AUH Etihad First Class Lounge at T3 (old)

We had pre-arranged a taxi pickup for 7:00A and our taxi was waiting for us. Not quite as relaxed or polished as our driver the night before, this morning's driver was determined to set a new personal speed record both to the airport and between speed bumps. I'm thinking new brakes every 10,000 kms. 12 minutes and 30.25 AED later, we arrived at T3.

Very nice facility with separate F and J check in counters/desks. This and some of the lounge pics courtesy of Short hair Francis who has many more pics of the EY First Class Lounge in his recent excellent TR.

Courtesy SHF

Since we already had our boarding passes, we headed directly for passport control and (what passes for) security here. It is essentally PreCheck for all, nothing out and everything on. Makes you wonder why the farce in US.

Courtesy SHF

Although we were flying J this morning, my "we are connecting from F" was good enough for entrance to the promise land. The Etihad FCL is located just beyond the main lounge entrance. Small but very attractive lounge with direct access to a Six Senses Spa.

Courtesy SHF

Courtesy SHF

Since we passed on the Westin breakfast, we headed to the beautiful dining room.

Courtesy SHF

And a looked at the menu over a glass of Billecart.

Since everything on the menu was available and since we had "breakfast" about 13 hours earlier, we opted for non-breakfast starting with the delicious mushroom soup.

Mrs. SFO had chicken.

While I went with the amazing grilled salmon. Absolutely delicious.

After our leisurely "breakfast" and a pit stop, we headed for Gate 41, which was a lower level bus gate. We arrived just as Business Class boarding had started. And a bus gate first for me at least... a separate uncrowded bus just for premium pax.