Frequent Miler on the Air - Etihad First Class apartments: morning vs evening | Coffee Break Ep58 | 6-3-25

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Greg and Nick recently both flew the same Etihad First Class route between Paris and Abu Dhabi in the first class apartments. Greg flew the morning flight from Paris to Abu Dhabi and Nick flew the reverse, an evening flight. Which one was a better experience?(00:51) - Why did Nick pick the evening flight that he picked?(01:40) - When using American Airline miles, availability is tough.(03:40) - What makes Etihad first class apartments special?(06:33) - Greg thinks the route isn't long enough to enjoy all the perks if you're also trying to sleep.(07:24) - Nick shares his experience with the evening/night flight.(10:48) - Greg explains what he likes better about the more daytime version of this flightVisit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

This is a VoyEscape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. Welcome to Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. And each Coffee Break is limited to 20 minutes or less for your money back. On today's Coffee Break, we're're gonna talk about Etihad first-class departments and whether it's better to take a evening flight or a morning flight. Yeah we've both done this before so actually just last year I guess it was we both flew the same route between Paris and Abu Dhabi but Greg flew in one

direction on a daytime flight and I flew in the other direction on an overnight flight so we'll share our thoughts about each of those and which one we think you should want and what other options like that may exist. Yeah, let's back up and talk about why Eddie had first class apartments are so awesome and how you can book them with miles and then we'll talk about which one is better to book if you have the option. Nick, why did you pick Eddie Head First to fly? Well because you can use American Airlines miles and it's a great deal frankly. Between Europe and the Middle East it's just 62,500 American

Airlines miles in first class and first class is pretty incredible when you're talking about international first class on a major carrier like this. It's a big difference over business class and certainly a huge difference over economy class and at that price, sixty two thousand five hundred miles. That's like one credit card welcome bonus that could get you a flight that might ordinarily cost four or five thousand dollars one way. So it's it's certainly worth the sixty two thousand five500 miles. Now, if you want to fly farther in Etihad First Class, you'll pay more, but still it's a relatively good deal when you're using

American Airlines miles, though of course the availability is tough when you're using American Airlines miles. It is. So first of all, Etihad usually restricts American Airlines from booking their first class awards to within like about 30 days. So if you have to wait almost the last minute to book these in most cases and even then they don't necessarily, they meaning American Airlines doesn't necessarily have access to all of the first-class award space that would be available to Etihad's own members. Luckily you can transfer a bunch of from various transferable points currencies to Etihad to use Etihad's own miles to book and award availability is much, much better that way.

Unfortunately, the price is also much, much higher if you book that way. And Etihad has very unfriendly policies about cancellations and mileage expiration. So I would only do that if your heart's really set on this, you don't have a chance to book with American miles or don't have the American Airlines miles and you're sure you're actually gonna fly it. Yeah, I'd be most inclined to consider that if I were flying like tomorrow or the next day and I were booking that close to departure where I knew nothing was gonna change

because like Greg said, the cancellation policy just stinks as you get closer and you lose more and more of the miles. Starting with if you cancel really far in advance advance you'll lose 25% of the miles and like Greg said they charge a fair number of miles so it's one of the largest cancellation penalties of any airline out there so it's not a not a very friendly one but again you got a couple different ways to book it with miles plenty of different points transfer to ad to ad guess so if you want to do it that way you certainly have a lot of different options to

collect your points to transfer over to AdTad. Otherwise booking the American Airlines within 30 days of departure is probably the way to go. So, all right, let's talk about it. What is AdTad first class like? What makes it special? Yeah, so we're not just talking about AdTad first class, we're talking about AdTad first class apartments,

which is a whole nother thing. So some of these big airlines have international first class which Nick mentioned before is so much better than even life flat business class. But this is next level above that. So this is where on just certain planes, this is just the Airbus A380 flown by Etihad, where they have this special first class that are called apartments, and each

apartment is like a little room. You have, I mean, you have a door, you've got walls around it, you come into your little room and there's like a bench on one side, a captain's chair, and a vanity station on the other side. And then when you're ready to go to sleep, the flight attendants turn the bench into a flat bed. And then you still have the seat, the captain's chair that you can move on to when you're not sleeping. So it's really an extraordinary physical experience. But then they also have all the first class stuff

like incredible service, incredible catering, and there's even a shower. So if you wanna shower while you're in the sky, you could reserve time in the bathroom that even a shower. So if you want to shower while you're in the sky, you could reserve time in the bathroom that has a shower and do that as well. And as is common with first class, when you're flying international first, there are lots of nice little amenities too.

