We are in India! After a ridiculously long flight, we finally made it to Bangalore India! The flight itself was quite interesting in that there were 300 empty seats. As a result, I was able to fulfill my fantasy of having the middle row of four seats all to myself. While the husband enjoyed his comfy business class seat, I created my own version of “flat bed seat” and lay flat across all four seats throughout the flight. Don’t judge me, everyone in economy did the same. That’s right, everyone got their own row, it’s like Oprah was there to hand out rows of seats, “you get a row, and you get a row”.
The “real” business class seat is on the left, while my makeshift one is on the right. Both look nearly identical right? Except my seat cost nearly 1/5 of the price. Also I had four pillows and four blankets at my disposal, living the life right?!
Aside from the spacious seating arrangement, it was a fairly pleasant flight, the 14 hour went by at a decent pace. It was my first time flying Etihad, and I had a good experience. First of all, the flight attendants were so attentive, not just “nice”, but they went out of their way to check on you. Secondly, the food was not bad for economy airplane food. There was a rice pudding dessert that I could eat over and over again. That said, at the third meal, I was pretty full since the only exercise I had was the short walk to the bathroom in nearly 12 hours (and I took that walk so many times during the flight). As such, I barely ate the third meal. When one of the flight attendants picked up the tray, she asked me if I disliked the food, and if I would like another entree choice. I have never been asked that question on a flight, and I have returned airplane food untouched or barely touched numerous times (I know, wasting food is bad…, I can hear my mom’s disapproval already). The inflight entertainment system was very good with a lot of movie choices (I finally got to watch Shape of Water, thumbs up on that), and a USB charging port on each seat (the worst thing is landing at a foreign destination and not have a phone).
We had a short layover in Abu Dhabi, which has a beautiful and well designed airport. It had “lounge areas” with love seats and comfy chairs set up along the long walkways for people to rest and charge their devices. Also the airport lounges had really good food, I wish I took a picture, but I was too busy stuffing my face. Pro tip, if you have access to free priority pass membership with your credit card, take advantage of it. The lounges in the US are kind of crappy, but international ones are fantastic, most have hot food and beautiful seating areas.
I can’t believe I managed to go on and on about the flight, and haven’t gotten into the “meaty” parts yet. Thanks for reading my first post, stay tuned for the second post that addresses the question everyone has been asking me.
