Etihad Airways Business Class, 2 ways from Singapore to Abu Dhabi

I hope you find this post useful if you are going to travel to United Arabic Emirates (UAE), particularly Abu Dhabi.

Destination: Abu Dhabi, UAE

It's capital of United Arab Emirates and about 1.5hrs drive from famous Dubai.

No quarantine for fully vaccinated visitors.  Need to download local app Al Hosn.  PCR test needed every 14 days at AED40.  PCR test is available in all hospitals, most clinics and some of the shopping malls.  They even have drive-thru.  The airport's PCR result is as fast as after 3hrs, others varies from 8hrs to 24hrs maximum.

Duration: 17 Mar to 15 Apr 2022

Fully used up 30 days of free visa.

Weather: Mar 14 to 28 degrees, Apr 27 to 40 degrees

Flight: Etihad Airways

Economy $509 for 2 way.  Bid for biz class $375 for flying over and return was $400.  Flight duration about 7.5hrs.

Time difference: 4hrs behind Singapore

Eg. UAE 1pm, Singapore 5pm

Currency: SGD1 = AED2.65 (approx.)

Accommodation: I stayed at my sis place in Al Reem Island

Protocol for face mask: Required indoors, outdoors optional

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I actually never heard of Etihad Airways, what I had in mind was Emirates.  My sis told me to get Etihad for direct flight to Abu Dhabi.  Click HERE for the drama before and about of booking the tix.

I appreciate and absolutely love good service (who doesn't anyway?).  But if there isn't, I am fine as long as nobody's rude,  and that's my virgin biz class flight experience from Singapore to Abu Dhabi....... nobody was rude.

I was given seat at 8K which was really good, I was expecting C, D, G or H since the seat was bided.

Etihad lounge in Singapore airport was closed (I think it should be opened by now), so I went straight on board around 10pm.  I was like "waaaaaaaaa................." country auntie first time on biz class fight wor.

My seat with pillow, I was waiting for a crew to walk pass to help me with my hand carry luggage as I wasn't tall enough even to open the overhead compartment.

One of them finally came, tugged my luggage up and gave me a champagne.

Yay!

I was quite a distant away from other passengers, very "cocooned" and comfortable by myself.

Leg rooooooooooooooooom, my knees were saved.

Biz class amenities and gift pouch.  I did took a pic of what's inside but lost the photo.  Any, there's a small bottle hand sanitizer, travel toothpaste and toothbrush, a disposable face mask, socks, travel sized hand cream and travel sized perfume.

The blanket was so comfortable.  Unfortunately they didn't provide pyjamas any more.

The crew came to take my order, he didn't address me, just "May I take your order?"  Neither did he or any other crews were seen smiling.  Did something bad happened?  Anyway, supper, I ordered lamb pita, tasted so so only, the good thing was I did not have to compromise with disposable cutleries.

The coconut tiramisu was super duper delicious!  My photo is so crappy but it has got to be one of the most delicious dessert I ever had.

Turbulence all the way.....  If it's 20 years ago, I would had puked.

I was left to figure out the bottons by myself, luckily I wasn't too dumb.  I was very exhausted by then, hit the 2nd button from the left, the chair stretched itself to the 180 degrees flat bed, then turbulence rocked me to sleep.

I slept until a crew came over to greet me good morning sia.

I had a latte, cheese omelette and 2 pastries which I wished I had a zip lock to ta bao.  When I fly back I will bring zip locks to ta bao lolxx....

Biz flight was great, being able to sleep with sufficient oxygen, didn't feel tired even after a 7.5hrs flight.  Just that the service was luke warm.

View of UAE from the sky.

Thank god, we landed safely....

When all the passengers stood up, I made a rough head count, there were about 13 passengers in the biz class cabin.  Total capacity is 28 seats, so that's about half occupied.

After checking out, I blindly followed the crowd only to realize most ppl were here to transit and I found myself in Departure Hall lolxx....  Took me about 10mins to find my way to the Arrival Hall.  Went to the belt, waited forever for my luggage.  Almost wanted to ask for help when I saw my luggage at another belt, oh well.....