For instance, they give you pajamas. And I think the last time we both flew, they were Armani pajamas. And they give you an amenity think the last time we both flew there were Armani pajamas and they give you an amenity kit with you know some upgraded amenities toiletries whatnot so uh so you get a couple of bells and whistles like that and then of course also lounge access and so if you're flying out of Abu Dhabi for instance you get their kind of dining experience in their lounge and so there are a lot of those other benefits that come along with flying first class also so it's a pretty special experience and it's 62 hundred miles one way between Europe and the Middle East

It's a pretty great way to enjoy that type of experience essentially on a budget You know compared to flying that type of product on any other routes around the world This is one of the best deals for a reasonably long flight You know what we're talking about seven hours, seven and a half hours on these routes or so, right? Yeah, between London or Paris and Abu Dhabi, it's about seven hours, a little bit more if you're flying west.

So if you're flying from Abu Dhabi to Paris or London, it's a tiny bit more. And so it's not a, and that brings us to the point of this whole conversation, right? Because it's not long enough to get a good night's sleep and enjoy all of the perks of flying first class. Yeah, you know, that's one of the things that is kind of fun about flying a really long haul first class product. You know, if you were to fly Lufthansa and fly from Frankfurt to somewhere in Asia or you're flying Singapore suites on basically almost any of the routes you'd consider that on, you know, you're flying a really long distance. And so when you're flying 10 or 11 or 12 or 13 or 14 hours in first class, you got plenty

of time to get a full night's sleep and enjoy the food and the wine and the service. But on these routes, it's kind of one of the other. Yeah, yeah. So so which which should you do? I mean, to me, it's so obvious, but I think it's worth talking about. Now, you let's talk about your experience first. So you flew an evening flight, if I'm remembering, from Abu Dhabi to Paris. Yeah. And evening flight is a very generous way to describe that. It's really like a middle of the night flight, because they take off from Abu Dhabi at, I don't know,

two o'clock in the morning or something like that, and arrive at like seven o'clock in the morning. So it's, you know, evening to me sounds like five or six PM. This is like middle of the night that you're flying on this for seven hours. So, so that already might sound like a non-starter, but let me sell you on a couple of the reasons you might consider departing Abu Dhabi. So you of course get a first class check-in area

in Abu Dhabi, they have a separate set of like immigration gates you go through and security and all that. So you get that sort of exclusive airport experience that you may not get at the outstation departure points, but when you're departing Abu Dhabi, you get some of that extra special stuff. And then of course you got the lounge in Abu Dhabi,

which is quite nice. And I sat down and enjoyed a nice dinner with wine and food, ordering a la carte from a menu, waiter served. So that was an excellent experience there. I got a complimentary short massage. Maybe it was a 15 minute, 20 minute massage, 30 minute, I can't remember what it was, but there was a little massage, you got a chair massage that was complimentary in the sort of spa there in the first class lounge.

So those are amenities that you're more likely to get. Usually if you're flying first class, you're more likely to get those types of amenities when you're leaving the carrier's hub than when you're leaving one of the outstations. So that's one of the nice things about departing from Abu Dhabi beyond that. The other reason you'd consider this, I guess, is if you value the night's sleep. Now I got to say that one of the reasons I think we've talked about in the past, uh, liking flying in business and first class, one of the things we appreciate about it is the opportunity to arrive somewhere arrested because you know, when I fly overnight, I really do value that flat

bed seat in a lot of cases. Now I'm generally speaking more about business class. I value that flat bed seat so I can fall asleep so I can get a good night's sleep and wake up in a new destination, rested and ready to go rather than wasting the first day feeling jet lagged. So, you know, from that perspective, departing Abu Dhabi might make some sense because you could get most of a night's sleep flying to Paris if you don't really care to experience the other amenities. That said if you don't really care to experience the other amenities you might consider

just flying in business class because I think business class is 42,500 miles one way which is also a pretty stellar deal and if all you're gonna do is sleep it's probably not worth the additional 20,000 miles and that's where some of the drawback comes in because on the overnight flight I had a more limited menu than what Greg experienced in the opposite direction because of course they expected people to sleep so there were fewer food options on my menu they did of course pass out the pajamas and the amenity kits and they served a departure beverage and I did have the opportunity to order something for dinner.

