Background:
This is the second leg of my trip to Rome: a continuation of EY889 from PEK to AUH. Refer to Part 1 for the detailed introduction. As a reminder, the routing is as follows:
Part 1 – NGO-PEK [EY 889, Airbus A330-200, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-9850.html
Part 2 – PEK-AUH [EY 889, Airbus A330-200, Business] – You are here
Part 3 – AUH-FCO [AZ 853, Airbus A330-200, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-9914.html
Part 4 – FCO-BRI [AZ 1607, Airbus A320, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-9934.html
Part 5 – BRI-FCO [AZ 1616, Airbus A320, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-9968.html
Part 6 – FCO-BEG [AZ 592, Airbus A320, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-10012.html
Part 7 – BEG-AUH [EY 72, Airbus A319, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-10036.html
Part 8 – AUH-PEK-NGO [EY 888, Airbus A330-200, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-10305.html
Pre-flight:
Nothing!
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Etihad Airways, EY889
Equipment: Airbus A330-200 [A6-EYJ, delivered June 2006]
Departure: 1:20 (ATD: 1:42)
Arrival: 6:45 (ATA: 6:19)
Flight time: 8:37
The last report finished as we arrived at our gate at PEK around midnight next to this JL B737-800.
Before we know it, the front door opens and deplaning begins for passengers terminating at PEK, which for business class will be no one. All the passengers originating from NGO will continue on to AUH. We were instructed that there would be a crew change in PEK, but assured that we would be taken care of. E-Box immediately was restarted so that we would have entertainment during the technical stop, which was nice.
As I snuggle under my blanket for a nice quiet movie with Brad and Angelina, all of a sudden we were flanked from the rear! A stampede of Y passengers getting off in PEK come storming down the aisles banging their luggage into the seats as they make their way through the narrow cabin. I understand that deplaning through both L1 and L2 makes sense for a quicker turnaround, but at the same time when you have a nearly full cabin just sitting there sleeping or relaxing, it’s a little absurd to unleash a stampede on them.
The pandemonium didn’t stop there, as soon as the Y passengers were deplaned we had the crew change as new pilots and FAs boarded the aircraft. The fire alarm must have gone off because the new crew went into panic mode. It was like watching a relay race, the new crew came on and were just running around like chickens with their heads cut off and we were all just sitting there watching this unfold. It was complete chaos for about 40 minutes as they were running from galley to galley, prepping things for the next flight. Obviously, this crew has much less time to prepare for a flight than normal, but they should be a little bit more aware of their “audience.”
I just took a deep breath, put on my headphones and turned to the window to watch the action outside. I got to watch the cargo bay open and the containers get swapped out. Then, the catering next showed up and did their work. It’s always interesting watching these things go on. The cleaning crews only took care of the lavatories before disappearing since there were no seats to touch up.
On a queue, the panic ended as boarding began again and E-Box was restarted for the boarding screens, but we were still able to watch programs until the safety video started at push back. So I’ll take a moment to introduce the safety card and in-seat literature aboard this A332.
This flight was going to be a full load from PEK-AUH as the new passengers poured on. Welcome drinks were then offered; only water or juice due to customs issues with serving champagne on the ground in China. I grabbed a water to start hydrating myself for the restful sleep I was anticipating having on this flight. This was followed by distribution of an oshibori on a platter (my hand makes a nice platter, but it was actually served on one). Menus were then handed out along with amenity kits (the real ones this time).
I like the EY amenity kits, it’s nice that they took inspiration from their culture in designing these and they are a nice woven fabric. However, the contents are a little minimalist. We have eye shades and socks (same as shown in the previous report), ear plugs that come in an interesting tube, dental kit (toothbrush and toothpaste), care kit (cotton buds, pads, and emery board), and some KORRES products (lip balm and hand cream). Nothing spectacular.
Everyone is just standing around the water cooler outside so they must be done prepping the plane.