My baby sis had kindly arranged someone to pick me up and on the way to the carpark, we found the airport's PCR Test Center, I might as well get it done.

No one could tell this was the entry to PCR Test Center if there wasn't a sign board.  It looked like an art gallery.

The test center was huge with at least a hundred stations, only a quarter was functioning but it was more than enough.  It was very quiet at 6.30am.

I stayed in Abu Dhabi for 30 days before flying back on 15 Apr 2022.  On the 11 Apr Etihad emailed me to top my bid from about $330+ to $600+.  I typed in $400 without pinning any hopes, my kid sis totally gave up and didn't increase her bid.  Baby sis didn't want to gamble, she booked biz straight away.

The driver dropped my kid sis and me in Abu Dhabi Airport Terminal 1 although we told him Terminal 3.  Luckily it was walkable around 5mins.  At Terminal 3, we tried to find the tax refund counter, then we were told that the tax refund was at Terminal 1  -_____-|||  OMG......

We walked back to where we came from.  Only one guy was working over the counter, he was confused as we were short of one receipt.  Ding ding dong dong for about half an hour sia, we almost gave up cos not worth missing your flight for a few dollars.

We half run back to Terminal 3, joined the long queue to check-in.  My kid sis went through the self check-in while my passport was rejected.  I proceeded to the counter, gotten my boarding pass, looked at the boarding gate number and quick quick run along with my kid sis.

We didn't even get to enjoy the airport.

I queued with my kid sis for boarding, took the last bus to the plane.

At the entrance of the plane, I saw my sis's boarding pass different from mine, her was filmsy paper, mine was a card.  Perhaps the self check-in kiosk could only print out thin paper, I thought.

The smiling crew showed my sis to the left and when it was my turn, he showed me to the right.  I told him "No no, I am with my sister, we are sitting together."

"Madam, you are in business class, this way madam."

"No, you make a mistake, I am going to sit with my sister."

"Madam, look", the crew point to my board pass, "You see, BUSINESS, you have been upgrade madam."

"Huh?????........"

I looked at my boarding pass and for the first time I saw the word BUSINESS.

"This way madam, this way," showing me to the left.

I sat down, very stunned, took me a few mins to be composed.  Then I run down the aisle looking for my baby sis.  She was totally stunned to see me lolxx....  And then I took a bottle of mineral water, run into economy cabin to look for my kid sis to give it to her, it's difficult to get water in economy cabin.

I didn't receive their email on my successful upgrade which they send on 15 Apr itself cos I used up SIM card.  Nevertheless I was glad to go through all the queues, "thick and thin" with my kid sis.

A lot was in my mind, I probably looked very lost, one of the crew came to ask me if I was ok and took my order of pear juice, she was very sweet, could see her smiling with her eyes.

The one month stay in Abu Dhabi made me felt so attached to it, part of me was sad to say goodbye, part of me wanted to go home to eat ba chor mee.

This time the crews were friendly, could overhear them having small talks with other passengers.  One of them came to me, called my name, squat down to my eye level to take my order and asked if I would like a drink before supper.

I ordered latte which came with some nuts.

My dinner came later, starting with some chicken and veg soup, I ta bao the buns on the left lolxx...

I wanted seabass but no more, so I had tenderloin steak as 2nd choice.

Not the best, some parts were too pink, but it was tender enough.

Date pudding as dessert.

After the late dinner I quickly prepared to sleep.

About 4hrs later was breakfast, kinda regret asking for it cos I was so sleepy.  Anyway, ta bao another 2 bread buns.

Sausage and omelette wrap.

Outside the window was purple, we were near morning ie. near Singapore.

A few minutes later, the sun appeared.

I slept back a bit and when I woke up, the sky was bright.

The entertainment screen was big and crystal clear (I peeped others watching movies while walking to the toilet).  It's a pity that I didn't watch anything cos I was too sleep on this night flight.

The pilot started talking, said that there was bird/s carcass on the runway, needed a bit of time to clear so there was a delay in landing.  The happy pilot took us to palm tree plantations.

