Etihad First Class to Abu Dhabi

Etihad 130
Washington-Abu Dhabi
A340-500
9:50P-7:55P +1
November 2, 2014
Departed 11/12
Seats 2DG

At around T-50, one of the lounge attendants stop by to tell us that the door to the jet bridge was open and we could board at our leisure.  Another nice feature of the IAD lounge is direct board from the lounge.   With all but 1 seat occupied, not nearly as private as our "charter" last year.  Cabin pics, including some from a previous flight.

As we settled into our suites, time for a glass of Gosset Grand Millésime Brut 2004.

And dates and Arabic coffee.

The current EY First Amenity kit.  Meh.

Our Chef Alex taking dinner orders.  

Tonight's menu...

And the wine list...

Once in the air, time for a movie.  Our A345 came with Wifi and cell service.  I bought the 24 hour Wifi pass for $21.95.  Speed varied during the flight but on average slightly slower than an average domestic gogo flight.

Excellent inflight entertainment guide.

Not as good as SQ, CX or EK, but adequate for today.

Time for a cocktail.

Johnny Blue for Jr.  

And Showtime.

For wine, I went mostly with an old standby, the outstading 2010 William Fevre Grand Cru Les Bougros. The Pea and Mint soup. 

Our raspberry palate cleanser.

For my main, the Rib eye with mixed veggies.  With nearly a full cabin and only two bottles of the 2006 Chateau du Tertre 5e Grand Cru Classé Margaux, I missed out on that one.  None of the other reds I tried did anything for me... the 2011 Xanadu Margaret River Shiraz or the 2012 Fattori Valpolicella.

Completely stuffed at this point, I went with simply vanilla ice cream.  Not sure about the grape garnish. 

Soon after, time for bed and a great 5 hours sleep.  Pics from an earlier flight.

At about T-2.5 hours, time for a delicious breakfast. 

And Arabic mint tea.

Cool live cockpit camera showing our approach.

Another excellent Etihad flight... 13 hours tonight went by very quickly helped by a very attentive crew.