My FA came by, introduced himself, then asked if I would like to have a snack after takeoff or if I would prefer to just sleep. I was feeling slightly peckish, so I asked for a steak sandwich and a fruit plate off of the “all day” menu. I was then asked for a post-takeoff beverage and beverage to be served with the sandwich to which I replied still water for both (much to the disappointment of those reading this report). Breakfast orders were also taken at this time, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I went for the “gasp” omelet. I should have gone for the duck noodles, but hindsight is 20/20.
The front door was closed and the new captain came on and introduced himself and his co-pilots while describing the flight plan. We were going to cruise at 37,000 feet and would be expecting heavy turbulence over southern China close to the Himalayas. Oh great, there goes that sleep I wanted… He also apologized for the delayed departure from PEK, but insisted they would make up the time enroute.
The safety video started with our mandatory prayer to Allah (sorry for the quality, I was fumbling for the camera before it switched on to the safety video). For those of you against this practice by carriers from Islamic nations, it’s really short and you’d miss it unless you were carefully watching the screen. There was also Wi-Fi available on this flight. I wasn’t going to pay their excessive fees to use it, but it’s there and works for those that are interested.
We began our push back past our neighbor; then watch our ground crew slowly walk back to the terminal as the engines started up.
The taxi to the runway was a little on the long side, but it did allow for some great night spotting at PEK. First up is a UN B767, which was followed by a MH A333, CX B747, and EK B777. We then headed by CA filled remote stands.
Who is this sexy lady??? No other than CA B747-800 that I seem to spot on every trip…
Finally, we taxi past a sea of CA tails, some ZH and 3U narrow-bodies, and a rare HO A320.
We arrive to runway 36R (in case you couldn’t read one of the four signs in the grass) and without even letting off the gas start our run down the runway. A picture of the cabin as we takeoff.
Soon wheels were up as we lift up over PEK allowing for some last minute spotting before rising up above the clouds.
Apparently I passed out at this point (it was after 3am Japan time), because I wake up 20 minutes later to find the cabin still in takeoff lighting, but nobody else up. Thinking I missed my chance to eat, I start to fidget looking for the amenity kit to get ready for bed when the FA magically appears at my side. He asks me if I still wanted to eat; claims he came by twice already to serve me, but I was out cold. I guess the third time is the charm, I applaud him for his proactiveness. I told him to pass on the nuts, but just to bring the sandwich directly. Five minutes later my table is set and I’m presented with my snack. I didn’t ask for the potato crisps, but they showed up anyways. For some reason I was expecting the meat to be more like sliced roast beef, but it was actually a piece of steak. Meat was a little over for my liking, but not greasy so no major complaints with this snack.
It was a good late night snack before tucking into my bed somewhere north of Chengdu. Here is the seat in full flat mode (I should have put the wall light on for this photo). It is a fully flat seat, but the ottoman section is about 1 cm lower than the seat part, which is a little bit weird feeling. Overall, the length of the bed is good, I’m 182 cm and had no issues. The new blankets are now all brown (no more ‘prison stripes’ as jetsetpanda described it), but retain the plush underside.
I wake up around here about 1.5 hours later due to heavy turbulence as the captain promised. So, I just laid in bed and watched E-Box for a bit. Eventually the turbulence let up, so I made a quick dash to the lavatory. Here is a quick shot of the front galley area and the bathroom that is on the left side of the cabin near the cockpit (photos taken with my phone, people give you weird looks when you take a DSLR into the lavatory…). These things are tiny due to the curvature of the plane. I literally had to lean backwards to use the restroom. As you can see, it was very clean at this point in the flight (albeit not very fancy) and had a face mist, lotion, and hand sanitizer stocked.
I then when back to my seat and started to sleep again. But here we go again… Turbulence starts up again and I find myself awake just outside of Islamabad. With three hours to go, and only two and a half hours of sleep under my belt, I start dreading this day that requires yet another flight. Eventually, I doze off again and awaken closer to Karachi and notice the German kids that got on in Beijing across the aisle eating breakfast. I’ll take that as my cue to take breakfast myself!