It was just something relatively simple and small. I was glad that I'd eaten a good meal in the lounge because it wasn't nearly as impressive a menu. And then normally when you're flying international first class, they're pretty generous about coming around to offer more wine or champagne or refill glasses, et cetera. And there was less of that type of service because most people were sleeping in the middle of the night. So they probably reasonably assumed

people don't wanna be bothered in the middle of the night, they'd rather be asleep. And so you don't get that same first-class service experience when you're flying a route like that. That's only seven hours and they're all overnight. Right, right. Now I had that similar experience as Nick years ago. So pre-pandemic, I flew from Abu Dhabi to London

on that night flight. And I loved it, but same time, yeah, the menu was very limited. I don't think I even, like I didn't eat anything dinner-like, I just went to sleep and then had a breakfast in the morning. I did that. I loved the whole experience, but when I had the chance to book a daytime flight, I was so excited because I knew I'm going I was tired enough to take a nap.

So, you know, once I boarded and once we're in the sky and everything, I did ask for them to put down the bench into a bed so I could take a nap. But that was maybe 40 minutes at most of the flight, felt refreshed, took a shower and really refreshed. And the catering was fantastic. I mean, we had like top shelf champagne. I did a whole, they were asking, the flight attendant was asking which wine I'd like. And I had consulted with Tim, who is our wine expert on our frequent miler team. And he had told me which wine

to get. And then the flight attendant suggested something else. And I said, how about, could I do a whole flight and just try all of them? So she was like, sure. She was game. And so did a whole tasting, first of all the whites, and then later of all the reds. I just had a great time doing that and chatting with the flight attendant about the different wines that she preferred as well. The meal, it started with caviar and then moved into the appetizer course which I think was lobster if I remember right and then a fillet for as the main and it was all terrific. And even though I had nearly seven hours, well, I guess a little over seven hours of, no, seven hours is correct, about seven hours of flight time and 40 minutes sleeping, it's,

you know, it still seems like well, six hours should be plenty of time, it still seems like six hours should be plenty of time. It still just flew by and I would have loved if it was even longer, but it was definitely long enough in that direction to really get the full flavor of it and really enjoy it. Now I did have a connecting flight onto business class on one itinerary in Abu Dhabi, so I was able to go into the first class lounge. I didn't experience as much of it as Nick did though, because I had a pretty tight connection. So I only had, I don't know, 20 minutes or I can't remember how long I had there. But you can engineer it so you can enjoy that lounge too, while they're on a connection.

So yeah, I don't think there's any question if you can, if you are going to take one of these flights between London or Paris and Abu Dhabi, daytime is the way to go. Now, if you're flying from North America, from or to North America to Abu Dhabi on the A380 and Eddie had first class apartments, then I don't think it matters because those are around 13 hour flights. You're going to get a sleep in, you're going to get full catering, and I'm sure it'll be an incredible experience. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it too much at all between North America and Abu Dhabi. Like you said, between London and Abu Dhabi, keep in mind that they have two daily flights right

now as we're recording this anyway. One of them is a daytime flight. They were saying seems like it would make sense. I think it's a 930 a.m. departure and then the other one's a 945 p.m. departure. I'd be less excited about that late night departure from London because again, you're just probably not going to get the full experience. So you want to look for the daytime departure. The other thing as Greg mentioned at the beginning, but I think probably bears repeating one more time for anyone who's not familiar, we're talking about it to have apartments, which is only flown on their A380.

And sometimes they do have more than one first class, more than one plane flying from a particular city. So from London, for instance, in the past, we have seen them offer a 777, or a 777, I guess that's how you're supposed to say it, right? 777 out of London before. I guess that's how you supposed to say right. 777 out of London before with that has first class, but it's not the at had apartments. Same goes for the 787. I think they have a first class also on that, but again it's not

apartments. So we're talking specifically about apartments. Now I have flown at you had first class non apartments before and that was also very good but I think the apartments is really the the most special experience and if you're going to use the miles you might as well go all the way and and get the full experience. So daytime apartments flight I think we both agree got to be the way to go. Yeah totally um, and I'll throw in there that Nick mentioned earlier that he wouldn't use Eddie had his own miles. He wouldn't transfer points to Eddie had zone unless he was like

leaving the next day or two. But for me, it's, it's a little different. I think it would more this way. Like if there's a big trip that, that I've been planning and I know I'm going to go barring, go barring a major disaster. And I wanna secure that seed because it's a once in a lifetime bucket list type of opportunity. I'd be willing to go for it.

I would not be happy about the situation if I had to cancel, but that's the risk you take in order to get access to something like this. Don't forget if you've enjoyed this and you'd like to get on our email list you want to go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list follow us on all the various social media and check out our frequentmiler on the air episodes dropping every Friday. Hi, I'm David Brody co-host of the Travel in 10 podcast.

Together myself my co-host Tim Johnson have traveled over 150 countries around the world and all seven continents. Now we're sharing our favourite places, some of our best tips and experiences from all around the world in just 10 minutes on Travel in 10. Join us at Foyascape.com.