Thanks to mechanical issues, we ended up sustaining a small delay in our connections. Fortunately, we ended up at our destination safely, if not a little bit late.

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This post is one chapter in our trip to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the Maldives on United Airlines and Etihad Airways. This trip was booked and credited to Aeroplan and Etihad Preferred Guest. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Etihad Airways A319-1, Abu Dhabi – Doha

We ended up waiting in the lounge until about 10 minutes prior to departure for them to return with our passports. For some reason with the aircraft swap (likely less rows of business class) we lost our Plusgrade Upgrade. They had offered to accommodate us in business on Qatar airways the next day, but by this point, we just opted to take the economy seats for the short 1hr flight. It was the equivalent of 5 AM on the Maldivian time zone and we’d already been through two flights and a boat transfer that morning and were looking forward to getting some rest at the hotel in Doha. 

Ethiad Airways
Coral Economy Class -> Pearl Business -> Coral Economy
AUH-DOH (Abu Dhabi International Airport – Doha International Airport) 
EY 399 – Economy Class (Q)
1:55 AM – 1:55 AM
Actual 3:10 AM – 3:15 AM
Oct 20, 2012
Booked: Airbus 320-100
Flown: Airbus 319-100

Eventually, at about T-10, our passports were returned. We and one other passenger were led from the lounge to an awaiting bus to be taken out to a non gate position and were the last to board the aircraft. 

Etihad played the usual boarding music, although I was pretty tired to notice it. As described eariler, somehow Etihad has managed to create a super relaxing boarding contemporary music piece to play when it’s passengers board. Like musak, it’s played softly enough to be present, and has an Arabic theme that it keeps Ethiad’s identity. It became a great way to look forward to our trip on our Ethiad flights.

I slept pretty much the whole way but they did drop off a baguette sandwich for us for this flight. 

Of note for those experienced IRROPS with Plusgrade, I ended up having to call the Toronto Etihad ticket office to get the refund of the Plusgrade fee. It was credited automatically on my Visa Card that was on file.

There wasn’t much to report on this flight. We were pretty zonked out.

We arrived into Doha where we landed into a deserted terminal. Most interestingly were the his and her airport mosques.

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Summary:

Well, we had a bit of a downgrade on this segment. These things happen. Unlike many other carriers, Etihad handled it pretty well compared to many other carriers which seem to have a disaster at handling irregular operations. Despite the short flight, we still had catering and all matters were handled promptly. We enjoyed our Etihad flights and would easily fly them again in the future.

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