I flag down the FA working the other aisle and request my breakfast service. She comes back a minute later and verbally repeats my original order to make sure it was correct or if I wanted something else.
I will say this; the crew did their job even though it was an overnight flight and the cabin was in complete darkness for 80% of the flight. I tested this out twice on this flight while I was up. I would put an empty water bottle on the console and see how long it took for it to be picked up and replaced and it was done both times in less than 15 minutes.
No oshibori before this meal, but linens were laid and the tray was placed down containing pastries, yogurt, and a fruit plate. Along with a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee. The fruit plate was simple, but the yogurt with granola was good, and the pastries were warm and flaky. After that, the mistake arrived. The omelet was just egg. It was real eggs and not your normal processed plastic egg loaf, but it was just plain and boring. The sausage was flavorless. The best things on that plate were the tomato, asparagus, and mushrooms. I should know better than to order eggs (or snakes) on a plane, but these things happen.
I wrapped breakfast up with another cup of coffee as I enjoyed the first light as we crossed into Oman near Muscat. The rest of the cabin was waking up at this point and the cabin lights started to cycle on and the oshiboris finally arrived (in conjunction with the normal meal time). After the meal service, the FA stopped by each passenger thanked him or her by name for flying and provided either a FastTrack pass or connecting gate information. This gate information was actually correct!
As a brief interlude, let’s talk about some other negative points of EY, after all one should always be critical in these reports. The headphones supplied are not good. Also, even though the window seats or honeymoon seats are “direct aisle” access, that access is terribly narrow. This photo was taken with the seat in a slight relax mode, as you can see, the aisle access is already completely blocked by the seat and you can’t get out of the seat. You have to have the seat in the complete upright position to ever get out unless you work in Cirque du Soleil.
The cabin starts to prepare for arrival as we start to see civilization in the desert below.
This allowed me the chance to start taking the stereotypical winglet shots in dawn’s early light. You can vote on which one you like best.
We go past this unidentifiable airport and some other desert dwellings as we approach the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
But is that water I see on the horizon? Looks like we won’t be landing from the west today, but will be heading back into the Gulf and turning around for an eastern landing. Good for you guys! Some spectacular early morning views!
And here is a picture of my private estate that I haven’t told you guys about yet.
This is the point where things start to get interesting. As we are in our descent, one of the two German kids across the aisle from me starts to scream uncontrollably due to the pressure changes in the cabin. The mom tries to comfort him and then a couple of FAs show up and try to offer assistance. One of them runs off to the crew locker and starts rummaging around and pulls out some gum and other lozenges to give to the kid. That settled that situation down quite a bit and there wasn’t too much more screaming/crying during the descent. After landing, the same FAs came back by and checked on the kid and gave instructions to the mom to stop by the lounge for further assistance during their layover. Shows there is some human aspect to the crew.
We eventually turn around and start heading back to the shore. We can see downtown Abu Dhabi in the horizon and some posh resorts below us as we make a run past this cool looking bridge.
Winglet with Abu Dhabi.
Winglet sans Abu Dhabi.
Ohhh! This place looks fun! Maybe I can have my next birthday party there.
What is this massive red thing right below us? Oh, that’s Ferrari World.
The Yas Marina Circuit, home of the Formula1 Abu Dhabi GP.
We soon touch down at AUH, right next to the monstrosity of a new terminal that they are building. As the captain promised, the delayed departure from PEK was nullified and we landed a good 20 minutes early.
As we turn off the runway, we get a beautiful morning light view of the famous crescent moon control tower. But I was slightly distracted by all the shiny things outside because I missed this WY plane going by and only got its tail.
We spot two Abu Dhabi Amiri (MO) B747s parked in the distance so it looks like no major UAE business is being done abroad at this time. There’s also an area filled with Gulf carrier narrow bodies at remote stands.
