I wasn’t expecting to be sitting in the first class cabin again so soon after the Emirates Suite, but here I am flying from Abu Dhabi to London on Etihad. Unfortunately it was just several months before Etihad resumed its First Apartment service on this route, otherwise it would have been a very different experience.

After visiting the very underwhelming first class lounge, I am ready to board the plane. First and business class passengers are invited to board together, but the flight attendant is vigilant when a first class passenger arrives and guides them to the seat.

In business class they have the Business Studio which I very much liked.

Back to business, oh I mean first 😛 There are two rows and eight seats in total. Oddly half of them are backward facing which you don’t normally anticipate in premium cabins.

The first class cabin is very empty today. From the conversations I picked up one of the passengers was upgraded, probably due to his elite status in Etihad Guest.

Etihad’s first class seat is rather industry standard. It is a long rectangular-shaped private suite. When I say suite, it’s obviously not on a par with Emirates, but still quite spacious otherwise.

The sofa chair and IFE screen are fixed to either end of the suite. If you are travelling with someone, they could sit down on the foot rest for a paired dinner.

There’s a mini-bar under the arm rest, which contains some soft drinks.

There are a remote control and small screen on the other side. It might sound counter intuitive but the seat a bit too wide for me to be comfortable, as my arms cannot rest on both sides at the same time.

Like in business class the amenity bag is produced by Acqua di Parma. Don’t forget to take your pyjamas!

This is when the suite is switched to sleeping mode.

I find it private and cosy enough. One big problem though is the lack of storage space. Not sure if you have noticed but there’s NO overhead locker in first class. The only place where you can leave you stuff is under the foot rest.

Fortunately the seat next to me is empty so I just put my bags there. I’m not sure where people store their personal items when the cabin is full.

The IFE system is the same across all cabins, as I have also travelled in Etihad’s business and economy class recently.

Time to eat something! A collection of amuse-bouches before the meal:

The menus:

The selection of food is similar to what Emirates offers. It goes without saying that I need to order the caviars first:

It’s nice but I’d love to have more than just 20 grams.

Followed by the Arabic mezze and lamb shank mandi. The latter is braised lamb with rice, which tastes really good and reminds me of a delicacy in China’s Uighurs region.

But the most amazing dish has be to the chocolate fondant, and I’m not even a chocolate person! On the whole I think Etihad’s first class wins against Emirates on catering.

It’s very poor of them to offer first class passengers only 200MB free wifi though. Remember to create a Boingo account beforehand for your free wifi.

Finally, the bathroom:

Etihad’s first class on Boeing 787 is good but nothing spectacular, and the next time I’ll probably lean towards its Business Studio as the experiences aren’t so different and the latter costs a lot less. Etihad’s First Apartment will be of course, a totally different story and I hope to try it out soon.