The flight back home felt better with warm and friendly cabin crews compared to the flight to Abu Dhabi.  This time business class cabin was at least 90% occupied if not full.

Back to reality after 8hrs of flight, but I felt more ready to face it.

As expected more than 90% of readers were gone.  But it's okay, this is no longer a commercial blog.  Thanks for reading and scrolling all the way down.

Next, I'll be doing Dubai Expo 2020 which ended on 31 Mar and I was glad that I made it in time to visit.

Alrighty, bye bye for now.

Travelling to Abu Dhabi, UAE

Prologue

This is going to be a little bit long winded, cos 2 years never update liao lolxx....  It may be dry, but it's my 心声 sia, heehee...

Al Wathba Fossil Dunes

Not only did Covid had caused almost the whole world to shut down for 2 years, this poor travel blog also hibernate until I think all my readers left me already.  So for those who are still reading here, I am very very thankful, thank you for coming back, THANK YOU.

I made it to Abu Dhabi, flew off on 17 Mar and came back on 15 Apr, 30 days in total, the longest I had ever left home.  Subsequently in less than 2 weeks I went to Kuala Lumpur for a short trip of 4 days.  It was hard to find time......

I had wanted to update but don't know where to start, also I was lazy to gather all the information to put them down.  I have so much photos in hand, half of them I haven't seen them yet.  These few days I had been cracking my head on how to blog about my one month stay in Abu Dhabi.  Normally I love to post my experience on daily basis, but it's going to be too lame and long winded to do 30 posts.  I had decided to categorise into -

Dubai Expo
Dubai Mall & Burj Khalifa
Supermarkets & shopping malls in Abu Dhabi

and separate posts on a few attractions, also maybe what I had bought and the Etihad Business Class........ so probably I can squeeze everything in less than 10 posts.

For those who are interested in the daily version is at my baby blog HERE.

It's very dramatic, looking back, I couldn't believe what I had been through......

For the pass 2 years, I had stayed at home, partly "kia si" and partly I lost all motivation to work.  All along I worked so that I could save enough money to travel.  So when the world shut their doors, my heart was shut too.

I was very broken when I had to cancel my Japan trip in 2020, even till today, Luis and I will still talk about it.  Actually, I was planning to visit my baby sis after the Japan trip, who was then working in Oman, then that couldn't be done and it was my great regret.  She told me she was the only one with nobody from her family visit her, for 4 years.  I was too ashamed even to cry in front of anybody.  My love for her was so verbal and worthless.....  Later, she left the company and left the country, so I had never been to her house in Oman.  I would consider it a blessing in disgust for her that she found another job in Abu Dhabi.  I told myself, this time, I wouldn't sit and wait any more, as long as I was able to grab an air tix.  I wanted to be with her this time, I didn't care if I were a nuisance or of help, I just wanted to be there.

Another part of me was that I was very unhappy at home.  People envy me as a tai tai who sleep late late, buy groceries from hotel/restaurant supplier, cook expensive dinners but I wasn't happy.  I couldn't really pin point as to why I was so depressed, blame it on the hot weather, menopause, I don't know..... so it was a chance to escape from reality.

It was announced in some time in Dec 2021 that UAE would open and a few days later, they decided to postpone.  It was a roller coaster to me.  Nobody knew how I felt cos nobody took me seriously when I said I wanted to visit.

Finally another announcement was made, UAE opened border on 25th Feb.

I began looking into Etihad air tickets and it's surprising affordable for a 7.5hrs flight, wow wow wow....

On 20 Feb, I booked the air tix, fly 2 Mar, return 28 Mar, happy.

And Etihad airline gave me this ticket, yay yay.

After which, there's a lot to do -

1) Travel Insurance

30 days very jialet..... I usually buy from NTUC but it was about $270+, very xiong.....  Etihad airways covers medical/hospitalization and quarantine facilities for Covid.  So I just need something very basic to cover suay-ness of missing baggage, flight delays, getting into accidents etc....  So I found AXA travel insurance at $138.  But please hor, DO NOT BUY from them!  I had to went through a hassle, cancelled it and bought another one from MSIG about $187.  I will explain what happened later, very drama one.  Basically, get your travel insurance, most of them has Covid coverage.  For some countries buying a Covid covered insurance is compulsory.  For UAE it's not, but I needed to safe, in case suay suay, at least I protected my bank from bleeding excessively.

