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See inside Etihad’s ‘The Residence’ suite

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The one genuinely interesting thing I found at World Travel Market last week was the Etihad stand.  Etihad is about to start its first A380 services and London will be the first route to receive it.

Press coverage of the A380 has focussed on ‘The Residence’ which will set a new benchmark for luxury on a commercial airliner.

It is a (admittedly tiny) private apartment for two people.  It will only be available on the A380 and there will only be one per aircraft.  It contains a ‘proper’ bedroom, a sitting room and a private en-suite bathroom complete with shower and bathrobes.

There was a full-size mock-up, albeit without the bathroom, of The Residence at World Travel Market and I was lucky enough to get access.

Here is the bed:

Etihad Residence bed

And the teapot (!) :

Etihad Residence tea tray

And the sitting room and the legs of a female Residence butler, apologies for the angle of the picture but it was impossible to fit it in otherwise:

Etihad Residence living room

You can find official pictures and a video on the Etihad website here.


How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (October 2024)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, with any airline.

Comments (27)

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  • HIDDY says:

    When you’re a ‘boys with toys’ state run airline you can do almost anything to attract customers. It would be folly for the likes of BA to do provide a similar product.

    • James67 says:

      True but nit quite. Were BA wrong when they introduced flat beds to CW? In the past they set standards but these have now been surpassed. BA seems reluctant yo even catvh up. My huess is because thry cannot do so eithout sacrificing their high density CW and losing a lot of revenue as a result. Despite being one of the most expensive airlines BA continues to do well in its core longhaul market, thanks largely to their dominance at Heathrow. Until thrir market share drops substantially I cannot see them changing high density CW. Best we can hope for I think is evolution of existing design with better seet, bigger screen etc. That said, i am in no doubt BA could have sold a luxury suite quite easily on some routes such as LAX, IAD and JFK. What I do find difficult to understand is BAs lack of ambition with their new F seat.

  • James says:

    What is business class award availability usually like on EY? thinking about jumping onto the card + transfer bonus deal.

  • Anonymous says:

    Is it just me or is the bed in the Apartment narrower than what’s on aay EK or EY’s current F product?

    • Rob says:

      It didn’t feel too narrow to be fair. On Twitter is a pic of me sitting on it for scale.

  • Lady London says:

    Thanks for the nice pictures Rob! Seems to outdo even the SQ suites.

    Lufthansa isn’t matching that. Looks like it’s going to be hard for LH to execute their focus on First Class in the Middle East. What;s the betting LH will dump their Middle East routes like they dumped all of their European short haul except FRA or MUC flights? possibly followed by being forced to dump their Asian routes… ?

    • Alan says:

      Although when it comes to space, I had the entire SQ A380 Suites Class to myself flying SIN-AKL last week – three crew and as many seats as I wanted 😀 Needless to say they made up the double bed for me and I paid for it all with MR points 😉

  • LostAntipod says:

    I flew EY F from AUH to CDG on Friday; the cabin supervisor was talking to me about these new suites and she thought that the ticket would be about $20000 for AUH-LHR (one way). I dont know if that is per pax or for the suite.

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