Etihad First Class from Abu Dhabi to LAX

At around T-40, we headed down to the gate.

Crappy Etihad First Class ground experience continued as boarding began with the wheelchair brigade, families with small kids, the elderly, blah, blah and finally Business and First were invited to board together, all the while as gate lice clogged the boarding podium area.

Unlike at LAX, Business Class pax boarded using 1L and walked thru the F cabin to Business Class.  Once on board, all was good as we enjoyed nearly 17 hours of wonderful service from our Flight Attendant Ilina, Chef Shiva and Purser Brad.

With head winds today, an estimated 16h 30m which actually wound up being nearly 17 hours.

Today's menu.

We requested lunch to start about 3 hours after departure.  Just after noon, showtime.

Our amuse bouche.

My starter, delicious Truffle Chicken with artichoke and rocket leaf jelly.

And excellent Harira soup.

For our main, we both had the Authentic Gulf Chicken Biryani, with spices and basmati rice.  This was fabulous!

And finishing with desert, Mrs. SFO777 with the chocolate cake...

... and my spectacular Textures, pistachio three ways... cake, crumble and ice cream.  Wow.

Wifi worked well for most of the flight and after some work, another movie and editing pics, Ilina turned down our beds.  I slept for 4 hours, Mrs. SFO777 for 7 hours.

I moved over vacant Suite 2A to work and catch up on emails and then back to 2G for a couple hours more sleep.

At around T-90, I enjoyed the Etihad Steak Sandwich.

Cool live camera of today's landing which was unusual in that we banked over the Pacific and landed back to the east.

Since TBIT is not designed for domestic arrivals, Etihad hands out a map to try to explain "how to".

We exited into the main terminal departures level... and followed the map.

Etihad realizes that the whole LAX arrival thing is confusing as there were no fewer than 7 Etihad reps stationed with Etihad signs along the way.

Right, left, right, left, straight, right and outside.

Down the escalator and another left and another left into baggage claim where our driver was waiting beside the Currency Exchange.

And then back outside and all the way back down to the opposite end of the terminal.

What a cluster schtupp at both LAX and at AUH.  We could have been out a lot sooner had we just gone thru customs at LAX.  Etihad management thinks that AUH PreClearance is a "Game changer".  I think they might be right as EY is now the last flight I would want to take from the Gulf back to the US.  Next time, we're flying Emirates.

Thanks for following along on our trip and this report.