed exploring the E-BOX inflight entertainment system. While the selection of box office movies was limited, the features and options really trumped Qatar Airways’ Oryx One system.

I liked that you could easily navigate using the touchscreen or retractable remote. It was also fantastic to see live TV, particularly during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

You could filter movies by genre or keyword and even create a playlist.

I was interested in playing around with the video-sharing feature but could not get it to work.

The settings menu had tons of options, from screen navigation to privacy to sound.

And I loved that you could set up dual screens to watch the flight map and the program of your choice (hello, live women’s 100-meter hurdles!).

Wi-Fi

It was quite unfortunate that I had the space to work on my full-size laptop but could never connect to the internet. I tried multiple times to connect on my phone and laptop but could never get through the Etihad Guest login screen.

For flights over 7 hours, chat is available for $4.99 (free for Etihad Guest members). Web surfing is $24.99 or 3,000 Etihad Guest miles. Gold Tier members get a 25% discount, and surfing is free for Platinum Tier members.

Lavatory

The lavatory situation was unlike anything I’d encountered on a flight before. The toilet closest to me wouldn’t flush from the previous passenger, so I informed the flight attendant, and she locked the lavatory until it could be remedied. The next 2 lavatories I tried had a design flaw in either the toilet lid or the curvature of the space in the back of the toilet that prevented the lid from staying up. I thought I had finally found a working lavatory in the fourth one I tried, but after staying up momentarily, the lid then started closing down on me — gross.

Bottom Line:

I liked the lavatory’s chic tile-look design, but the lack of functionality was disheartening.

Service

The flight attendants were not overly friendly on this flight, but they were able to help my family when we needed to swap headphones or get a snack.

My daughter and I were bypassed on one of the drink services, so I had to quickly catch the flight attendant to grab a drink. She didn’t smile or make an apology; she just quickly filled our cups and moved on.

Arrival

We landed nearly 2 hours ahead of schedule and arrived at a remote stand.

My kids groaned when they saw the bus service, as we’ve had long bus transfers at Doha’s airport before. But the bus transfer in Abu Dhabi took just 3 minutes.

Though our 2-hour layover in Abu Dhabi turned into a 4-hour layover because we’d arrived so early, we didn’t mind the extra time in the Pearl Lounge (again, here’s where a credit card that offers Priority Pass membership comes in handy).

Our final flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha was around 60 minutes long (it even had a meal service!), and then we were back home in Doha.

Final Thoughts

My last Etihad economy class flight was 12 years ago, and I was excited to see how the experience has evolved since then. The hard product, including the seat design and IFE screens, is fresh, modern, and comfortable.

On the other hand, the soft product, particularly the children’s food service and lack of amenity kits, could use a little polish.

Overall, the experience was mostly comparable to a Qatar Airways flight. If the price were advantageous enough or I had an opportunity to score an Etihad award when no Qatar awards were available, I wouldn’t hesitate to give up a few hours to connect through Abu Dhabi again.