One of the new EY B787s in new livery that is now being deplaned by paxbus.
We then pass by the main terminals where there is a sea of EY wide bodies.
Who is this poking their rear out? Could that be my ride to Rome? Yep, there’s the AZ A330-200 that will take me to FCO and it will not require a paxbus!
I must have jinxed myself because we just kept on taxing past the terminal into the cargo container graveyard. Eventually, we finally pulled into a remote stand next to our older brother.
A peak out the window shows that this pirate is ready to board our vessel and raid our booty.
Paxbus can be an inconvenience, but for a FRist it is a great chance to get tarmac photos. We deplaned through L2 with FAs blocking off the Y hoards until we deplaned. A couple of FAs were deadheading in Y from PEK because they emerged from Y and got on our VIP bus (it’s not really called that, but in honor of CA, I will repurpose the name).
Our bus takes us through the bowels of the cargo terminal before zipping by some more remote stands filled with EYs.
And as if things don’t get better, we also drive by my AZ A332 again, up close and personal this time. I’ll show you all her dirty parts, like under her wing and her landing gear.
We get dumped off at Terminal 1. Heading up the escalator we start heading towards the left? Nope, I’m heading for passport control. Our on-time arrival means I have enough time to head landside to pick-up some UAE passport stamps. Walking towards immigration, I spot this QR A320 getting pushed back. Immigration took about 10 minutes and I was on UAE soil!
I quickly stopped in the EY Arrivals Lounge, which was crowded, but I just needed to use the restroom real quick. The agents looked at me really confused since apparently it is only used for people waiting for chauffeur service, not for crazy people making pit stops on the way back into the airport. Given the crowd, no photos of the lounge area as I walked by, but here is a picture of the private bathrooms in the lounge.
With an empty bladder and passport stamps, it was time to head back into the airport!
Tune in next time at the same bat time on the same bat channel. Will NGO85 have a magnificent experience aboard AZ’s Magnifica class? Only time will tell…
Nice continuation of your trip report. At least you were entertained with the show provided by the new crew when the alarm bells went off. I can't blame them for being caught off guard. I guess some carriers prefer to disembark everybody during a stop in order to be able to conduct flight preparations and cleaning at ease without the watchful eyes of passengers.
The disembarkation of passengers could have been handled better through the use of the 2L door right behind the J cabin, but then again, perhaps they were forced to use 1L due to local airport regulations.
Catering looks adequate for a flight of that length. Personally I hate red eyes that provide a snack and breakfast combo in premium cabins. You get less value for your premium experience if food is a major factor for you. Having said that, having four choices for the second service breakfast is commendable. Never mind that the omelette was bland.
Again, the amenity kit with a cultural reference of the host country is a nice and special detail. However the quality of the cosmetics does not seem up to par with competitors like QR or EK. Having said that, if given a choice I find EY followed by EK more appealing than QR.
Looking forward to find out how magnificent was your Magnifica experience on AZ. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much for your comments.
The “show” on the returning flight was even more interesting. I think these processes generally depend on the safety regulations of the countries where the flight is terminating. For example, when I did ICN-NRT-HNL, we had a forced deplaning at NRT since the aircraft had to be rescreened to meet US security requirements. UAE probably has more lenient security requirements. The other issue might be China’s transit policies, where all international transit passengers have to undergo passport checks and security. Keeping passengers quarantined on the plane might exempt them from these requirements, I don’t know, that’s just conjecture.
Both 1L and 2L were engaged at PEK. FAs at 2L must have seen that no more J passengers were deplaning from 1L; so they let them use both exits to speed up deplaning. This is what normally happens since that front cabin “should” be empty, but in this special circumstance the front cabin was still full.
Catering quantity was good, presentation was good, and selection was good. When you consider the entire NGO-AUH flight (comparable to a long TATL), there were five dinner options, a midnight snack, and four breakfast options. That’s an excellent set of meal services. My only criticisms are taste. Since the main of the breakfast was bland, I had to rate it appropriately.