2) Pre-travel PCR test

I booked with PDTSWAB.sg, was $138, a home test.  The reason why I booked a home test was that clinics doing PCR test were very very crowd.  Chances of getting positive was just so high by sending yourself to these clinics.  That period of time Singapore was at it's peak with more than 10K cases daily.  Anyway, it was later cancelled, $118 was refunded, $20 they mekan as admin fee, cos just before my flight, the airline dropped PCR requirement lolxx...

3) Obtain Vaccinated Cert

The vax cert can be obtained from Notarise.gov.sg which can be kept in PDF format.  I printed out hard copies, screen shot and send them to UAE's ICA Smart Service whereby they will update in their local app.

4) Download local app Al Hosn

It's like our once upon a time Trace Together app.  You need to show this app to enter into malls and attractions.  Both locals and tourists in UAE needs to do PCR every 14days (fret not, it's AED40 about SDG15 only), and the result will be updated in this app.  The crucial thing is - you have to key in a local phone number, cos they can't send OTP to activate the app if you use Singapore phone number.

5) Phone roaming

We needed to do supervised ART before flying back.  The new rule was implemented while I was in UAE.  Supposed to be simplified but the process required OTP so, I switched and switched between my SIM cards until I went nuts sia.  I bought a local SIM card from Etisalat at the airport.

On 23 Feb, I had my hair cut and did my nails, preparing to fly on 2 Mar....

On 24 Feb..... Luis kena, haiz...........  I couldn't believe it, I knew probably 30% of the population kena, but of all times..... gawd.....

I called the Etihad to cancel and leave the tix as open date; re-schedule the PCR test till 1 month later with intention to re-schedule again in time to come; and lastly emailed this AXA insurance to hold on to the policy and even explained to them what happened.   That genius customer service asked me to give them a new date of commence for the policy, I replied it's not possible, how the hell I know when my kid recover wor????  Will let them now ASAP when I re-book my flights lah.

3 Mar, kiddo was negative, he took 8 days to be fully recovered.

I re-booked my flight to 17 Mar - 15 Apr.  Emailed AXA insurance, that idiot told me to buy another policy as the previous policy was expired.  KNN sia, I called, tried not to scream, gotten full refund, the poor girl who answered my call asked if I would like to get another travel insurance, I said sorry, no.

 15 Mar, my biz class seat was success!  My econ tix was $275 + bid $375, total $650 for biz class was super good deal.  Imagine it's more than $700 for Emirates econ flight.

17 Mar 2022, my new passport received it's first chop.  I felt like a bird out of the cage.

Also for the first time, I didn't have an itinerary cos my main motive was to accompany my sis and help with her new apartment.

Here's summary of basic information for travelling to Abu Dhabi, UAE:

Destination: Abu Dhabi, UAE

It's capital of United Arab Emirates and about 1.5hrs drive from famous Dubai.

No quarantine for fully vaccinated visitors.  Need to download local app Al Hosn.  PCR test needed every 14 days at AED40.  PCR test is available in all hospitals, most clinics and some of the shopping malls.  They even have drive-thru.  The airport's PCR result is as fast as after 3hrs, others varies from 8hrs to 24hrs maximum.

Duration: 17 Mar to 15 Apr 2022

Fully used up 30 days of free visa.

Weather: Mar 14 to 28 degrees, Apr 27 to 40 degrees

Flight: Etihad Airways

Economy $509 for 2 way.  Bid for biz class $375 for flying over and return was $400.  Flight duration about 7.5hrs.

Time difference: 4hrs behind Singapore

Eg. UAE 1pm, Singapore 5pm

Currency: SGD1 = AED2.65 (approx.)

Accommodation: I stayed at my sis place in Al Reem Island

Protocol for face mask: Required indoors, outdoors optional

Next post I'll share my flight experience with Etihad Airways.