Some airlines don’t provide amenity kits at all (SQ for example), so it is all arbitrary in assessment, but I wholeheartedly agree that if you are going to give a kit, it should be better than this. This was bare, bare minimum since the hand cream was the same found in the lavatory. I was never interested in flying a Gulf carrier previously, but this fare kind of fell in my lap so I went for it. I also find EY the least repulsive compared to EK and QR (with regards to unnecessary bling).
Oh, it will be “magnificent” all right, but will it be magnificently good or magnificently bad, we'll see!
Oh, it will be “magnificent” all right, but will it be magnificently good or magnificently bad, we'll see!
You are keeping me on the edge. :P
It's always a pleasure to read well written and objective FR's, especially when accompanied by great pics. ;)
Thanks for sharing this FR
Very detailed and comprehensive as usual
Deplaning the Y people through the Business class cabin is a bit weird
The menu looks disappointing to me, and the wine list too.
Usually breakfast are not exciting but here there isn't a full meal after take off to help to forget the weakness of the breakfast
much to the disappointment of those reading this report
Adding a word would be superfluous ;)
Gorgeous aerial pictures on approach
Winglet sans Abu Dhabi.
This is my favorite
Maybe I can have my next birthday party there.
Or the next Flight Report MeetUp
Wine list is way more interesting on QR (not so bling company) and QR is still my choice before EK/EY (Anyway objectivity is a myth lol)
See you soon to end the suspense about the Magnifica(tastrophe or not)
Thank for your comments 007!
I would have to think that this is just a situation EY is not familiar with given the lack of fifth freedom routes they operate. Most Asian carriers commonly use fifth freedoms to expand their regional networks so probably have better protocols for handling the situation.
As far as the menu, this is something I mentioned to jetsetpanda: when you consider that I started this flight at NGO, I was served a full dinner, a snack, and a full breakfast on a ~7500km flight (that's shorter than SFO-LHR, for example). If I was starting this flight from PEK, I would 100% agree with you that this is a pretty weak meal offering. If breakfast is your only full meal on a 8 hour flight, that is pretty poor. Thankfully I'm not a wine drinker ;)
We'll have to cancel all the Emirs' kid's birthday parties to reserve it.
Airline preferences are all objective, each person has their own taste or little nuances of that airline that enhance their experience. I think QR has a really good product, but I'm not going to go out of my way to fly them.
The next report will have to wait until I brush up on my European topology ;)
Ok...here I go trying to catch up on my reading now that I have internet again after the move, lol. Beautiful and detailed report! Crew changes are almost always hectic to try to get the flight out on time--I imagine the turn time in PEK was rather short. It is nice to see that the crew was so attentive and showed some human aspects. The ME3 are often criticized for robotic service, which I'm sure can happen, so it's nice that you had a good crew on this long flight. That hunk of steak is mighty large for being inside a sandwich...ok, now I'm hungry, lol. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives on this flights and your grading reflects that. Beautiful pics on landing, with that gorgeous morning light. Time to go see if magnifica was magnificent :-)
Thanks for the comments Kevin!
To try and push this plane out after only being on the ground for 60-70 minutes is asking a lot. A crew change on a long-haul is not good, you can't expect a crew to walk on a plane (partially filled with passengers) and prep for a ~9 hour flight in less than 40 minutes. I had a conversation with the NGO-PEK crew about this and they say this is how EY chooses to operate this flight. The NGO-PEK crew gets 24 hours in Beijing, before doing the PEK-AUH the next day. There were a lot of dead-heading crew filling empty seats (there were 6 pilots in J dead-heading from AUH-PEK!).
I didn't find the crews so robotic on EY, there was obviously a protocol, but compared to some Asian carriers, there was more sincerity behind the smiles.
I may be critical of EY in my reports, but the overall grades show that it really is a good carrier. Catering just seems to be lagging a bit.